'Did you guys see that?': Brumbies coach McKellar unhappy with semi-final officiating
Brumbies coach Dan McKellar has expressed his displeasure with the officiating in his side’s Super Rugby Pacific semi-final loss to the Blues and questioned the game’s overall approach to foul play.
The Brumbies came within an inch of tipping up the Blues at Eden Park with prop Ofa Tuungafasi managing to charge down a last-minute Noah Lolesio drop goal that would have given the visitors the win. With the Blues ahead 20-19, had Lolesio’s kick sailed true the Brumbies would have become the first Australian side in the competition’s history to get the better of a New Zealand side at home in a play-off fixture.
Just moment’s before Lolesio’s 40-metre effort, however, it looked as if Brumbies super-sub Luke Reimer had done enough to win his side a penalty, with replacement Blues lock Luke Romano failing to release the ball at the breakdown after a prolonged effort from the replacement flanker.
Eventually, the ball came loose and after a mad scramble on the deck (during which at least two players looked to have knocked the ball on), the Brumbies managed to get possession of the ball and referee Ben O’Keefe waved play on.
Had the breakdown indiscretion come at any other point of the game, O’Keefe would have likely awarded a penalty in the Brumbies’ favour but with time almost up on the clock, it appeared that O’Keefe didn’t want to decide the game with a penalty in the final moments.
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Speaking to media after the match, Brumbies coach McKellar strongly implied he believed a penalty should have been given.
“There were a couple of decisions there that will be interesting to review,” he said. “Luke Reimer appeared to be well and truly on the ball directly in front of the posts. Did you guys see that?
“I saw Luke Reimer on the ball, surviving clean out directly in front of the posts.
“When you’re playing at Eden Park and an Australian team hasn’t won here forever and a day, you need a bit of luck, don’t you? And we just didn’t get that tonight.”
Ironically, in the Brumbies’ previous fixture against the Blues in Canberra they were penalised in the final seconds of the game for an indiscretion at the ruck while the Blues were camped out in front of their posts, despite appearing to have been perfectly placed for a legitimate turnover. Beauden Barrett kicked a simple drop goal to steal a victory from the home side but had he missed, the Blues would have had a penalty kick in front to secure the win.
McKellar – who will now depart the Brumbies to link up with the Wallabies as an assistant coach – also expressed his frustrations at how yellow and red cards are dished out.
Centre Len Ikitau was sent off in last weekend’s win over the Hurricanes for a high tackle and has subsequently been handed a three-week ban for the shot. In Saturday night’s game, Blues hooker Kurt Eklund and flanker Adrian Choat were both yellow-carded for dangerous play but McKellar evidently felt the punishments could have been more severe, given Ikitau’s ban.
“I’ve got 23 players and 15 staff in there [asking] what is the game doing around cards,” McKellar said. “I’ve got Len Ikitau sitting in the grandstand for an accident last week – hasn’t been able to play, possibly won’t play against England in the first test match. We had a guy tipped on his head, we’ve got head-on-head contact. One’s a yellow, one’s a red.
“And I’m not complaining just about tonight but as a game… Last night [it was the same] as well with the Crusaders and the Chiefs. What direction are we going here because players don’t know what’s yellow, what’s red. I don’t know what it is. How’s Joe Public going to have any idea?
“I sat in on Len Ikitau’s hearing during the week and to me there are just so many accidents that happen in a collision sport. I’m not sitting here saying Blues boys should have been red-carded or whatever but as a game, it’s really hard to follow at the moment in terms of which way it may go.
“Common sense, isn’t it? If someone throws a stiff arm or punches someone or eye gouges someone or stands on someone, throw the book at them. No one wants players getting concussed and that sort of thing but there’s accidents.
With the Blues claiming victory, they’ll host the Crusaders at Eden Park next Saturday in what McKellar suggests will be a mouth-watering clash between two top sides.
“All the best to the Blues next week against the Crusaders, they’ve been an outstanding team all year and are worthy grand final hosts,” he said. “It’ll be a great game. It’ll be a really good contest. It’ll be a tough one that’ll come down to the toss of a coin really.
“I just hope it’s not decided off the back of a card. Let the 46 footballers sort it. There’s no grubs or dirty players amongst those boys. They’ll go out there and they’ll play hard and they’ll contest hard. I just hope that it’s a really good spectacle and that the players decide the outcome.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments