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Find Out Which Referees Have Been Good Or Bad For Ireland Since '07

Find Out Which Referees Have Been Good Or Bad For Ireland Since '07
Conor Neville
By Conor Neville
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It is often asserted when a referee is appointed that the referee in question is "terrible for us." This is usually done without recourse to statistics and is instead accompanied by evidence which is heavy on anecdotes about times when the referee in question had "done us over." It is also rarely remarked upon that an appointment might be a positive. While rugby players are loath to attack refs, this custom does not extend to supporters. Referee appointments in rugby often result in a great deal of eye-rolling from supporters with long memories.

Well, we have decided to look at the records, beginning in 2007, to establish what referees have proven good or bad for Ireland.

Now, obviously these statistics should come with a health warning and they are not the full story. For instance, Ireland's very mediocre numbers when Nigel Owens has been refereeing is influenced by the fact he has refereed an unusually high number of New-Zealand-Ireland games, while our extremely strong record when Craig Joubert has been refereeing is partly down to the teams Ireland have been playing when he's been in charge. Nor are the results the full story. Just because Ireland lost does not mean the referee is in anyway responsible. Similarly, in games where Ireland won, it does not mean we got on the right side of the referee (Nigel Owens reffing of Scotland-Ireland 2011 springs to mind). There are a lot of variables here. Nor is there any question of bias. Perhaps the most one can say is that a referee's interpretation of the laws militate against the way Ireland want to play.

One thing we can say is that Ireland seem to have a better record with Southern hemisphere refs...

Wayne Barnes  P 13  W  4  L  9

barnes

By quite a distance, the referee under which Ireland have the poorest record in the modern era, Barnes has refereed 13 games involving Ireland since his first back in 2007.

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He oversaw Ireland's home defeats to Wales in both 2008 and 2012, with his handling of the latter being particularly controversial. Late in the 2008 game he overturned a penalty he had awarded to Ireland, after Bernard Jackman's "gratuitous" charging into the back of a Welsh player after the whistle. Ireland trailed by a point at the time and ended up losing 16 - 12. He has also sent off Jamie Heaslip in 2010 test match against New Zealand and refereed Ireland's first competitive

defeat in 16 months in Paris in 2010. The Lansdowne Road crowd were also annoyed with Barnes for his refereeing of Ireland's 16 - 12 loss to South Africa in November 2012.

It was thought that Ireland's horrific record with Barnes would improve in 2013 when he was assigned to referee Ireland's matches in Murrayfield and Rome, but Ireland contrived to lose both games (however, Barnes was generally accused of having favoured Ireland throughout the Scotland game and could hardly be blamed for anything). In Rome, he became the first referee to sin-bin Brian O'Driscoll in the Six Nations though the centre can have no complaints.

His handling of Ireland's loss in Cardiff on Saturday sparked a hail of complaints, most notably on the pitch where the Irish back row were continually moaning. He told Peter O'Mahony to shut up at one point. Others however disagreed that his refereeing is a factor.

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In addition, one of the four victories Ireland managed with Barnes was the humiliating 14 - 10 win

over Georgia in the 2007 World Cup. However, in mitigation, Barnes was the man in the middle for one of Ireland's most famous days, the Grand Slam win
in Cardiff in 2009. While Ireland were well behind in the penalty count in this game, Brian O'Driscoll praised him for going upstairs for his try when few in the ground suspected a try had been scored. He was also the man in charge for Ireland's emphatic 26-3 win
over Wales in 2014 and the victory over France last month, although there was much grumbling among Irish supporters about the way he handled that too.

Nigel Owens      P 12  W 5  L  7

owens

Owens is generally popular among rugby fans and has frequently refereed Ireland matches throughout his career. Ireland's less than 50-50 record with Owens, is partially down to the fact he has reffed three Ireland-New Zealand games, two on the summer tour of 2012 and last November's last gasp defeat. After the middle one of those three defeats, he became embroiled in a Twitter war with Liam Toland over his controversial assessment that Ireland were 'running around' the scrum late in the game. He was also referee for Tom Court's long dark afternoon of the soul in Twickenham in 2012 when the Irish scrum broke the land-speed record for running backwards.

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Ireland's biggest wins

when Owens has been referee both arrived in 2009. The victory in the opening Six Nations game against France and the 15 - 10 win
in the fog against the reigning World Champions South Africa in November.

Craig Joubert    P 10   W  7   L  3

joubert

On the surface, Ireland have an extremely strong record with Joubert, the man heavily criticised for his handling of the 2011 World Cup Final. However, the two of the losses he has presided over were painful ones. The 22 - 1o defeat to Wales in the Wellington quarter-final and the 13 - 10 loss to England last month. Also, most of the wins came against teams Ireland would be expecting to defeat.

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Joubert is one of the most famous 'homers' in World rugby and Ireland do not buck this trend

. Aside from the two easy wins
over minnows in the 2011 RWC, all of Ireland's wins
with Joubert have been achieved in Dublin.  Home wins he has reffed for Ireland include the 2009 victory over England, the 27-12 win over Wales in 2010, a 42 - 10 hammering of Italy in 2012 and the 28 - 6 win against Scotland at the start of this year's Six Nations.

Jonathan Kaplan  P 7  W  4  D  1  L  2

kaplan

Irish fans' memories of Kaplan tend to be coloured by the hideous error made by him and his linesman in Cardiff in 2011 when Mike Phillips' try was incredibly allowed to stand. The linesman, Peter Allan's mistake remains inexplicable but Kaplan (correctly from a technical standpoint) did not go upstairs to consult. He also refereed Ireland's shock defeat to Scotland in 2010 but this has perhaps more to do with Johnny Sexton's nervous kicking performance.

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The four victories achieved with Kaplan refereeing were against Italy (3) and Scotland (1) so the statistics should not con one into thinking Ireland had a strong record under Kaplan. His final game refereeing Ireland was the fine victory over Italy in the 2011 World Cup. He also oversaw Ireland's 20 - 20 draw with Australia in November 2009.

Kaplan retired in late 2013.

Bryce Lawrence  P  5  W  4  L  1

lawrence

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Probably, the referee under which Ireland have the best record since 2007, Lawrence oversaw Ireland's two epic victories in 2011, the trouncing of England in the final game of the Six Nations, and the momentous 15 - 6 win

over Australia in the World Cup. He also managed Ireland's forgettable but rather important 17 - 3 win
over Argentina in the 2008 November series. The other win
was a routine win over Tonga in late 2009.

The sole Irish loss he looked after was the 2010 summer tour defeat to the Wallabies, which ended 21 - 15.  Lawrence retired from refereeing at the end of 2012, partly due to the abuse he received from the Wallabies for his handling of their defeat to Ireland in 2011.

Roman Poite     P  5  W  4  L  1

poite

The stats may look surprising given Stephen Jones' formerly favourite ref Poite's awful reputation among Munster fans, but the stats can easily dupe you here. Two of Ireland's wins

with Poite came against Italy and they were two fairly underwhelming wins
at that in the opening games of the 2010 and 2011 Six Nations. The latter was very nearly a defeat until Ronan O'Gara struck a last minute drop goal. The other victory came in last year's opener in Cardiff.

Ireland's sole defeat under Poite was the harrowing 60 - 0 defeat to New Zealand on the gruelling 2012 summer tour.

Steve Walsh       P  5  W  2  D  1  L  2

walsh

One of the most despised referees north of the equator, particularly by English fans (for last year's Wales-England game) Walsh was the man in the middle for Ireland's triumph in Paris last year. This is his fourth Ireland-France game and Irish fans have poor memories of him. In 2007, he failed to play advantage when Geordan Murphy was striding unopposed towards the French line in the second half. Offering profuse apologies for having blown too early, he brought Ireland back for the scrum. He refereed Ireland's draw against France last year, where he went upstairs for the Keith Earls' obstruction incident near the end of the game though he informed the TMO that his instinct was "no obstruction." He also refereed the away World Cup warm up game in 2011.

Ireland's only win

with Walsh was last November's win
over Samoa.

Dave Pearson   P  3  W  1  D  1  L  1

pearson

Declan Kidney successfully secured a clarification from the IRB for Pearson's stewardship of the 2011 home defeat to France, where Ireland lost 25 - 22 and were screwed on the penalty count. Pearson riled every Irish fan in Paris when, at the eleventh hour (hell, after the eleventh hour) he postponed the 2012 game against France. Ireland's only win

with Pearson since '07 was the narrow 19-18 win
over Scotland in the '07 Six  Nations, a game most memorable for the allegation that Ronan O'Gara was choked in the ruck near the end of the match.

Mark Lawrence P  3  W  2  L  1

W - England, 16 - 20, SN 2010  :    L - New Zealand, 3 - 22, Nov. Test, 2008

Chris White  P 3  W  1  L  2

W - Italy, 38 - 9, SN 2009 ;  L - 2007 France, 25 - 3, RWC 2007 ;  L - New Zealand, 21 - 11, Summ. Test 2008

Christophe Berdos P  3   W  2  L  1

W - Scotland, 34 - 13, SN 2008  ;  W - Canada, 55 - 0, Nov. Test. 2008 ;  L - Australia, 18 - 12, Summ. Test 2008

Chris Pollack    P  2   W  1  L  1

W - Scotland, 32 - 14, SN 2012 ;  L - Australia, 15 - 32, Nov. Test 2013

Marius Jonker P  2  W  1  L  1

W - Fiji, 41 - 6, Nov. Test 2009 ; L, New Zealand, 18 - 38, Nov. Test 2010

Joel Judge P  2  W  2

W - Namibia, 32 -13 , RWC 2007 :   W - England, 43 - 13, SN 2007

Jaco Peyper  P  1  W  1

W - Argentina, 46 -24 Nov. Test 2012

Stuart Dickinson P  1  L  1

L - England, 32 - 10,  SN 2008

Paul Honiss P  1  L  1

L - Argentina, 30 - 15, RWC 2007

Kelvin Deaker  P 1  W  1

W - Wales, 19 - 9, SN 2007

Glen Jackson P1  W1

W - Australia, 26 - 23, Nov. Test 2014

Pascal Guazerre

W - Italy, 26 - 3, SN 2015

JP Doyle

W - Georgia, 49 - 7,  Nov. Test 2014

 

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