Rugby: Fiji in a paddy over O'Brien's blunder

By Wynne Gray

New Zealand's top referee, Paddy O'Brien, admitted yesterday that he blundered during a critical World Cup match in Toulouse - leaving Fiji bitter and France relieved as they contemplate their prospects for the rest of the tournament.

At a time when Southern Hemisphere critics have been quick to beat the drum about substandard, pedantic Northern Hemisphere refereeing, it is ironic that O'Brien, among the game's best officials, was the man with the whistle for the most contentious game of the tournament.

O'Brien made three crucial decisions which all went the way of the Tricolors and allowed them to escape with a 28-19 win against Fiji and give them an invaluable rest before the last-eight playoffs.

Quizzed after the match, O'Brien accepted that he had blundered.

"I lost the plot," he told a group of French journalists.

The most astonishing ruling came 10 minutes from time with Fiji leading 19-13 but under severe scrum pressure on their line.

O'Brien penalised Fiji a couple of times and yellow-carded prop Joe Veitayaki for pulling out of one scrum, but seemed to be controlling the tense situation well until he set another scrum.

It wheeled near Fiji's posts and as it did, replacement French hooker Marc del Maso popped up in the front row and O'Brien, remarkably, ruled a penalty try for France, even though they had transgressed.

To compound Fiji's misfortune, O'Brien then allowed several forward passes in a late French move which gave them the match-sealing try.

Earlier, on the stroke of halftime, another dubious O'Brien ruling denied Fiji a try when they sandwiched the French fullback running near his line, the ball spilled free and Fiji scored.

Somehow O'Brien decided Fiji had knocked on as the ball came clear in the jarring double tackle.

There were further curious moments for the match officials when France were awarded a penalty 20m from the Fiji line.

As the touch judges headed to the in-goal area anticipating a kick for goal, France tapped and scored, with O'Brien, initially, awarding the try before overturning his decision after some consultation with an out-of- position touch judge.

Fiji should lament the misfortune that their most important day at the World Cup should coincide with such a mediocre day at the office for New Zealand's leading whistler.

Legendary All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick, a close friend of O'Brien, admitted he had a bad match.

"He will look back on this and learn from his mistakes," said Fitzpatrick, who has been working as a television pundit for the World Cup.

Now Fiji must travel to Twickenham to meet England in a repechage test. It will be an enormous task for Fiji to win.

They have only four days for their top side to rest, repair and get over the mental anguish of Toulouse, while England, after resting many of their top troops against Italy, can put out their best XV for the Thursday meeting.

O'Brien was not the only New Zealand official in the limelight in the final round of pool matches.

Touch judge Steve Walsh stepped in to point out that South African centre Brendan Venter had stamped down on Uruguayan flanker Martin Panizza's head during their pool A match at Glasgow.

Venter was sent off after the incident just before halftime, to his and Springbok coach Nick Mallett's annoyance and has a disciplinary hearing late tonight (NZ time).

The final day's results have thrown up two other intriguing quarter-final playoffs on Thursday (NZ time).

The Argentines, as the best third-placed team in the five groups, will play Ireland in Lens, while Samoa will play Scotland at Murrayfield on the same day after finishing second in the group.

Meanwhile, the All Blacks rested in Cannes, took in some of the other World Cup matches, played golf, did some sightseeing and had a light run in a nearby park yesterday.

Next in the light programme is a weights session and run today before they head back to their Edinburgh headquarters tomorrow.

A number of the squad had their partners arrive for a couple of days in Leeds, but according to manager Mike Banks, none of the partners travelled with the team to Cannes.

He said: "The call was that we are not here for a holiday and that had to be kept in context."