England 'try' storm ref facing rebuke

14 April 2012

French referee Joel Jutge is to be given a yellow card by rugby's governing body over England's disallowed try against New Zealand.

The International Rugby Board stepped into the controversy yesterday with the frank admission that he got it doubly wrong in refusing to award Jamie Noon a fifth-minute touchdown at Twickenham on Sunday.

Refs' blunders signal more video replay

Instead of taking an early lead, England went downhill all the way to a record home defeat.

Jutge's boss, IRB referees' manager Paddy O'Brien, acknowledged that the 40-year-old Frenchman made a mistake.

"I am prepared to stand up and say that it was a try," O'Brien said. "I am not going to defend the indefensible. The decision was wrong."

O'Brien, a forthright New Zealander who joined the Board after a 21-Test career as a referee, also confirmed England's belief that Jutge had failed to follow the guidelines spelt out during a pre-match briefing on the correct procedure for consulting the video referee, in this case fellow Frenchman, Christophe Berdos.

"The agreement we have with referees is that they put two questions to the TMO (Television Match Official) - 'Is it a try?' Or: 'Can you give me a reason why it wasn't a try?'

"What concerns me is that the referee had clear instructions and didn't follow them. I will talk to Joel about this and ask him why he did not ask those questions. We are not hanging him out to dry on one decision. Apart from that, he refereed the match very well."

Jutge, France's top professional referee who was in charge of his 25th Test, told Berdos, the country's only other full-time referee: "I can't see the ball. Have you got another shot of it?"

Ironically, the IRB had only just issued an edict encouraging referees to give the attacking team the benefit of any doubt over try-scoring issues referred to video analysis.

Another circular to that effect will be sent out to all member Unions again on Tuesday as a result of the Twickenham faux pas.

As the All Blacks left London for Saturday's showdown with France in Lyons, England were licking their wounds and wondering where they go next in the search for a winning team.

Four of the those ruled out on Sunday — Josh Lewsey, Mark Cueto, Perry Freshwater and Tom Rees — are expected to be available for Saturday's match against Argentina.

Having delayed naming his team until Tuesday, head coach Andy Robinson increased his squad by one, recalling Saracens centre Ben Johnston, last capped as a substitute against New Zealand four years ago.

Two more new caps were under consideration last night — Newcastle fly half-centre Toby Flood and Bristol No. 8 Dan Ward-Smith.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in