Ex-referee delivers damning Sam Grove-White verdict, bigs up ‘impressive’ Hollie Davidson, blasts URC for Andrea Piardi ‘cop out’
Referee Sam Grove-White has been criticised by an ex-Test ref
Former Test referee Owen Doyle has delivered a withering put-down of Scottish whistler Sam Grove-White after assessing his performance in the recent Stormers v Connacht match in the United Rugby Championship.
The Irish province were beaten 29-34 in Cape Town on April 19 in the opening match of their two-game tour to South Africa that ended with last Saturday’s 7-26 loss to the Lions in Johannesburg.
An ex-IRFU director of referees, Doyle now writes a weekly column on refereeing in The Irish Times and his latest contribution didn’t pull any punches when it came to reaching a verdict on the underwhelming effort of Grove-White in Cape Town.
In contrast, he lauded the display of Hollie Davidson after she took charge of last weekend’s tour-ending Connacht match. “Hollie Davidson is the best referee in Scotland, by a country mile too. She is also easily in the top half of the other practitioners on the circuit,” wrote Doyle.
“Connacht finished their tour in South Africa with a solitary bonus point for their efforts. They were accompanied on their travels by Davidson, and fellow Scot Sam Grove-White.
‘Some of his verbals seemed meaningless, with players looking genuinely bewildered’
“He handled the first match versus the Stormers; with Davidson in charge on the highveld, where Connacht were put to the sword by the Lions. I’ll bet the westerners wished the appointments were reversed.
“Grove-White has been around for a long time, and I won’t be alone in remaining completely unconvinced by his performances. Critical scrum penalties against the tourists were impossible to agree with. He chatted merrily, dishing out instructions, but some of his verbals seemed meaningless, with players looking genuinely bewildered.
“Davidson, on the other hand, was good. Impressively taking ownership of her decisions, she cut out the need for the TMO on several occasions, ‘I’ve seen it, no foul play’. Davidson also called an excellent penalty for a foot trip – she saw it, she gave it – no hesitation. More referees might consider trusting their own eyesight.”
Sticking with the URC, Doyle described it as a cop out by tournament administrators to blame a malfunctioning match day tablet and app – and not referee Andrea Piardi and his supporting team of officials – for the gaffe that incorrectly left Munster playing with 14 players in their April 19 loss to the Bulls.
Munster were forced to sacrifice a player, back-rower Alex Kendellen, after the fixture with the South Africans in Limerick went to uncontested scrums early in the second half.
This was an error, as the laws state that a team should not lose a player if the reason for uncontested scrums is a head injury, but it took some time before Munster were restored to 15 players with Kendellan allowed back on the pitch.
Doyle said: “What they are blaming is a malfunctioning tablet and app. The reasons players leave the field are entered into the app. It is programmed to inform the officials of the correct next steps to take, but apparently it wasn’t working.
“That’s something of a cop out. The officials overseeing replacements only had to use old-fashioned pen and paper to come up with the same answer as the app. But maybe they just didn’t know their business.”
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