Eddie Jones’ brutal take on one referee who ‘second-guesses’ every decision
Referee Angus Gardner and an inset of Eddie Jones.
Eddie Jones was not impressed by the performances of referees Angus Gardner and Andrea Piardi during the weekend’s Rugby Championship action.
Australian Gardner took charge of the clash in Durban between the Springboks and Los Pumas, while Italian Piardi was the man in the middle for the showdown between the All Blacks and Wallabies at Eden Park.
The latter’s performance was highly controversial, with many Australians picking apart perceived inconsistencies in his decisions. He and his officiating team also deemed that a dangerous-looking tackle from Jordie Barrett did not warrant any sanction, while Jones was flabbergasted at the number of knock-ons that were not spotted by the three officials on the pitch.
The Japan head coach also believes that the referees are taking the scrum out of the contest, whether they are doing that through guidelines from World Rugby or doing it inadvertently.
“I didn’t enjoy the games much”
Jones ripped into the performances of the officials when speaking on the Rugby Unity podcast, where he hailed the All Blacks‘ showing with Scott Robertson’s team winning the aerial battle and getting the edge in the set-pieces.
“I didn’t enjoy the games much on the weekend, I must say, maybe because it was just off the back of a 20-hour flight to Tbilisi,” he remarked.
His focus quickly turned to the officials, though, and he believes that the Wallabies got momentum through contentious decisions.
“I don’t think the referee was bad, but I think he was inconsistent. One of them for me was that he penalised Tupou Vaa’i off his feet at the breakdown. Now, that’s probably a penalty, he slipped over, landed on the ball, closed off the contest, tried to get up, but then if you watch the next 20 rucks, there were another three of those,” he continued.
“Those sorts of penalties caused the momentum to swing to Australia, and they were good enough to take advantage of it – that’s where the game gets really difficult.
“And then he misses the most obvious knock, like I can’t see how referees miss knock-ons, like they watch the ball and there’s a touch judge who could have cleaned the bloke’s boots, like he was that close that and he missed the knock-on – then they play four or five phases and I think in that way it just took took a lot of the tempo out of the game.
“I found it to be a mismatch of a game, nothing really good in it, two nervy teams, which is always the case in the Bledisloe Cup and a good win by New Zealand and for Australia, they’re keeping up their resilience, but they still only won three from eight Tests.”
Wallabies legend’s ‘very clear’ verdict on ref ‘inconsistencies’ as he issues a plea to World Rugby
Jones is seemingly a fan of New Zealand referee Paul Williams, whom he believes to be consistent in his calls. But the same wasn’t true, in his opinion, with Piardi and Gardner this past weekend.
“I think the consistency comes in the referee being very clear about what he’s trying to achieve,” he added.
“If you get Paul Williams, you’ve got a pretty clear indication of what sort of game you’re going to get. And you can you can coach to that. It’s going to be quick. He’s going to want space around the ball. And for the first 30 minutes, that’s going to be the case.
“Now, it might change a little bit later in the game, which you can cope with, but it’s clear about what he wants and clear about how he’s going to referee, and I think that’s all anyone can hope for.”
Further criticism of Angus Gardner
The 65-year-old has also taken issue with the reliance some referees have on the TMO to ensure that they get the correct decisions.
He singled out Gardner as a culprit and suggested that World Rugby should take power away from the fourth officials, restricting when they can influence the game.
“The other part is the use of technology. I think some referees go in there thinking the technology is going to referee for them,” said Jones.
“I’ve got no doubt that Angus Gardner second-guesses every decision he makes, hoping that the TMO clears it up for him. Now you can’t have referees doing that.
“I reckon we’ve got to be really clear that the technology is an accelerator and the acceleration we want is around goal-line decisions and red cards, and just make decisions on that, so that’s the only time they can come in.
“If they miss a blatant red card or they miss something in three phases leading to a try, then you come back to it. Otherwise, we stick with the referee, cope with his human frailties, but have consistency.
“What I’ve seen in the interpretation of the laws over the last period of time is that they’re trying to do everything rather than just get the breakdown right, get the scrum right, and then the rest of the game looks after itself pretty much.”
He further criticised Gardner, adding: “It was like walking into a year seven class and the teacher says, ‘Put down your books,’ and the teacher stands at the front and tells you everything.
“At one stage, he’s telling this player he’s a good player, like you know, is there some sort of election going on in the north shore of Sydney?”
