Nigel Owens calls for action after ‘totally unacceptable’ referee ‘abuse’ following Argentina’s disallowed try decision against England
Noah Caluori and Bautista Delguy with an inset of Angus Gardner and Tomas Albornoz.
Nigel Owens has slammed the actions of Tomas Albornoz, his teammates and the Argentine fans following Los Pumas’ defeat to England in the Nations Championship.
Felipe Contepomi’s charges fell to a narrow 31-24 defeat to Steve Borthwick’s men after rallying back from a 19-3 half-time deficit.
With time up on the clock, the Pumas had the opportunity to tie up the game when Bautista Delguy received the ball out wide, shrugged the attempted tackle by Noah Caluori, but was seemingly bundled into touch by Tom Curry.
Referee Angus Gardner and his TMO discussed and debated the incident at length before reaching a decision of no try, which meant that England emerged victorious.
Los Pumas fly-half Albornoz remonstrated with Gardner in the immediate aftermath of the final whistle and bumped into the official and has subsequently been issued with misconduct charges by World Rugby. The Australian referee was further abused by fans who threw objects at him and his officiating team when they left the pitch.
Nigel Owens slams abuse of Angus Gardner
Owens has hit out at the behaviour of the Argentines before he dissected the final decision in the match on World Rugby’s Whistle Watch show.
“So, the first thing is that’s a big moment. It’s a huge moment, and it’s a big decision to be made, and there’s huge drama and excitement, and that’s where we want you to stay,” he replied after being asked for his thoughts on the decision by Wales legend Jamie Roberts.
“So, you want all that excitement; it’s part of the theatre of the sport. But what you don’t want is it to spill over into disagreement and players running up to referees and then all the sort of abuse on social media that comes from it, which is totally, totally unacceptable.
“Walking off the pitch and then abuse from the crowd, something being chucked, not a part of the game and should never be part of the game, and that needs to be dealt with fairly but very strictly as well.”
While many believe that Argentina did in fact score the try, Owens disagrees as he felt the officials reached the correct decision. There have been suggestions that Caluori and Curry also high-tackled Delguy in order to stop him from scoring.
Learning opportunity for the officials
The former referee didn’t address the possibility of a dangerous tackle, suggesting he either felt it didn’t warrant discussion or simply avoided it entirely. However, he does believe this is a learning opportunity for officials as he feels the discussion between Gardner and his TMO fueled the doubt around the decision and the Australian should have trusted the fourth official more, who has better angles than him.
“That decision at the end is a really, it’s a really tight one,” he admits.
“Do I think they probably got it right? I think they have. It’s one of those decisions. Whatever one you give, one team’s going to be happy, one isn’t, and if you give it the other way, it will be the same argument about it. So, it really is a tight one.
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“The learning from this is that the confusion from the situation was the debate between the TMO and the referee. And then that puts a doubt in everybody’s mind. So, what you need to do here is the TMO goes, ‘I’ve got all the clear footage here, this is clearly on the line, no try’.
“Then the referee goes, ‘Okay, if you’ve got clear footage to show otherwise, fine’. Or the referee feels, look, I really am thinking this is a try. This is my feeling here, and he sticks with his decision. So what you don’t want is this flip-flopping. This is what made it now a debate was the back and forth.”
“Angus Gardner was quite convinced that it was a try, wasn’t he?” Roberts argued.
“And there was an argument before,” Owens added.
“But you’ve got to remember, as the TMO has got all the answers, the slow motion, the zooming in, and so from my gut feeling watching that, I was going, I’m with the TMO; I don’t think it is a try.”
