Lay off Matt Goddard

After a pretty good contest on Friday night, in which the Bulls retained their unbeaten record downing the Hurricanes by 19-14, it seems everyone is sharpening their knives for referee Matt Goddard after he dished out 16 penalties, five yellow cards, and one red card and  in the game. So it seems to fall to me to stick up for the referee, who in this instance made himself an easy target.

Marc Hinton over at Stuff referred to the game as “The Matt Goddard show”, adding perhaps the most vicious of the reports, calling Goddard’s performance, “pathetic and pedantic.” NZPA were a little more charitable, saying the game was “almost farcial”, although their headline does call it farcial, so which is it?

My favourite comment on Goddard comes from Gavin Rich from South Africa’s SuperSport Zone who said Goddard “started popping cards out of his pocket as if he was participating in a competition for magicians.” And perhaps the only report with a sliver of restraint came from Sportal who simply said Goddard dominated the game by “policing the breakdown stringently throughout the game.”

So was all this journalistic venom deserved? Based on my headline you’d think I’m going to say no, but actually I think my answer is “not entirely.” Based on comments reported by Sky’s sideline eye Willie Lose, it seems Goddard went into this game with the intention of policing the breakdown stringently, but that intention ultimately left Goddard painting himself into a corner.

The first yellow card came after just 19 minutes to Bulls flanker Pedrie Wannenburg for a pretty cynical ruck infringement after the team had been given two warnings by referee Goddard. An arguement could be made that the cynical nature of Wannenburg’s offence deserved a yellow card on its own, but after a couple of warning from the referee, few could argue that it was not deserved.

The second card is where my opinion seems to diverge from that of other scribes, when Ma’a Nonu was sent to the bin for slowing down Bulls’ ball at the breakdown, something the Hurricanes had also been warned about. Now that brilliant rugby mind, Murray Mexted, could not see anything wrong with what Nonu did, tackling the player, ripping the ball away from him but then releasing the ball when old by the referee. The only problem with what Nonu did, despite Mexted’s protests, is that he was off his feet the entire time, and as the tackler his first obligation is to move away from the ball and allow the tackled player to play the ball. Again, no issue with that card.

Just before halftime Deon Steggman received his first yellow card, again for deliberately slowing the ball down while off his feet and the Hurricanes hot on attack. At this point I have to take issue with the players rather than the referee, as the ref has clearly set his standards and it’s up to the players to comply.

The final yellow card for slowing the ball down went to Thomas Waldrom who arrived at the breakdown on his feet, leaned over on both elbows and appeared to make no effort to play the ball. This is an old strategy employed best by George Smith, who would get to the breakdown first, get himself over the ball but make no effort to play the ball which would frequently earn his side a penalty as referees would assume the reason he had not won the ball was that the tackled player was holding on.

However, unfortunately for Waldrom, leaning on your elbows means you are off your feet and have no right to play the ball. This particular incident, like Stegmann’s, probably would have warranted a talk and a warning on most other days, but because of what happened earlier referee Goddard has no choice but to dish out cards to remain consistent.

Two more yellow cards were dished out in the game, both for foul play and on any other day would not have brought out any conversation as they were so clear cut. Firstly Stegmann picked up his second yellow, an automatic red, for an extremely dangerous tackle on Conrad Smith. In fact, I’ll defer to Gavin Rich of SuperSport Zone again who described it as “a dangerous tackle that looked suspiciously close to a spear and can only be termed idiotic.” Expect Stegmann to serve a lengthy suspension for this one.

Finally Jason Eaton incurred Goddard’s wrath for trampling a Bulls’ player in a maul, to the usual howls of derision from the commentary box claiming that it was rucking rather than stomping. Here’s the super secret rule of thumb referees are told to tell the difference: A boot moving backwards towards your own goal line is rucking, a boot coming straight down or moving forward is a stomp. Eaton’s boots came straight down at best.

On analysis, every single card was justifiable although Stegmann and Waldrom could consider themselves to be victims of circumstance as they would have gotten away with their actions on just about any other day. Unfortunately for Goddard, by taking such a visable hard line to breakdown infringements, he has painted a huge target on his chest. For those who claim the game was farcical, or the referee ruined the game I have one simple question: Does a referee blow his whistle before or after a player infringes?

Similar Posts:

• How Murray Mexted ruined a good game of rugby
• Matt Goddard returns to the Super 14
• Time for some guidelines for referees to deal with foul play
• Hear hear Mr Joubert
• Inside The Numbers: What’s a yellow card worth?

The Lay off Matt Goddard by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.