By Andrew Collins
January 13 2014
Referee Greg Garner’s lack of empathy and understanding spoilt a potentially compelling Heineken Cup match, awarding the home side a hattrick of penalty tries and giving the Blues four yellow cards in the process.
Comparing the two team prior to kick off, you could’ve been forgiven for predicting a cricket score with the home side – reigning champions Toulon – boasting a backline including Jonny Wilkinson, Matt Giteau, Bastareaud and Drew Mitchell and forwards such as Andrew Sheridan, Carl Hayman, Bakies Botha and Joe Van Niekerk.
While the Blues proudly named Leigh Halfpenny, Alex Cuthbert and Gethin Jenkins in their starting line-up, there was clearly a gulf in experience - if not class - but for forty minutes, our kids and company defied the bookies. Indeed, had it not been for some inexcusable refereeing, the young Blues may have returned to Wales with a bonus point or even more, as they frustrated the home side for long patches. 15 on 15, Cardiff coped admirably in both defence and attack, scoring two tries in open play, however there was sadly no answer to the brute force of Toulon’s rolling maul and power at scrum time.
While you can have no complaints about being beaten up front by an intimidating and imposing set of forwards, twitter was flooded with messages of complain towards referee Greg Garner, whose incredulous decisions cost the Blues 4 yellow cards, only one of which was truly justifiable (Copeland, 79).
The first sin binning was perhaps the most ridiculous. In an opening 5 minute spell where the champions came firing out of the traps, Australian international Giteau gracefully waltzed through the Cardiff midfield and into the 22. Chris Czekaj dragged him down with a fine cover tackle, dislodging the ball in the process and saving what had looked a probable try. Garner’s interpretation of the events was entirely unclear; either he cited ‘illicit work at the tackle’ (BBC) or it was a ‘high tackle’ (CardiffBlues.com) awarding a penalty and yellow card for the second infringement of the match. Ambiguous and extremely harsh to say the least.
It set a worrying precedent, which Garner failed to consistently stick to.
The visitors rallied extremely well despite being down to 14 men and facing the champions, and when Filo Paulo’s excellent grubber kick sent the home side scrambling backwards, the Blues were sniffing blood. Czekaj chased superbly and put Mitchell under pressure, fluffing his kick barely 10 yards and straight into the arms of the on-rushing Robin Copeland. His typically abrasive work down the touchline drew in several men before a classy offload - proving he has all the skill set to become an Ireland international in this year’s 6 Nations – to Paulo sent the Samoan crashing through two tackles and over the line.
However, Garner failed to notice the blatant offside immediately after Mitchell’s fluffed clearance, which could’ve cost the Blues their try. With all the Toulon defence still back-pedalling after Paulo’s grubber, they were all in an offside position when the kick went up, and when Rudi Wolf (I’m not entirely sure it was him, but check the replay) attempted to tackle Copeland he was unquestionably offside. Even though the Blues did claim the try, Garner simply had to award a yellow card or a Blues’ penalty from the restart. (NOTE - Someone may want to confirm whether Czekaj charged down the kick or not, but I didn’t see any contact. If you did, write in the comments below.)
A half time score of 15-13 was a fair reflection of two sides contrasting styles; the home side’s power and the visitor’s brave counterattacking and willingness to get the ball wide. Few would’ve predicted that after 40 minutes, and a compelling second half looked imminent. However it wasn’t to be. Garner decided to become the star of the show.
The Blues gathered the restart, but the normally so reliable Halfpenny spilled forwards before getting his clearance kick away. Now before we read what happened next, let’s remind ourselves of what the purpose of a scrum is;
“The purpose of a scrum is to restart play quickly, safely and fairly, after a minor infringement or a stoppage.” (quote taken from IRB.com)
With Gethin Jenkins off with injury, Sam Hobbs his replacement, this was the first scrum of the half and just 2 minutes in at that, not to mention the atrocious conditions of the pitch, which was tearing up underfoot at every scrum. Predictably, the Blues scrum was overpowered and splintered under the pressure. The result was the Blues’ 2nd yellow card, this time for Bourrust. Moments later, and with another new prop on the field for his first scrum of the game, the same result at scrum was this time awarded a penalty try. 2 scrums, 2 new props, 1 yellow card and 1 penalty try.
Now let’s be very clear about this, there was no intent to collapse or not compete in the scrum, they were simply overpowered by a bigger, stronger and better pack of forwards. The game had ‘restarted’ as fairly as possible through the scrum and Toulon could’ve played on, probably scoring eventually. In the backs, if one centre is bigger, faster and smarter than his opposite number, the defender doesn’t receive a yellow card or penalty for not being as good, so why is it that a front row forward, who is doing his best but is simply not as good, should be punished so harshly?
And all of this because Cardiff knocked on and the game needed restarting.
Again, it set a worrying precedent that Garner would have to stick to.
Now down to 14 men for the second time in 45 minutes, the Blues again struggled to cope with Toulon’s strength at a rolling maul and as they drove through all the Blues defenders towards the try line, substitute Ellis Jenkins ran back onside but proceeded to pull down the maul. Yellow card, penalty try, Blues down to 13.
However, Jenkins’ didn’t really pull down the maul, because no such maul existed. With no Blues defenders attached to their rolling set of Toulon forwards, there was no maul. So when Ellis Jenkins tackled one of the home forwards, the penalty should’ve gone against the home side for offside and blocking;
“A maul begins when a player carrying the ball is held by one or more opponents, and one or more of the ball carrier’s team mates bind on the ball carrier. A maul therefore consists, when it begins, of at least 3 players, all on their feet; the ball carrier and one player from each team. All the players involved must be caught in or bound to the maul and must be on their feet and moving towards a goal line.” (quote taken from IRB.com)
With the Blues now 2 men down, they conceded a well worked try which ended any element of contest in the match.
However, Garner at least did have a chance to show some consistency and fairness with 10 minutes to go. With the Blues showing ambitious backs play, Alex Cuthbert got the visitors into the opposition 22. 5 yards from the line and with Cardiff trying desperately to push the advantage, Toulon cynically infringed. Penalty given. No yellow card. Fair? Absolutely not.
The Blues tapped the penalty to keep Toulon backpedalling, but when they didn’t retreat the full 10 metres – or at least as far as their try line – Garner’s arm went out. Sam Hobbs forced his way over for a deserved score, but Garner inexcusably failed to go back and award the yellow card.
The final yellow I can’t dispute. Frustration got the better of Copeland, who had been magnificent all match, and he kicked the ball out of Michalak’s hands as they pushed for the bonus point try. Although we can forgive Copeland it was a shame, as the Blues defence was more than just holding Toulon at bay, actually driving them 5-10 yards back. Toulon took opted for the scrum from the penalty, and as expected, they were awarded a penalty try – Garner completed his hattrick.
Sometimes when you’re watching a match, it is easy to think you’re being victimised by the referee when in fact you don’t have clear view, or you’re watching with rose tinted glasses on. At times like this, I try to let it go and reflect a day later. A good example of this was THAT ‘forward pass’ by Australia against Wales in the recent Autumn International. Furious at the time, I was forced to accept that actually, given the momentum rule, the referee was right and I was absolutely wrong.
I’ve thought about this for two days before writing this article, but I cannot find any redeeming features of Garner’s performance.
In fact, the more I try to find fair accounts of his performance, I instead find comments the likes of Matt Dawson, Jez Warburton and Ieuan Evans agreeing with me.
I always try not to look for excuses, but Garner absolutely ruined what was potential a thrilling game of David vs Goliath. The first yellow card was extremely harsh and totally uncalled for. His interpretation of the scrum lacked empathy and understanding of what was happening. The lack of consistency in not awarding Toulon a yellow for infringing and then not retreating on their own try line almost seemed intentional.
(Many thanks to @JohnNadaBright who brought this to my attention) Less than a month ago, Garner refereed Perpignan’s heavy loss to Munster. Perpignan President Francois Riviere sent ‘a firm latter of complaint’ to ERC Ltd. He said;
“I cannot remain inactive in the face of such injustice. Between the try which was denied, the penalty try and the 14 to 4 penalty count against us, it is my duty to do something. It’s not acceptable to let this go.”
I have tweeted Richard Holland and the Cardiff Blues suggesting they do the same.
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Quote:theArmsPark.co.uk Admin
I've read this on ref net;
Remember that if an offence occurs post try - or even in the build up that didn't prevent the try being scored (as in this case) - a penalty restart to the scoring team is an option that you can use.
Not sure it's right though ATTR, care to enlighten us?
Quote:southcoast5
BB was illegal at scrum time most of the afternoon. Andrews didn't have the savvy to do anything but fold..but then that's all he ever does. These are the best 2 tightheads we have but they are the worst pair of 3's in any northern hemisphere pro team. Point is that this was the case throughout last season also.
If anything spells out clearly the poverty of ambition at CAP it is the failure to spend any money to improve our scrum. What signal does it give to any ambitious young player who wants compete at the top end. There is no expectation of success so when PT talks about the money from European competition it's a bit like a journeyman golf pro holding out for appearance money because that's all he expects to get.