Cape Town — Considering all the heated debates around refereeing interpretations in the United Rugby Championship, the organisers have taken a bold step to appoint overseas officials for the two South African derbies this weekend.
Former Munster, Leicester and Connacht scrumhalf Frank Murphy will blow the whistle in the big game on Saturday between the Stormers and the Bulls at Cape Town Stadium (2pm kickoff).
The 38-year-old Irishman Murphy is rated as one of the top referees in the competition, and his previous playing experience will stand him in good stead.
There is an all-South African support cast, though, with Marius van der Westhuizen as the television match official (TMO), while AJ Jacobs and Aimee Barrett-Theron are the assistant referees.
The Stormers may feel that they have the edge over the Bulls as Murphy was in charge of their last game as well, the 29-13 victory over the Ospreys in Cape Town last Saturday.
But the teams from Cape Town and Pretoria have borne the brunt of some strange decisions from overseas referees when playing in Europe, and they will hope that they will have a better experience with Murphy at the helm.
Bulls coach Jake White and Stormers boss John Dobson have both expressed their frustrations with the foreign officials previously, particularly with regards to how they police the mauls, breakdowns and offside lines.
Some of the overseas sides have got away with ‘swimming’ around the mauls, coming in from the side at the rucks and not being picked up for rushing forward too early to make their tackles.
The result of the Cape Town Stadium clash will have major consequences for the South African Shield and the fight for quarter-final spots, as the Stormers are sixth on the log on 43 points, just one ahead of the Bulls.
The Sharks will also hope that Ben Blain from the Scottish Rugby Union will ensure a fair contest when he takes control of the clash against the Lions at Kings Park on Saturday (4.05pm kickoff).
The 33-year-old Blain — who was a scrumhalf in his playing days and hails from Carlisle in England — came in for fierce criticism for how he handled the Stormers’ clash against Connacht in Galway in late February, where Dobson’s team lost 19-17 in controversial circumstances.
Connacht hit back from 17-7 down to clinch victory, and conceded just four penalties during the entire match — a statistic that is unheard of in modern rugby — while Blain allowed the Irish side to disrupt the Stormers maul from the side on several occasions.
“I felt we had complete dominance when it came to maul time, and we didn’t get any reward out of it,” Stormers captain Steven Kitshoff said afterwards.
“There were some cynical penalties that were missed. I’m not bad-mouthing the ref at all, but there were clear penalties missed, and it was very frustrating.”
So, one would’ve thought that it would make more sense to have a South African referee for the derbies, but the other side of the coin is that experiencing overseas officials now could prepare the local teams for the URC playoffs.
IOL Sport