NIGEL OWENS: RIDICULOUS ACCUSATIONS MAKE ME ANNOYED AND IT'S DOING OUR GAME HARM

Rugby, as a sport, prides itself on respect - and at the centre of that should be respect for referees and match officials.

Just like coaches and players, referees can and do make mistakes. Whether that’s at grassroots or at the highest level, that is still the case, as they are only human just like the rest of us.

We cannot be in a position where we have free-for-alls with fans, coaches, players and pundits attacking referees’ performances after matches. That is simply not good for anyone and it damages our sport, as well as contributing to the difficulty in recruiting match officials.

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READ MORE: Cardiff coach Matt Sherratt given URC ban after incident with referee

Of course, that is not to say that referees can’t be criticised. We can’t shy away from being accountable for our decisions, right or wrong. When an official has an off day, there needs to be accountability and transparency around it, but these things need to be gone about in the proper way.

Fans need to remember that just as there are players and teams that are better than others, there are referees who are of a higher standard than others and that can change over time. Just like players have off days, so can referees.

The recent URC match between Cardiff and Ulster led a lot of fans to criticise the standard of refereeing in the league, while coach Matt Sherratt received a one-match ban and a fine for comments he made to referee Mike Adamson following the game. They would do well to remember the point I’ve made above.

I’ve been asked for my opinion on the three decisions that caused controversy in that game and have spoken about it on social media too. But no matter how many replays I have seen or the number of fans that have tried to argue against me, my opinion on those incidents has not changed.

Let us look first at that Rhys Carre knock-on, which saw Cardiff have a late try ruled out and a penalty awarded to Ulster instead. There is absolutely no doubt that the ball has come off Carre’s hand first and gone forward, it definitely is a knock-on.

Whether it was a deliberate knock-on, however, comes down to the referee’s interpretation of the incident. Some officials would give it, others wouldn’t, but at the very least, it is a knock-on. Cardiff fans argue it wasn’t deliberate, Ulster fans would claim it was. It all comes down to interpretation and Adamson certainly wasn’t in the wrong to make the decision he did.

It’s the same for the Thomas Young incident, when the ball was knocked out of his hands by an Ulster player’s boot as he looked to cross the line to score. Obviously, you cannot kick the ball out of a player’s hand, but was it intentional or was the defender just trying to swing himself underneath Young to prevent the try? Again it must come down to the referee’s interpretation - that is simply the nature of the game. To be honest, I am with the referee on this one, it doesn’t look like a deliberate act to kick the ball out of the player’s possession.

The Ulster try, where the ball looked to have been knocked on by John Cooney in the build-up, is one decision that probably could have gone either way. Your gut feeling is that the ball has gone forward, but when I look at the footage, I wouldn’t put my house on it. On another day, another referee would have given that as a knock-on, so one can certainly understand the frustration of a coach and supporters on this one.

Out of those three big decisions, Adamson was definitely right on two of them and the third one is certainly debatable either way. So it makes me annoyed to hear fans claim that referees like him are biased or have an agenda, which is total nonsense.

We saw plenty of comments like those in the wake of Harlequins’ win over Northampton Saints last weekend, when referee Karl Dickson opted against showing a second yellow card to his former team-mate Danny Care for an incident that many felt was worthy of one.

Now, whatever you made of the decision, to claim that Dickson is biased is ridiculous. He is a quality referee who is simply looking to do his job to the best of his ability. Referees do not walk out on the pitch with an agenda, they are simply there to oversee play and enforce the laws of the game as they see fit.

What I will say, however, is that it was crazy to put Dickson in charge of that game, or any Harlequins match for that matter. He was a player with Quins for eight years, after all.

Selecting him for that game puts him in an awkward position and invites those accusations of bias, no matter what he decides. It was a big mistake to put him in that position, in my opinion, and one that shouldn’t be repeated. It certainly can be avoided.

I had to referee my local rugby club Pontyberem on one occasion when the referee, who was an undertaker, had a call out on his way to the game. Of course, I refereed the game fairly and with no emotion to my beloved Pontyberem for the 80 minutes, but if there was a controversial decision I am sure the finger would have been pointed firmly in my direction. Thankfully there wasn’t - Pontyberem won by the way!

The people having a go at Dickson and Adamson just need to take a step back and remove their emotions from the situation. Yes, there will be games where referees don’t perform well, and there will be others where they do - that’s just human nature. As I said, we’re all capable of mistakes.

As the social media storm raged following Cardiff’s defeat to Ulster, one person who was able to do just that was Tom Shanklin. While he is a legend at the Arms Park, he was able to take the emotion away from the situation and just look at the bigger picture. That’s what makes a good pundit, and a good referee for that matter.

The frustration is understandable, it comes with the territory of being a passionate sports fan. But when that frustration leads into ridiculous accusations of bias and cheating and trolling abuse of referees, all it does is harm our game.

2024-05-04T05:11:32Z dg43tfdfdgfd