Was Wayne at fault?
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This article focuses on if Wayne Barnes, the referee of the New Zealand vs. France RWC (Rugby World Cup) quarter final match. If you ask almost any New Zealander today, most of them would say Wayne Barnes’ refereeing skills were to blame – but is that the case?
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Wayne Barnes is a fairly inexperienced referee – becoming an international referee at the age of 21, and being 28 years old when he refereed the New Zealand vs. France game on October 6, 2007. During the match, there were many questions regarding the performance of Wayne – missing many illegal plays such as a forward pass by the French, and unfairly sin-binning Luke McAlister. The final score at the end was 20-18 to France. But this now brings up the actual question – was Wayne Barnes at fault? A recent article in the New Zealand newspaper, The Sunday Star Times, details that the All Black’s coach – Graham Henry was going ‘soft’ on the team when it came to the actual cup. Graham Henry explored a new way of training the All Black’s to become a better team for the world cup, which he called ‘Reconditioning’. This was an intense training procedure that took place in the four years before the RWC 2007. Also, he had another tactic which should have helped the All Blacks, which was rotating the players around the positions, in hope to make a better team. This brings up much controversy. Could we have won if we stuck to our positions? I guess we will never know. If Graham Henry didn’t go ‘soft’ on our players – could that cup be New Zealand’s? I guess we will never know.
What came to mind when you think of why Wayne Barnes would have wanted to cheat the game? (Not saying he did, but you can’t say it’s never happened before). Bribery. Wayne Barnes could have possibly been bribed before the game. This would explain and answer a lot of thing for the unhappy New Zealanders. Also, a unconfirmed story is that the French coach walked across the field towards Wayne Barnes at the time of Luke McAlister’s sin-binning. As he was about to speak to Wayne, he reportedly winked and gestured at him. Suspicious?
Ok, so, let’s just say you’re an international referee. A mysterious figure approaches you and offers you a massive sum of money to rig the game. This money alone would have you set for life. Are you likely to turn this down? Are you loyal to your sport? Would you cheat the world? So many questions – yet so little answers.
My opinion - I think that Wayne Barnes should never have refereed that game. He was too inexperienced and made fatally bad calls, costing one country its right to the world cup. Even though it’s far too late to turn back the clock – I think that some sort of review/action should be taken upon Wayne Barnes. What’s the motive you ask? I’m not completely sure myself. It could have been Bribery, or it could have been a grudge. Again – we will never know.
By R Mak
[b]References/Sources[/b]
http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/fixtures/round=101/match=10114/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Blacks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Rugby_World_Cup
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