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Josh Strauss: 'I can understand why there has been a bit of an uproar'

By Grant Shub
Josh Strauss (Photo by Chris Lee - World Rugby via Getty Images/World Rugby via Getty Images)

For former Scotland captain Josh Strauss, Saturday night’s controversial Calcutta Cup denouement brought back painful memories.

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Strauss, who was involved in Scotland’s controversial Rugby World Cup quarterfinal against Australia in 2015, admits he can understand the frustration felt by some fans by the last passage of play between Scotland and England at Murrayfield this past weekend.

The game was well past the 80-minute mark when referee Ben O’Keefe reset a handful of scrums in Scotland’s half with England having the put in. The last scrum, was particularly contentious, with many feeling England were denied a potential match-winning penalty.

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Post-match England head coach Eddie Jones made a tongue-in-cheek remark suggesting he was working on a Rassie Erasmus-type video to highlight the refereeing errors. ‘Wait for the video mate – we’ve got the production team on it now.’ While it was said in jest, privately Jones must have been fuming owing to the final passage of play.

“I can understand why there has been a bit of an uproar and why some supporters are grumpy about it,” Strauss tells RugbyPass. “I was quite surprised that nothing came of it because referees are normally quick to blow for scrum penalties, especially with the directive of making the game more attractive. Nowadays, you usually have one reset scrum and then it’s a penalty, so it was controversial.”

While Scotland were on the right side of the ledger this time, Strauss is concerned by the level of consistency when it comes to refereeing in the game today.

“There is human error involved in everything,” acknowledges the 35-year-old, who played at the 2015 and 2019 World Cups “but going forward there needs to be an amicable process to make it better for everyone – most importantly the referees and players.”

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Strauss, who is now coaching the SACS under-16 side in Cape Town three times a week, concedes refereeing at the highest level is a thankless task and he is fully aware of both sides of the argument.

“When coaches like Jones and Erasmus criticize referees I don’t think it’s to deflect in terms of any of their coaching deficiencies. They take personal responsibility and accountability for most things,” the 24-Test international says. ”I’m actually a big advocate for voicing things that are bothering you as a coach because I believe in free speech. We should all be able to say how we feel. However, it’s a bit of a juggling act because you want to have free speech and say what you want to but you also have to take into account the other side of the coin.”

Strauss says that on the one hand coaches preach the mantra of not complaining about referees but then on the other they are suitably upset when things don’t go their way from a refereeing perspective. The ex-Glasgow and Sale Sharks back rower, who has called time on his playing career, concurs that while refereeing performance is something within sport that you can’t change, the rugby fraternity can push for the standards to improve over time.

“As an ex-player, I do feel that there should be more consequences because some of the decisions are big ones and can change the dynamic of a whole tournament,” he says in reference to the contentious call Craig Joubert made at the 2015 World Cup.

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Scotland Strauss 2019 England
(Photo by Lynne Cameron/Getty Images)

Joubert, who is now ensconced in his role as Referee Talent Development Coach at World Rugby, awarded Australia a contentious last-minute penalty which ended up having a material effect on the outcome. World Rugby later conceded that Joubert, who fled the pitch to avoid confrontation with irate supporters, had ‘made a mistake’ and should have awarded the Wallabies a scrum rather than a penalty.

“In terms of my recollections of that passage of play, the ball touched the back of my shoulder, which is not a body part you play the ball with, and one of my team-mates picked it up,” recalls Strauss. “Joubert blew it as a penalty for Australia because he thought that I had played the ball and the other player was coming from an offside position. It was clearly not the case and in such a situation with the stakes so high, you obviously want to have a proper look upstairs with the TMO.

“That never happened and the Wallabies went through.”

“Today I have no hard feelings towards Craig but that penalty literally cost us a semi-final berth against Argentina,” says Strauss. “That flap of a butterfly wing changed the whole outcome and, in retrospect, that decision possibly denied Scotland their first-ever World Cup final appearance.”

Those moments are often referred to as ‘coach killers’ with coaches potentially losing their livelihoods owing to refereeing errors. However, Strauss believes rugby needs to find a middle ground because bashing referees isn’t the answer.

“I always find it very funny when coaches come out and point fingers at the match officials because they always preach to players that you can’t do anything about the referee. Now that I’m coaching, I sometimes referee conditioning games and when I get lip from players and coaches alike, my response is: ‘Just shut up, I’m the referee and you’re not going to swing the game on a Saturday.’ It may be a hard line but it’s something referees must do.”

Strauss, who is cutting his teeth in coaching and is based in Wellington in the Western Cape, reveals that he clashed with Gregor Townsend on a personal front throughout his time with the national team. However, he admires the man on a professional front. Strauss believes the team are on the right track after their 20-17 win over England and will break their duck against Wales in Cardiff, having last won their in 2002.

“I last spoke to Gregor three years ago so I don’t know what’s going on in terms of his man-management with the current crop of players. It’s true that there was a bit of head-butting with coaches there and it got to a point where it wasn’t worth it for me. However, he is probably one of the best coaches I ever worked with strategically and technically. Gregor is always ahead of the curve in terms of what’s going on in world rugby and in that sense perhaps Eddie can learn from him because it seems that he’s become too set in his ways.”

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Jon 1 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

34 Go to comments
j
john 4 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

15 Go to comments
A
Adrian 6 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

15 Go to comments
T
Trevor 8 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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