Fuck man. I was hopeful we would have a weekend where rugby ruled and officialdom stayed out of it. Alas, my hopes were dashed. The Blues v Hurricanes was absolutely dominated by whistle and ratshit calls. The England V Wales game was a clinic in how not to referee. Owen Farrell had every reason to be furious.
Tell me, why is it that players and coaches can’t lay formal complaints against officials? Perhaps they can – I have just never heard of it. Let me be also clear, the referees aren’t to blame individually. The referee coaches and law makers have stopped listening to people who know about rugby and formed their own little reasonings. I don’t put myself in the category of ‘knowing’ rugby, I come at it from a fan’s perspective. But, I know great rugby minds and they don’t get listened to. That’s especially true in New Zealand where we lived under the Tew regime which overlapped the Impey era. It seems the NZRFU was run as a dictatorship and any dissent was met with dismissal.
The poor old whistlers don’t know which way is up. They get told to hone in on specific parts one week then another, then another. The poor bastards can be forgiven for being as confused as the rest of us.
Let’s not be all doom and gloom though. Footy is on and we love it. There are many things that could be improved, sure, but the game we love is on and we are interacting with it and in these uncertain times we are grateful.
Collin Morikawa won the WGC event at 18 under on a tough track. Not a long hitter compared to some of his chasers but man, what an iron player. One stat I read is that he is as accurate with a 6 iron as the field was with a pitching wedge. That is unbelievable.
Me old mate Kerry Mountcastle beat a solid field in the Manawatu Super 6s to win his second Charles Tour event. As an amateur, that’s pretty fucking solid. Kerry’s dad was a good golfer too but Kerry, I think, will make a fine professional.
Let’s hope the lockdowns don’t last too long and the vaccines can be rolled out and we can get back to normality sometime soon. Peace.
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