NZ Rugby referees’ boss Bryce Lawrence has defended his decision not to punish Paul Williams after he was involved in 2 major blunders last weekend.
Williams, the TMO for both Super Rugby Aotearoa round 3 matches in Christchurch and Auckland, came under public scrutiny for botched decisions in the games between the Crusaders and Chiefs last Saturday night and the Blues and Highlanders the following day.
Despite the mistakes, Williams will still referee the blockbuster game between the Blues and Crusaders in Auckland on Sunday afternoon.
Williams played a lead role in the high-profile errors in round 3 of SRA.
The first controversy flared up at Orangetheory Stadium when referee James Doleman and Williams failed to notice Richie Mo’unga had flung a pass forward by several metres, leading to a penalty try to the Crusaders and Brad Weber being yellow carded for a professional foul.
This was despite a replay of the lead-up to the try clearly showing Mo’unga had made an error after Weber struck his arm in a tackle, and that the officials were wrong to state the latter had played the ball. The Crusaders won 39-17.
In the second incident, this time at Eden Park, Blues back rower Akira Ioane fired a long pass infield to younger brother Rieko for what would have been a spectacular try had it not been disallowed.
Replays proved the ball travelled out the back of Akira Ioane’s hands, which meant it was a legal and fair transfer. Instead referee Mike Fraser, in conjunction with Williams, refused to award the try because they believed it was a forward pass.
The Blues beat the Highlanders 39-17.
Lawrence, having admitted the officials made the errors, defended the decision not to stand down Williams from the Blues-Crusaders match at Eden Park.
“Our accountability is exactly the same as the players,’’ Lawrence said in a short video released by NZ Rugby.
“We don’t drop people on 1 poor performance or 1 bad mistake. We look at all the good things they do and then we just try to get better each week.
“We have got a group of world-class match officials, I totally support them. I am sure they are going to bounce back.
“They are experienced, they have proven to be really successful at test level. They are doing some great stuff in Super Rugby. We just need to be better this weekend.’’
It’s understood the refereeing appointments are made a couple of weeks in advance.
And on Tuesday morning Williams – the country’s two-time reigning referee of the year – was indeed unveiled as the man to take the whistle for the game between the Blues and Crusaders.
Ben O'Keeffe will have the whistle for Saturday night’s match between the Hurricanes and Chiefs in Wellington.