Conor O’Shea has warned that there will be far-reaching implications of World Rugby’s “staggering” decision to confirm that Craig Joubert, the referee, made a crucial error that ultimately cost Scotland a place in the World Cup semi-finals.
Joubert mistakenly awarded Australia a penalty with less than two minutes remaining in the game and Bernard Foley’s successful kick sealed a dramatic 35-34 win for the Wallabies and prompted a storm of criticism.
World Rugby took the unprecedented and controversial step on Monday night of confirming that Joubert had been wrong to award the penalty when it should have been a scrum to Australia for a knock-on.
O’Shea, the Harlequins director of rugby, believes that the sport’s global governing body has breached rugby union’s code of respect for officials, which includes never criticising a referee.
O’Shea said it will be impossible for World Rugby to discipline any coach who criticises an official and he expects that the incident will only lead to an increase in the use of the television match official (TMO).
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“If a club director of rugby had said what World Rugby have just said, we would get fined,” O’Shea said. “You cannot say what they said. You are not supposed to talk about what the referee does in any way, shape or form. That has stunned me that they have done that. Why did they feel the need to justify it publicly?
“I am incredulous at what has happened. How can a person be disciplined for speaking out about a referee when they have basically hung a referee out to dry?
“I am in receipt of an official report after every game, like every director of rugby in this league, and we never speak about it because we know the stakes.
“One of the fundamentals we have all the time is you respect the referee and never question. That is tough, but we all buy into it.
“We make mistakes; someone misses a lineout, someone misses a tackle, it happens.
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“When people start writing in a month or two that we are going to the TMO too much, ask yourself why.
“If any referee has any doubt, they will go upstairs, and the reason is the pillorying and vilification he is getting.” World Rugby officials are understood to have felt caught between a rock and a hard place: publish and be accused of throwing one of their leading referees under a bus; remain silent and be accused of refusing to address the issue.
Michael Cheika, the Australia head coach who has been critical of officials in the past, said that Joubert had been “treated unfairly” over the decision, which led to the Wallabies clinching a semi-final place. “I would have liked my mates to back me up a little more on the odd occasion,” Cheika said. “We talk about having the right principles in the game and all of that. I am not sure why that decision had to be publicly reviewed and put out there.”
O’Shea believes that World Rugby opened a Pandora’s box by going public. He questioned why it would seek to clarify Joubert’s mistake but not address other critical decisions through the tournament: the late penalty England should have been awarded at the lineout after opting not to kick for goal against Wales; the decision not to show a red card to Ramiro Herrera, the Argentina prop, when the Pumas were leading Ireland 23-17 in their quarter- final.
“No one apologised to England for the fact there should have been three penalties against Wales when Wales sacked both lifters and went in from the side. What’s the difference? You have to be very careful,” O’Shea said.
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“Do they explain why the Argentina tight-head wasn’t sent off for a second yellow card?
“Was that an apology to the Irish for a wrong decision just because it didn’t happen with a minute and a half to go in the game?
“Just because there is a baying crowd doesn’t mean you have to answer a question that doesn’t do the game any good.”
Legal experts have confirmed to The Times that Scotland would have no recourse to pursue a compensation claim for any lost commercial income as a result of missing out on the semi-finals, despite World Rugby’s admission of the mistake.
In 2010, Fifa paid the Football Association of Ireland £3.6 million to prevent them taking legal action after Thierry Henry’s handball led to France winning the play-off for a place at the World Cup.