The International Rugby Board’s (IRB) Sevens tournament took place at Outeniqua Park in George, but came into the spotlight for the wrong reasons due to the quality of refereeing.

The 12 000 spectators often vented their feelings about forward passes that weren’t picked up, as well as infringements at the breakdown.

In South Africa’s quarterfinal against Fiji, for example, Portuguese referee Rohan Hoffman missed a number of infringements in the build-up to one of the tries against the Springboks.

While coach Paul Treu believes his players had more than enough chances to win the game, he is concerned about some of the referees.

“I think referees will be among our biggest challenges going forward. I don’t criticise them at all, but rather the system as a bunch of young guys are being thrown in at the deep-end,” said Treu.

“It is frustrating for a professional team to put in so much work and prepare all over the world, but the referees only pitch up two days before the tournament to officiate for world class players and teams.

“You feel sorry for them because young referees are expected to make the correct decisions in venues such as Dubai with 40 000 spectators and a TV audience of 200 million people. We’d like to see them get to a more professional level.”

South African referees boss André Watson said that he understood Treu’s frustrations, but added that the tournaments are used by the IRB to develop referees.

“There have to be opportunities for young referees to be exposed to the pressure of tours and international tournaments. Craig Joubert, Paddy O’Brien (IRB referees boss) and myself started there,” said Watson.

As far as the tournaments in Dubai and George are concerned, all the referees apart from Japan’s Taizo Hirabayashi officiated in international tournaments for the first time.

It was only the Japanese official that punished basic infringements such as crooked feeds at the scrums.

Watson believes that his colleagues will be more experienced after these two tournaments and that they will be sharper in the future.

Freek Burger, who was Watson’s predecessor at SA Rugby and a proven coach of referees, believes attention to a technical point such as the positioning of referees can help solve a lot of frustrations.

“The golden rule is to stay in line with the ball. But in an effort not to fall behind, the referees run so far ahead that it’s impossible to judge whether a pass was forward or not,” said Burger.

Source: supersport.co.za

Tags: paul treu, Sevens, Springboks