Referee Marks dropped

Referee Paul Marks has been relieved of his immediate Super 14 responsibilities following last week's contentious moment in Sydney.

Paul Marks has been relieved of his immediate Super 14 responsibilities following a contentious refereeing incident at Sydney Football Stadium.

SANZAR referees chief Lyndon Bray questioned Marks' decision whereby he did not award the Sharks a penalty try when Waratahs replacement Kurtley Beale slapped down a pass that seemed destined for an unchallenged Ryan Kankowski, but went on to say that Marks had other aspects of his game to work on.

Only a yellow card and penalty from distance were awarded as the hosts eventually held on to win the game 25-21, which left away coach John Plumtree far from happy during the post-match.

“There was some imbalance from a management perspective, how he (Marks) arrived at these big decisions and how they were presented,” Bray said, speaking to The Australian.

“Paul has been 'stood down', to work on some management versus technical issues. It is not all about that one decision!

“In fairness to Paul, you could debate the penalty try ruling all day.

“We believe the right decision in the cold light of day was to award a penalty try, but you could argue why a referee would back off it.”

Referees' selection panel member Andrew Cole went on to explain that explain that claims made that Kankowski was certain to score were not true, as he believed 'Tahs centre Tom Carter was set to cover the South African eight in defence.

“Admittedly he had a fair bit of work to do, and we all know how quick Kankowski is,” Cole said.

“But Paul would have seen him in his peripheral vision…he would have known there was a defender there.”