Bray backs Dickinson's call

Stu Dickinson's explanation of the last-minute penalty awarded in Sunday's clash between the Reds and Crusaders is a valid one.

Referee Stuart Dickinson's explanation of the last-minute penalty awarded in Sunday's clash between the Reds and Crusaders is a valid one.

That is the word from SANZAR game manager Lyndon Bray who said he is “quite comfortable” with Dickinson's reason for penalising Crusaders captain Richie McCaw for hands in the ruck.

The decision meant that Reds' fly-half Quade Cooper kicked the penalty which handed his side a crucial 17-16 win.

Rugby lovers have been debating over the merits of the penalty and Bray was happy to give his opinion on the incident, as well as Dickinson and the refereeing team's entire performance during the match.

“I'm loathe to criticise the actual decision. We have discussed what else you could have done with that particular scenario and I'm quite comfortable with Stuart's explanation from a technical view,” Bray told Fairfax Media.

Although there were other options available Dickinson warned the Crusaders not to touch the ball before awarding the penalty to the Reds.

“Stuart quite clearly says don't touch it,” said Bray.

“I know it is very, very tough for a player to hear that with the crowd going off. But he is earmarking that it is a ruck. By saying it, you are pretty clear where you are going to go.”

Bray said Dickinson's other options were to say: “scrum, unplayable – and you'd have to say that very quickly. Or you might even play on and we'd be debating if that was correct too”.

Bray added that rugby's complexities formed part of its beauty. The debate about the penalty was also going on in refereeing circles.

“From a rugby point of view if you can back out of the emotion of it, it's quite a complex decision,” he said.

“It's not that easy to come out and say was it right or wrong.

“The issue that we have there is that clearly a ruck has formed and the question you have to ask when that ruck collapses is whether the ball was out and in a position where a player could pick it up and play with it?

“That's the debate we have had this morning. It's really hard to criticise the referee on a technical level.”

Bray felt Dickinson had refereed the match “pretty well”.

He watched the match on TV and knew the penalty was “a big call”.

However, officials are there to make the decisions. The referee knew the decision would come under review because of “the magnitude of it”.