On Saturday night in a house in Parkhurst at the annual Absa Cape Epic wine tasting and lamb eating competition, the talk swung to Rohan Hoffmann.
The Australian referee had perverted the act of officiating in the Waratahs-Sharks Vodacom Super Rugby match to such a degree that even Phil Kearns, a New South Welshman and Australian through and through, felt obliged to offer an apology.
The Sharks, said Kearns, had been “pretty stiffed” by Hoffmann. He made, to put it gently, a mess of the laws of rugby, giving an interpretation of them that was so skewed and confused it seemed he had bought a copy of them in Japanese and churned them through Google translate before studying them.
Hoffmann is not up to the standard of Super Rugby. Brenden Nel of SuperSport said he had been told Hoffmann was a “pet project” of refereeing officials, which suggests they want to shape him into a Test-match ref. Good luck to them.
There was relief when the Parkhurst wine drinkers were told that no Australian will take charge of a Test match at this year’s Rugby World Cup.
The last half decent Australian referee was Steve Walsh and he was a Kiwi banned from his own refereeing association as he battled his own personal demons.
Angus Gardner is the only Australian assistant referee at the World Cup, while George Ayoub, the former Test ref, is on the TMO panel. Ayoub was an ordinary referee on the field. He’s become worse off it. He gave the Waratahs a try without concrete proof of grounding. He then denied the Sharks a try when there was clear grounding and a blurred shadow that Ayoub pounced upon as evidence Sibusiso Sithole’s knee may have grazed the line. Both Hoffman and Ayoub dismissed the clear shoulder charge that should have led to a penalty try.
The knee on the line was not clear, but then Ayoub has rarely been clear in his career.
Ayoub was the TMO when Romain Poite yellow carded Bismarck du Plessis for a fair tackle on Dan Carter two years ago. Ayoub awarded a try to Nemani Nadolo of the Crusaders in the Super Rugby final last year despite the wing putting a foot in touch.
To their credit, the Sharks were measured in their comments on the referee. Gary Gold is too wise to go looking for excuses after the fractured season his team has endured thus far. Sanzar have acted quickly in demoting the two. Ayoub is still going to the World Cup. We may have to drink a lot more wine to make sense of it.