NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • Deloitte Fast 50
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Premium
Home / Sport

Paul Lewis: The overwhelming case for neutral rugby referees

Paul Lewis
By Paul Lewis
Contributing Sports Writer·NZ Herald·
17 Oct, 2020 02:00 AM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Anton Lienert-Brown admitted there probably wasn't a single player in the All Blacks team who was happy with their performance in Bledisloe one.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

OPINION:

With a lot hanging on tomorrow's test match, you worry a bit, just a teensy bit, about World Rugby's decision to go with non-neutral referees.

The sad fact was that last weekend's ref, New Zealander Paul Williams, didn't have the greatest of games. There was high-octane whining from some Aussie commentators over perceived penalties not blown at the death which would have given the match to the Wallabies.

My scepticism is triggered by the lack of mention from the same commentators of the two late hits on Richie Mo'unga which should have resulted at least in penalties and probably in yellow cards – likely giving the match to the All Blacks.

They were the sort of hits that referees and TMOs – able to call the referee's attention to foul play – often stop the game for; they went strangely unnoticed or unenforced.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

We'll never know the answer to this but you always wonder whether having a home ref leads to one of two outcomes: an unconscious bias towards the home team or an unconscious bias against the home team by leaning too far the other way in an effort to be fair.

We know part of the answer – I don't believe there is a first-class referee in the world with a conscious bias and tomorrow's ref, Australia's Angus Gardner, was voted best Super Rugby referee by a long way in a New Zealand player survey. However, he was also the bloke who missed Rieko Ioane's boot on the touchline in the build-up to Jordie Barrett's try in the first test. Whoops.

Angus Gardner was named the best referee in the world at the 2018 World Rugby Awards. Photo / Photosport
Angus Gardner was named the best referee in the world at the 2018 World Rugby Awards. Photo / Photosport

So why aren't we having neutral referees for this series? Covid-19, sure, but presumably Gardner has been through a 14-day quarantine, so neutral refs must have been a possibility – are you hearing me, World Rugby?

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Neutral refs were shown to be pretty much essential earlier this year in an informal study published on Australia's Green and Gold Rugby site.

It was pretty damning. The study took in matches from 2017 to 2020 with hometown referees in charge against foreign opposition. While it is by no means absolutely definitive, it showed Australian refs had favoured their home teams by awarding them 16 more penalties than the opposition. Argentinian refs awarded their home teams 19 more penalties than the other guys.

Discover more

All Blacks

Another late setback? All Blacks star in doubt for second test

17 Oct 12:30 AM
All Blacks

'NZ Rugby c**ked that up': Graham Henry's swipe at All Blacks coach

16 Oct 06:05 PM
Sport|rugby

Springboks explain why they quit Rugby Championship

16 Oct 06:00 AM
All Blacks

Beauden Barrett reveals 18-month injury battle

16 Oct 06:00 PM

New Zealand refs were actually harder on their hometown teams – they awarded the opposition 15 more penalties than the New Zealand teams received. You wonder if that's what happened to Williams with the Mo'unga matter – over-correction – though it must be said that the penalty count from the first test was 14-7 in New Zealand's favour.

New Zealander Paul Williams was the man in charge of the Bledisloe Cup opener in 2020. Photo / Photosport
New Zealander Paul Williams was the man in charge of the Bledisloe Cup opener in 2020. Photo / Photosport

South Africa? Oh, their Super Rugby refs awarded their teams 159 more penalties than the opposition. That's a shedload of penalties. If we guess that only a quarter of those may have been kickable, that's still a potential 120 points made available to the South African teams.

Other evidence? What about a 2014 study by the Queensland University of Technology, looking closely at Super Rugby and Europe's Super League. It found that 71 per cent of matches controlled by a referee of the same nationality as the home team were won by that same home team. Last year RugbyPass showed international teams lost the penalty count 96-47 when playing in South Africa against the Bulls, Lions, Stormers, and Sharks with a South African referee.

In this day and age neutral referees are as essential as a set of goal posts at either end of the field. That holds true even if neutral refs perform like boiled potatoes or, worse, panic. If you remember the 2017 Lions tour, two French referees became deux hommes perplexe (two puzzled men) in the daft mix-up over the last-minute penalty that would have swung the series to the All Blacks. Neutrality is no guarantee of competence, it must be acknowledged, but it does tend to remove suspicion and nationalism.

South Arican referee Jaco Peyper. Photo / Photosport
South Arican referee Jaco Peyper. Photo / Photosport

Neutral refs also guard against another referee quirk – the make-up call. The one that stuck in my mind was in Super Rugby a few years back when Stormers wing Dillyn Leyds spilled the ball in a tackle when scoring against the Brumbies.

It was clearly not a try - underlined by an honest Leyds who rose shaking his head as his team congratulated him. Players always know when they have scored or not. Eh, Rieko?

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

However, after countless replays the TMO, a former Super Rugby and World Cup referee, somehow ruled a try. It was a woeful decision that should have seen him gain automatic entry to rugby's Hall Of Shame. Leyds grinned and mugged at his teammates. It was an obvious injustice, farcical.

The week before, the Stormers had been hugely upset with the TMO at their match against another Bok franchise when he wrongly awarded a penalty try against the Stormers. You guessed it – same TMO. So was the ludicrous call to award Leyds' try a week later a make-up call?

We'll never be certain but this is for sure – such things have been known. Neutral officials, while far from foolproof, at least protect us from foolishness.

Save
    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Sport

Sport

Women's RWC: Assessing the prospects for Black Ferns' title defence

Boxing

Kaikohe Blood & Fire | Trailer | NZIFF25

Watch
Warriors

‘In our hands’: Warriors coach Andrew Webster admits team blew great opportunity


Sponsored

Kiss cams and passion cohorts: how brands get famous in culture

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Sport

Women's RWC: Assessing the prospects for Black Ferns' title defence
Sport

Women's RWC: Assessing the prospects for Black Ferns' title defence

Adam Julian analyses the Black Ferns' prospects as they seek to defend their RWC title

02 Aug 03:01 AM
Kaikohe Blood & Fire | Trailer | NZIFF25
Boxing

Kaikohe Blood & Fire | Trailer | NZIFF25

Watch
02 Aug 01:37 AM
‘In our hands’: Warriors coach Andrew Webster admits team blew great opportunity
Warriors

‘In our hands’: Warriors coach Andrew Webster admits team blew great opportunity

02 Aug 01:20 AM


Kiss cams and passion cohorts: how brands get famous in culture
Sponsored

Kiss cams and passion cohorts: how brands get famous in culture

01 Aug 12:26 AM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP