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A friend of mine once wrote that Stuart Dickinson was a man with five letters too many in his surname. It came after Dickinson had a particularly wobbly match and blown the Springboks out of what little chance they had against the All Blacks in 2002.
The matter of those five extra letters cropped up again in 2007, when Dickinson was again in charge of a Springbok v All Blacks match in Christchurch. Dickinson yellow-carded Pedrie Wannenburg for not releasing at a ruck, during which time the All Blacks turned the score from 6-6 to 33-6. Bok captain Johann Muller complained that Richie McCaw was given total leniency by Dickinson for the same offence.
A few days ago, Paddy O'Brien, the stoutest of stout defenders of referees in his role as the International Rugby Board's referees manager, finally admitted that Dickinson, one of his own, had made a mistake. O'Brien said Dickinson had been "completely wrong" in penalising the All Black scrum against Italy. Dickinson had hit the Black pack with several blasts for scrumming in and pulling down, but now O'Brien has said he will have to go and watch a video of the game again.
It was Dickinson who watched as Brad Thorn picked up John Smit and spear-tackled the Bok captain into the turf. Dickinson said he hadn't seen it in his post-match report, yet during the game he had blown a penalty for the offence. Mind you, Dickinson was the TV referee who judged that Mark Cueto's foot had gone into touch when he scored that try in the 2007 Rugby World Cup final.
Referees get carried away with the big moment as Smit found out on the Boks end-of-year tour in 2004. Against Ireland Paul Honiss blew for a penalty, told Smit to talk to his players and when he turned his back Ronan O'Gara tapped, ran in front of Honiss and scored the try. Smit, in his book Captain in the Cauldron, said he "lost it" and came close to hitting Honiss. A year later Honiss apologised to Smit, but the Bok captain was not done with him. In a Super 12 match the next year, Honiss was the touch judge and after the Sharks had kicked out a penalty for a line-out, Honiss signalled, by mistake, for a throw the way of the opposition. Smit got into Honiss's face: "Paul, this isn't Lansdowne Road, and they aren't Ireland."
"Childish," admitted Smit, "but it gave me satisfaction."
A last word from Murray Mexted, the former All Black and TV commentator, who, during the 2005 Lions tour of New Zealand was concerned at Dickinson's refereeing: "Stuart Dickinson's a bit of a dick, I think."
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