KEY POINTS:
In a long and undistinguished rugby career (if you can call it that) I had the good fortune to play in games refereed by Paddy O'Brien, Colin Hawke and Frank McMullen.
They were the best. They strove not just to control the match but to allow it to
flow; to find that inner expression contained within every game of rugby - running, passing and scoring tries.
In other words, they weren't just policemen hunting for transgressions of the law. They were also interpreters and even a kind of coach at times. All of them talked to the players. All the time.
So it was a bit strange to hear O'Brien coming out all snarly about cracking down on players at the World Cup for questioning referee's decisions. In addition, Kiwi ref Paul Honiss got the big hand smack from the International Rugby Board for suggesting just the opposite - that players should talk more to referees.
O'Brien, the IRB refereeing co-ordinator, is a good man but I hope he hasn't been infected with what I call IRB Syndrome - a hallucinatory condition which makes the sufferer believe he works for a body which actually controls world rugby.
O'Brien's right - talking back to refs is probably best discouraged at World Cup level. But something else he said raised hackles and the suspicions of IRB Syndrome.
He said he was disturbed at attempts to influence referees through the media. "Referees must referee what they see in front of them on the field during a game, not have pre-conceived ideas through coaches trying to influence them 24 hours before a match even starts."
He also said coaches were going too far in putting pressure on referees, using media who wrote down everything a coach said as gospel. "I think some coaches believe they can use the media to get the upper hand," he said. "And some reporters have no credibility at all."
Paddy's right - any media organisation with a reporter who just passes on, without any editorial judgement exercised, remarks from coaches should take that reporter outside and introduce him or her to an adidas rugby ball. Sideways.
But good luck with that 'not influencing' business, Paddy. Here's the thing. Coaches and players - some players - have been influencing the media since William Webb Ellis was a soccer player.
Why wouldn't they? It's all part of the game. You can't ask coaches and players to front up to media inquiries before a game and a press conference afterwards and not expect there to be some spin going on.
It's part of a coach's job description to find any way he can to help win a game. Some of what he refers to may be fiction or it may be a genuine facet of the game that is not being refereed properly - the offside rule comes to mind.
Either way, coaches are not going to stop trying to influence refs and other audiences just because Paddy and the IRB don't like it - and telling them not to do it is like telling Antarctica to stop being cold.
Unfortunately, Paddy's paddy shows a great deal of naivete and what is wrong with rugby refs. They are still some kind of protected species. This is a professional game with great expectations and demands on players and coaches alike.
They all have to contend with the media - good and bad practices alike. Why shouldn't refs? We can't continue, surely, keeping them in bulletproof glass cases, letting them out only to run around the park, blowing whistles and telling the red No 6 to take his hands off the ball.
If you genuinely want referees not to be influenced by coaches, Paddy, stick them up at press conferences. Let 'em talk. Let them put their perspective. Let knowledgeable rugby fans judge for themselves.
Like it or not, you are going to come across some media who don't have the grounding in the game that others do and who don't have the confidence or knowledge to make a call against a coach or what that coach is saying. So providing balance might be a necessary thing, hmmm?
If refs are not capable of handling the media or the pressure, well, maybe they shouldn't be operating at that level.
Better by far to breed refs who are capable of resisting players like George Gregan and Sean Fitzpatrick who are/were prone to 'helping the ref' and coaches who are only too willing to pitch their perspective.
Refs like Frank McMullen whom I found grinning at me in one game when a large Fijian from Ponsonby partially concussed me in a tackle.
"How many fingers am I holding up?" asked McMullen. I got the number right and was allowed to continue. Later in the game, I thought I had scored a try but Frank didn't.
I chipped him as I ran back. "How many fingers am I holding up now?" Frank asked. There were two of them. Fashioned in a well-known salute.
That's what rugby refs need, Paddy. Not protection.