The look on Rob Valetini's face summed up how most people feel about rugby at the moment. Frustrated, and confused.
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The big ACT Brumbies' No.8 flung out both arms, looked at the unmoved referee James Doleman and then turned back to the touch judge. "Did you not see that knock-on," a flummoxed Valetini asked.
Neither of them did, despite it being plainly obvious to everyone else. The television match official remained silent as well. Did somebody say NRL bunker? If they didn't, you can bet they were after what happened next.
To Valetini's bemusement 10 seconds later they all missed another knock-on, which was arguably more obvious than the first.
The Brumbies will look back on their trip to Auckland and know they were responsible for shooting themselves in the foot over and over again against the Blues, ending in a 34-20 defeat. As the dust settles on another "almost good enough" season, the semi-final decisions have raised the importance of two things:
- Earning the right to a home semi-final has to be a non-negotiable for teams hoping to win a title, and;
- Super Rugby needs a major refereeing overhaul to help a competition that already struggles for relevance in a battle with its bigger Australian rivals.
Take Friday night, for example. The referees missed several crucial calls on top of the knock-ons, and both teams usually have a long list of gripes to look back on.
For the Brumbies, they'll point to Caleb Clarke being offside at a ruck, Corey Toole being held off the ball, a Blues second-rower standing so far on the wrong side of a lineout he might as well have been a Brumby and Tom Wright being ruled to have stepped out, even though he was still in the field of play. No wonder Valetini looked so stunned.
"What happened there, Justin Harrison," asked Stan Sport commentator Sean Maloney after the lineout offside incident.
![Rob Valetini, right, looks stunned after the referees missed a knock-on after three other similar incidents. Pictures Stan Sport Rob Valetini, right, looks stunned after the referees missed a knock-on after three other similar incidents. Pictures Stan Sport](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/j2iwCiKfwhVWJky39Vsdpt/554b7096-a52f-474e-9ba7-4400ac187e36.png/r0_0_1200_675_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"I'll tell you what, Josh Beehre was clearly offside," former Wallaby Harrison replied.
Maloney described the knock-ons as a "glitch" and Tim Horan couldn't believe his eyes when replays showed Wright didn't go out.
None of those incidents were the reasons the Brumbies lost. They certainly didn't help the bid to win an away semi-final, but the Brumbies were the ones aiming the gun at their own feet.
They do, however, shine the spotlight on a glaring rugby problem in an area other competitions are forging ahead in, with varying results. Captain's challenges, coach's calls and technology intervention.
Every sport wrestles with 50-50 decisions, especially when it comes to finals. The AFL world is blowing up about a missed 50-metre penalty in the North Melbourne-Collingwood contest on Sunday. Was it the wrong call? Probably, but the Kangaroos did give up a 54-point lead.
Rugby league has a love-hate relationship with the bunker - once described as a "$2 million lemon" that is continually being tinkered with to find the balance between technology and "common sense".
As for rugby, unfortunately the answer isn't as simple as many would hope. The nature of the game means there's decisions that can go either way at every breakdown, and a solution is almost impossible to find, especially when you consider the need to avoid wasting more time in a game that can already be stodgy.
The frustration in rugby comes from the nitpicking. I think it's fair to say recently the referees have got the balance right more often than not. They punish deliberate foul play with harsh consequences, but don't let accidental incidents ruin a contest. They have sped up the game and have clamped down on a time-wasting, much to the relief of those watching.
That doesn't mean there's no more room for improvement. So does Super Rugby need an NRL-style captain's challenge, or an NFL-inspired coach's call? What about having the television match officials (there are two allocated to every match) intervene more than they already do?
The thought of slowing the game down with a captain's challenge is hard to fathom, and is no doubt one Super Rugby officials are already wrestling with. Rugby already suffers from more lost time in play than almost every other contact sport.
And when would the captain make his or her challenge? Teams might go through 20-odd phases before there's a stoppage, and by then so much has happened, so much time has passed and so many other incidents have occurred it seems futile going backwards.
![This offside play from the Blues led to a poor Brumbies kick. It went unpunished, and the Blues scored not long after. Picture Stan Sport This offside play from the Blues led to a poor Brumbies kick. It went unpunished, and the Blues scored not long after. Picture Stan Sport](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/j2iwCiKfwhVWJky39Vsdpt/eb44d12a-8f33-47ce-8fb3-8f41dff65cb8.png/r0_0_1200_675_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
If rugby is successful in trimming down the time to set up scrums and lineouts, maybe there's an avenue for the captain's challenge to be introduced. Especially if you get just one chance per game to use it, and if you're successful or it's unclear, you retain the challenge.
The thought of the captain stopping play, and the replays rolling over and over again would surely make even the most dedicated rugby fan sick in the stomach.
So the most simple, and hopefully the easiest, solution in all of this is the referees sitting in the stands watching the game on monitors.
The on-field referees already have so much to keep their eyes on, and have really tried to make the game faster and more of a spectacle this year, that the logical answer to eliminating the semi-final errors is having the TMO whisper into the on-field referee's ears.
That could easily solve situations like Wright stepping in touch (just reverse the decision before the lineout is thrown), or the knock-ons (check, check - that was a knock-on), or even the Beehre being offside at the lineout forcing the Brumbies to kick in touch (bring it back for a penalty).
Television match officials already intervene when there's foul play, and order the referee to stop play when there's been an incident they feel needs to be reviewed. They did so when Nick Frost was given a yellow card, despite the on-field decision being penalty only.
There is, of course, a fine balancing act to be had. Referees in the past leaned too heavily on the TMO for input, and TMOs were more than willing to oblige.
If the balance involves letting play go on and only intervening to get rid of the howlers, then let's go all-in to eliminate the confusion and frustration.