Loose Pass

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with unforgivable errors, financial watchdogs, boxing and bad financial advice…

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with unforgivable errors, financial watchdogs, boxing and bad financial advice…

Sometime last week, on the New Zealand TV magazine programme re:union, Kiwis voted overwhelmingly for the return of neutral officials, this after witnessing Stuart Dickinson's controversial call against Richie McCaw that cost the Crusaders the game against the Reds.

It's always been our policy also to leave the officials alone. They do, after all, get a staggering percentage of high-pressure and high speed decisions right.

But referee's assistants are a different kettle of fish. They do not have anywhere near as much to do as the officials and after Friday's appalling miscarriage of justice, we believe a rethink of officials might actually be in order.

Quite what caused Pro Legoete to feel that Pat O'Connor had headbutted a Bulls player is beyond pretty much anyone bar him, but with the Waratahs three behind and knocking hard on the Bulls' door, it was a game-changer. A game-winner in fact. One delivered entirely by South African match officials, but which even the notoriously one-eyed South African media has been quick to criticise.

Since then, O'Connor has been comprehensively cleared by a disciplinary panel of any wrongdoing, but there's been a startling lack of reprimand for Legoete's mistake. That will be of no comfort at all to the Waratahs, whose play-off hopes have been dealt a blow by the defeat and can justifiably say that the red card cost them any chance of taking the game.

So although non-neutral officials are a good idea, the balance needs to be right. There need to be officials from more than just the home country on duty on matchday. Right now, you have a huge helping hand given to the Bulls at the expense of the Waratahs, administered entirely by South African officials in South Africa, something that does not do the credibility of the competition much good at all.

While we are about officiating – while we are about the Bulls -'Tahs match in fact, what about the headlocking calls? If Legoete was really determined to get involved in calling foul play, he could quite easily have called any number of players from both sides for doing it; heck, even O'Connor's alleged victim was being held in a headlock at the time.

Michael Rhodes copped six weeks, Jean Deysel copped two, Kane Douglas copped two. Citing officers are waking up to the dangers, which are significant when you consider the random dynamics and huge weights flying around your average ruck. Can't we get referees and their assistants to do so as well?

Stade Fran̤ais avoided administrative relegation from the Top 14 by a whisker over the weekend. Apparently they were struggling to prove their means Рthis despite being bankrolled by the man who founded Europe's most successful commercial radio group, NRJ.

It is highly unlikely that the club is actually in any major financial strife, yet at least once per season for the last three years they have been subject of a DNACG (France's sporting financial watchdog) investigation for spending beyond their apparent means and then being forced by said watchdog to produce those extra means.

Isn't it about time the Parisians were forced to cough up some sort of punitive measure simply for not covering their bases regularly? DNACG investigations and hearings cost time and money, and the more the club falls foul of these investigations then manages to conveniently stump up the cash at a late hour, the more you start to think that it's nothing more than slack management on the part of a club with the fourth-highest budget in the Top 14.

The DNACG enforces the most worthwhile of causes: namely ensuring clubs are competently financially managed. Consistent incompetence on Stade Français's part is causing regular headaches. Doesn't that deserve to be punished somehow?

So Sonny Bill Williams' boxing career moves out to a respectable 4-0 record, and there it will stay until after the Rugby World Cup follwing a fight watched by a relieved Graham Henry, who afterwards proclaimed that Williams 'hardly got hit'.

Fair play… except Rocky IV it was not. Williams' opponent, the Tongan Alipate Liava'a, was a 43-year-old who it was revealed this week is under investigation for taking on the fight while claiming disability benefit for…wait for it… an acute case of tennis elbow.

Well, that's just plain stupid of him. But, assuming Liava'a's elbow really is a hindrance here's another question: could the 25-year-old elite athlete Williams really not knock out a disabled 43-year-old over six rounds of boxing? Strike a light…

And finally, Will Greenwood's financial methodology was revealed in a newspaper column this week, with plenty of sensible stuff in there about where to put investments, property decisions and other spending habits.

Greenwood also revealed that his worst financial decision to date was taking a share tip-off from a mate – again, something many have fallen foul of.

Live and learn hey? Well, maybe, but in the very next paragraph, Greenwood revealed his latest business partner was none other than Leicester's former head prankster/buffoon/ Austin Healey!

Loose Pass compiled by Richard Anderson