Wayne Barnes’ four Lions tour refereeing lessons include calling out Wallabies boss Joe Schmidt for not realising his ‘actions have consequences’
Wallabies boss Joe Schmidt during last Saturday's pre-match warm-up in Sydney
Retired referee Wayne Barnes has highlighted his four refereeing lessons from the recent British and Irish Lions tour, including accusing Joe Schmidt of igniting the social media storm that resulted in his own Wallabies player Carlo Tizzano sitting out last Saturday’s third Test.
Despite his English affiliation, Barnes refereed on two Lions tours, the 2009 and 2021 trips to South Africa, and he claimed that the way match officials dealt with two specific challenges changed the game’s direction in the following years.
Looking back 16 years ago, he referenced the way referees dealt with the ruck interpretation law that unleashed Heinrich Brüssow as pivotal. He also claimed that the reaction four years ago following the Rassie Erasmus furore altered the way that referees and coaches interact before and after Test matches.
With the 2025 Lions now home following their 2-1 Test series victory over Australia, Barnes has wondered since last Saturday’s final whistle in Sydney what the legacy of the matches managed by Ben O’Keeffe, Andrea Piardi and Nika Amashukeli would be.
“Be careful what you say…”
He decided there were four lasting principles – 1. Not all head contact is foul play, 2. Working out when TMO should get involved, 3. Be careful what you say, and 4. Referees will never be perfect – and he has written about each in his latest refereeing column in The Telegraph.
Barnes mentioned Len Ikitau’s third Test head clash with Tommy Freeman as an illustration that accidental head collisions happen and should not be sanctioned.
He also generally praised the judgement of TMO Marius Jonker not to get overly involved, although he did criticise him for stopping last weekend’s match for an unnecessary check of Nic White’s tackle on Finn Russell.
It was lasting principle No.3 where Barnes called out the consequences of Schmidt’s refereeing complaints made after the Wallabies had lost the second Test. It reminded him of the abuse he was opened up to by Erasmus in November 2022 after he shared videos on social media of decisions he thought were wrong in South Africa’s loss to France.
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“Joe Schmidt announced that he was giving Carlo Tizzano a week off after what he described was a ‘tough week’ for the Australian replacement who was accused of diving in the final moments of the second Test. ‘He’s had a really tough week Carlo,’ Schmidt said. ‘He’s copped a lot of online abuse.’
“I know that the match officials ‘copped a lot’ too – and a great deal of that was because of the post-match comments by the Aussie coach. When someone so respected in the game, in a position of such responsibility, comes out and criticises the referee – what do we expect will happen? Coaches and players have to realise their actions have consequences.”
Barnes went on to praise World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin for speaking up for referees in the aftermath of so-called ruck-gate, and added: “Online abuse isn’t just a rugby issue, of course. But I don’t see why we can’t lead the way in tackling it by controlling what we can control as a sport.”
Barnes finished his column by suggesting people should look at certain statistics, such as how long the ball was in play, to highlight where a referee has added value to a game.
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