Rugby: Walsh dumped to avoid 'circus' - boss

Referee Steve Walsh has been replaced by Chris Pollock for Saturday’s match between the Brumbies and Reds. Photo / Getty Images

Steve Walsh has been stood down from refereeing a second consecutive game involving the Brumbies to prevent their critical Super 14 rugby match against the Reds on Saturday turning into a circus, his boss says.

Both sides need to win to remain in contention for the semifinals and Sanzar referees manager Lyndon Bray said today the controversy raised by the Brumbies over Walsh's refereeing when they lost 12-19 to the Waratahs last weekend in Sydney had potentially created an untenable environment for a referee.

Sydney-based Walsh has been replaced by Chris Pollock who was originally down to run Saturday's Hurricanes-Chiefs match at Wellington. Pollock's fixture has been handed to Vinny Munro.

Bray criticised Brumbies playmaker Matt Giteau and the Australian media for aggressive coverage of Walsh's running of the game during which he rejected the Brumbies' claims for a try.

Giteau reportedly said there would be no point turning up for the Reds game if Walsh was not stood down.

Australian Associated Press reported yesterday it was understood the Brumbies also submitted a scathing post-match report of Walsh's performance.

These actions together created an extremely negative situation for Walsh and detracted from the importance of the match for both sides, Bray said.

"We have to look at the best interest of the game this weekend as well as what's in the best interests of Steve as a referee," he said.

"I think we would be really silly to ignore the sort of environment that is likely to happen if we left Steve to run the (match between) the Brumbies and the Reds.

"It is very unfortunate the Brumbies have come out very publicly with those particular comments.

"They have made it very untenable for Steve to be able to work in that environment... from our view we only being responsible to the game in saying this week should be all about the Reds and all about the Brumbies who are both fighting for semifinal spots.

"The last thing you want is this week being all about the referee and if we left Steve in that game, I think that's exactly what the outcome would be."

Bray said in his opinion the "hammer" had to brought down on Giteau taking an emotional approach to his criticisms of Walsh which were unacceptable.

While Walsh had an average game, the major contention ironically enough was about a non-try decision which quite frankly was "absolutely correct," Bray said.

"When you review the try, (the Brumbies player) is actually about four-and-half metres short when he lands in the tackle, he's rotated once which is fine, that's momentum, and then in order to get across the goal line, he's got to get off his knees and actually launch over the tackler to force the ball.

"I don't think you can criticise Steve's decision."

He said Walsh would resume refereeing next week, having been handed the match between the Chiefs and the Waratahs.

"We still clearly back Steve as a class referee. He's done a pretty admirable job here in getting back on the horse at this level - yes, he's had a couple of games like I think like every referee has where I think he hasn't been at his very best and Saturday was a good example of that, but we back him in this competition."

The Australian Rugby Union yesterday referred Giteau's comments to the Sanzar secretariat to see whether he had breached the players' code of conduct.

Sanzar are expected to decide on that later today.

- NZPA