October 17th, 2007
Jonathan Kaplan missed out refereeing the World Cup third and fourth play-off because of his poor touch judge performance in New Zealand’s controversial quarter-final defeat against France.
IRB head of referees Paddy O’Brien has finally admitted English referee Waynes Barnes and match touch judges Kaplan and Tony Spreadbury made mistakes that were costly.
O’Brien did the review of the match performance and said their performance influenced why none of them were involved in the bronze play-off match or the final. Kaplan, who refereed England’s semi-final win against France, could in any event not be considered for the final because South Africa are involved. Barnes, an Englishman, would also not have been a contender because of his nationality.
An independent review, not sanctioned by the IRB, showed 13 calls going against New Zealand and three against France, which were wrong.
In the official review, headed up by O’Brien, the evidence was damning against the officials.
Despite this the IRB referees’ board still gave Barnes a pass mark.
O’Brien said a review of Englishman Barnes and touch judges Kaplan and Spreadbury, found a series of wrong calls against the All Blacks.
A successful penalty would have been enough to win the match for the All Blacks, but Barnes did not award one penalty against France in the second half.
“Wayne’s game’s been (reviewed) by all four selectors and myself, probably under more scrutiny than any other game due to the interest in it,” O’Brien told Radio Sport.
“There were errors made. There was a scrum turnover not given in the first half that should have been. There was clearly the forward pass that was missed by all three officials and, at the end of the day, with Wayne being the referee he must take responsibility for that.
“There were two calls, one with a hand in the ruck and one with offside at a ruck in the last 10 minutes, which the touch judge should have given him.
“We’ve certainly reviewed the touch judges’ performance and that’s been reflected in our appointments for the third-fourth playoff and the final. Both of those touch judges have missed out.”
O’Brien said he was not prepared to concede that Barnes, a 28-year-old former barrister who has been refereeing test matches for less than a year, was overawed by the quarter-final appointment.
“I think there were a lot of factors involved in New Zealand not winning that game and one of them was some issues with refereeing and touch judging - and we’ve always said that - but to blame him for the loss is completely wrong,” he said.
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