Ref rage generated a crackling atmosphere in Sydney. But it also taught the Wallabies valuable lessons

3 weeks ago 6

It was a wild old afternoon in the sunshine at Allianz Stadium on Saturday. There was a small but deafening group of Pumas fans going mad. There was a massive and deafening group of Wallabies fans getting madder by the minute.

And then there was one man who finished up as the maddest of all, and vented post-game about the state of referees and inconsistency he sees from them week to week.

“I’m fed up,” said Pumas coach Felipe Contepomi in a post-game spray.

Did we mention Contepomi coached the winning team?

It was that sort of day.

It was an understandable reaction from the Pumas coach, who’d simmered about some calls in the Wallabies’ extra-time win in Townsville and then almost saw a repeat scenario unfolding in front of his eyes in Sydney.

After leading 28-7 with 14 minutes remaining, the Pumas conceded two quick tries to let Australia back within striking distance.

Wallaby fans react to a decision during Saturday’s match.

But then a 78th-minute try to the Wallabies - which contained a last-pass which seemed so forward it could have been a tight spiral from Patrick Mahomes - was allowed to stand by referee Christophe Ridley, the touch judges and the TMO, and suddenly the Pumas were now in a potential losing position.

They defended stoutly and got the job done. But even 30 minutes later, a gobsmacked Contepomi couldn’t bring himself to wave it away with an “all’s well than ends well”.

“It’s frustrating. I think we don’t deserve that. So I’ve got mixed emotions. It’s very frustrating, because it’s not working. It’s as simple as that. It’s not working. The system, whatever they are doing to get it better, there’s no consistency and it’s not working.”

Rounding out the strange day, the Wallabies - the losing team who been caned 14-7 and had every right to pour fuel on the same bonfire - then came in and bit their tongues.

Referee Christophe Ridley gestures to Harry Wilson.

Showing his years of experience, Joe Schmidt rattled off half-a-dozen things he’d observed but surmised they couldn’t worry about it. It was the wise approach, for a bunch of reasons. Referees are like elephants, and you’ll get them again.

But it’s fair to say the referee and the match officials, to put it mildly, had a rough day. Ridley is an inexperienced young Test referee and, as can occur, his attempts to stamp authority early on for minor stuff set in motion a game that may have got away from him.

He then didn’t stay consistent, which irked the captains, and when new penalties in key moments were found from areas he’d previously ignored - like high shots and obstruction by retreating defenders - the captains’ grumbles spread out and into a very restless home crowd.

Santiago Carreras kicks a goal for Argentina.

In many ways, it made for brilliant theatre. With a record crowd (post-rebuild), the joint was absolutely rocking. Nothing brings people together more than booing a referee whose calls they don’t agree with.

In the end, all the match officials were so rattled they were the only four people in the stadium who missed, or cleared, a blatant forward pass. Even Wallabies players had their hands on their heads, missed-soccer-goal style.

The game ended in a loss for the Wallabies but oddly enough, the crackling atmosphere was arguably one of the best in years, possibly decades. With unprecedented numbers of people in generations of gold jerseys, old and new, and with lots of kids in the stands, the sense of injustice only served to unite - and amplify - the support.

Pubs and restaurants around Paddington and Surry Hills did a roaring trade of post-game analysis. And, also encouragingly, most Aussie fans agreed the end result was the right one.

For all the harsh calls on the Wallabies, the Pumas had still been the better side on the day; hungrier and cleaner in most contests, and certainly more physical.

The Wallabies mostly had themselves to blame. After getting that dangerous taste of space early - Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii’s fifth-minute try came after the Wallabies had gone backwards with their carrying - the home team then frantically chased even more quick kills.

Wallabies players spoke post-game about the need to fix up their discipline, having gone from 10 Tests in two Tests in South Africa to 25 in two clashes with Argentina. And patience and belief in teammates is usually the antidote to cutting penalty counts.

But patience also the key to being more clinical, a bit more boring and winning a game like the one at Allianz Stadium.

“We’ve been really efficient off our line breaks, but probably the last two weeks we’ve tried to score off those line breaks as opposed to the patience of,” Tate McDermott said. “We’ve got to weigh up whether the risk is actually worth the reward there.”

For all the Australian fury at the referee team, the takeaway for the Wallabies is Contepomi was fuming too.

Short of World Rugby doing the logical thing and using top Test referees for all top Tests, no matter their nationality (Angus Gardner was wasted as a touch judge in Wellington, for example), rookie refs will inevitably be inconsistent as they build experience.

So as they prepare to go to Eden Park, where they’ve been on the end of some hometown howlers in the past, the key for the Wallabies is to figure out ways to adapt, adjust and overcome. To be as ruthlessly clinical as possible, with patience and smarts, and minimise the referee having an opportunity to make a call to decide the game.

It may be particularly wise given the man appointed to be in the middle at Eden Park.

Does the name Andrea Piardi ring a bell?

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