Joe Schmidt offers candid views on referee for Ireland's match with Japan
Joe Schmidt has heaped the pressure on referee Angus Gardner ahead of Ireland’s World Cup clash with hosts Japan on Saturday.
Head coach Schmidt claimed the last time Gardner refereed Ireland proved “incredibly frustrating”, intimating his side were unduly punished during March’s 25-7 Six Nations loss to Wales in Cardiff that sealed the hosts’ Grand Slam.
Japan have spent the week claiming Cian Healy angles in illegally at the scrum, with not only prop Yusuke Kizu calling out their opponents but also head coach Jamie Joseph backing the Brave Blossoms’ suspicion.
Ireland boss Schmidt was nonplussed by those claims, pointing to his side’s low set-piece penalty count as confirmation of their clean approach.
“Obviously last time we had Angus (Gardner) it wasn’t great for us,” said Schmidt.
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“We didn’t play particularly well but we didn’t feel we got a lot of the rub of the green from Angus either.
“I think if you look back at the scrum, we actually went straight through the middle of the Welsh scrum to get a turnover ball very early in the game.
“And then when they ran around the corner we got no receipt (of penalties) from that and they were given penalty rewards, which was incredibly frustrating.”
Schmidt rarely offers candid views on referees other than to stress Ireland’s hard graft to concede as few penalties as possible, which all feeds into his intense demands for accuracy from his players.
Ireland fell foul of the penalty count in Saturday’s comprehensive 27-3 win over Scotland in the Pool A opener in Yokohama, where Wayne Barnes took the whistle.
Samoa's Motu Matu’u has appeared before a disciplinary hearing but doesn't yet know the decision https://t.co/WwKq209uig
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Schmidt has lamented what he considers heavy punishment in that contest too, especially given his side’s near total control of proceedings.
World Rugby this week issued a stinging statement hitting out at the standard of World Cup refereeing, with the officials having failed to issue the correct punishments for a string of big incidents.
Australia’s Reece Hodge has since been handed a three-week ban after a disciplinary hearing for a head-high shot on Peceli Yato, that tackle leaving the Fiji star concussed and out of the match.
Samoa centre Rey Lee-Lo and hooker Motu Matu’u face disciplinary hearings too for high shots that only yielded yellow cards in their win over Russia.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B233C0bIxkG/
In the wake of the World Rugby statement, however, Schmidt now expects all the officials to raise their game.
Add the context of him raising previous frustrations with Saturday’s referee Gardner and this is Schmidt leaving the Australian official on notice that his performance this weekend will be under greater scrutiny than perhaps ever before.
Asked if Sunday’s penalty count against Scotland proved a consternation, Schmidt said: “Yes, it was annoying and surprising considering that a lot of what we did we felt we were kind of on top in that game.
“I think that the officials are going to be as nailed on as they possibly can be and Angus is no different from any other official this weekend.
“They’re going to be looking to be as accurate as they possibly can be, and I think that’s the whole team of four.
How the RugbyPass World Cup power rankings shape up after the end of the first week of the finals in Japan https://t.co/Dx0XYIf5al
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 26, 2019
“We saw a couple of citings from the game in our pool on Tuesday evening where the officials as a team decided they were yellow cards and then they were cited later as red cards. So nobody is really operating in isolation now.
“The referee is very much reliant on his assistant referees and his Television Match Officials (TMOs) to be a team of four.
“And so I think Angus will be leading that team but it will certainly be a team effort from the officials.
“Obviously they’ve been given a stir up from World Rugby and I know when these players that I work with get a stir up, they come out and they’re very focused the next outing.
“So we’d have confidence that the officials are going to be good this weekend across the board.”
Joe Schmidt has made four changes to the starting Irish XV for their clash with Japan:
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 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
3 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 Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 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!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 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.
30 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.
30 Go to comments