EVEN if you are the biggest Blue Bulls supporter, you must have felt sorry for Juarno Augustus of the Stormers, after his blunder at Loftus in Pretoria.
The young Augustus made a terrible mistake a few minutes after the full-time hooter in this rugby match in the Preparation Series.
The Bulls won 34-29, but Augustus could have been the hero of the Stormers by scoring the winning try. Instead he became the villain for a knock-on inside the scoring area.
Augustus would have been spared the trauma if a proposal, many years ago from former South African referee boss André Watson, was implemented in the rugby rules.
It was in the time before extended powers was given to the television match official, when Watson made a suggestion he reckoned would have cut out a lot of controversy around the scoring of tries. He was referring to American gridiron football, where the touchdown is scored when a player crosses the line with the ball in hand.
Watson was arguing that such a ruling in rugby would speed up the game, take away all that controversy around the legality of a try and ensure that the correct decision was made.
At the time it made sense, but since then, the television referee powers have been extended and the camera work at major matches has also stepped up quite a bit – and thanks for that.
Remember when Irish referee, George Clancy and former Bay resident, Johann Meuwesen, were in trouble back in 2011?
Clancy was the referee in the thrilling test match between the Springboks and the All Blacks in the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
Meuwesen was the television referee, with limited powers at that stage.
Clancy asked Meuwesen to help rule if the All Blacks scored a try in the corner. The try looked good, except for a clear forward pass in the movement leading up to the try.
The problem was that, back then, the television referee was not allowed to get involved in other possible infringements, just what he was asked to rule on by the referee on the field.
The crowd was going mad when the big screens in the stadium showed that there was no problem with the try scored, but also showed the clear forward pass, which was missed by Clancy.
Meuwesen and Clancy were probably influenced by the crowd’s reaction, or maybe felt they must get this one right when Meuwesen surprised all and sundry.
“Do you need any more information”? Meuwesen asked and Clancy answered positively. Meuwesen then, quite funnily, muffled his response, as if only Clancy must hear it, although millions of television viewers were listening.
The muffled words, “there was a forward pass,” got Clancy and Meuwesen in hot water with the International Rugby Board (IRB).
The IRB bosses stated that the decision was incorrect.
Luckily the rules have changed since then, with the television referees taking their time to make the correct decisions (most of the time).
The drama of the replays, while everyone is waiting for the decision, has become good theatre and part of parcel of the modern game.
So sorry young Juarno, just make sure you get the ball safely on the grass when you cross the try line next time.
