Rugby: Judgment day for Super 14 whistlers

Australian referee Paul Marks issues a yellow card to Sharks prop Jannie Du Plessis (C). Photo / Getty Images

Several Super 14 referees are in danger of being the first casualties of a robust judgment system.

Tournament assessors held a conference hookup last night where the performance of Australian official Paul Marks was likely to come under the heaviest scrutiny after a fractious end to the Waratahs and Sharks game.

Fellow whistlers Steve Walsh and Lesego Legoete were also due to come in for some extra audit after patchy performances in recent weeks.

"There is likely to be a strong outcome," referees' boss Lyndon Bray predicted about last night's hookup with Tappe Henning, Colin Hawke and Andrew Cole.

There were several issues to dissect in Marks' performance and the Sharks "had every right to feel that there were two or three decisions which went against them which were quite vital.

"In the overall context of that we need to decide what we are going to do about that.

"There is also another guy in the tournament who has been put at risk but we will share that information later."

Walsh was travelling to South Africa and while he had made a few errors including a penalty try ruling in the last round, he was unlikely to be pulled from duty this weekend.

"He has already admitted the penalty try was probably incorrect and we agree with that so the bottom line is he has refereed three times in the tournament and his overall form has been good.

"He will be aware though that his last effort was not one of his better ones," Bray added.

Two assistant referees, Josh Noonan and Damien Mitchelmore, have been stood down this season after issues with their work and several television match officials have been put on notice about their rulings.

Bray thought the peer assessment programme introduced for match officials was working well.

"We are now at a point where obviously our referees do not referee every week like the best players are asked to but we are at a point where guys have done a few games and we are able to make some astute decisions," he said.

Referees performing well would get more matches but there were several problems as Stu Dickinson and Nathan Pearce were injured and unavailable until round six while others were also on duty in the Six Nations series.

Bray felt the concept of referees ruling games in their own countries was fine as long as they did not control matches involving their own provincial sides. Coaches had supported that concept otherwise it would be difficult for officials to be appointed on merit and tournament costs would rise.

The best referees deserved to control the tournament playoffs in May and Bray did not want them to be ruled out because of country neutrality.

"We are more than happy to rule them out because of home franchise, that is almost a consensus we have agreed to, but we do not think it is fair to take the top couple out because you want country neutral, particularly if they are the best performers in the competition," he said.