RUGBY: Irish referee Dave McHugh intends to sue the spectator who attacked him at the Tri-Nations international in Durban on Saturday, Springbok coach Rudolph Straeuli said yesterday.
"I know Dave (McHugh) is seeking legal advice. He intends to sue the perpetrator," said Straeuli, speaking on behalf of McHugh, who was still shaken from the assault.
"An individual can't take out his frustrations on another individual in that way. We need to look at technology to make the game more professional," Straeuli told the South African press agency SAPA.
The assailant, Pieter Van Zyl, was yesterday granted bail after being charged in court with assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and trespassing.
Wearing a faded Springbok rugby jersey that failed to hide his protuberant belly, Van Zyl charged on the rugby field short after the start of the second half in the match between South Africa and New Zealand and grabbed McHugh, a much smaller man, from behind and wrestled him to the ground.
Two players, South African AJ Venter and New Zealander Richard McCaw, intervened almost immediately in a bid to protect the referee. But McHugh's assailant still managed to drag him to the ground. The referee ended up beneath several bodies with a dislocated shoulder.
Two burly security officials pounced on Van Zyl and forcibly led him from the field. As they were doing so a doctor attempted, unsuccessfully, to replace McHugh's dislocated shoulder.
The Irish official, his face in a grimace of pain, had to be taken from the field to the stadium's emergency first aid in a golf cart. He was sedated and his shoulder was put back into place. Touch judge Chris White of England replaced him as referee.
It should have been one of the high points of McHugh's refereeing career. Saturday's match was the 23rd Test he has refereed, thus equalling the long-standing Irish record (and world record for 20 years) which Kevin Kelleher established between 1959 and 1971.
McHugh had been named as a touch judge for next Saturday's concluding Tri-Nations encounter between South Africa and Australia, but will not do this now.
He returned home yesterday in the company of Alain Rolland, who was touch judge on Saturday and will replace McHugh in that position on Saturday, returning to South Africa on Thursday.
The berserk attack came after two controversial decisions made by McHugh in a game eventually won 30-23 by the All Blacks.
In the first, McHugh awarded a penalty try to New Zealand after All Black centre Tanga Umaga was brought down by two Springboks as he ran toward the try line. One of the two tackles was high.
In the second decision - which compounded the audible anger of many South Africans - McHugh disallowed a South African try because of what he judged to be obstruction by South African hooker James Dalton. He awarded a penalty to New Zealand instead.
Judging from remarks attributed to him in South Africa's Sunday Times yesterday, Van Zyl was not repentant over his loss of control. "The whole of the stadium was mal (mad) with him," he said of McHugh. "It's just that I decided to do something about it."
Van Zyl, however, got no visible support from the crowd for his intervention.
Before the match was over South African rugby boss Rian Oberholzer issued a strongly-worded condemnation of Van Zyl's behaviour. "I guarantee that he (Van Zyl) will never again attend a rugby match in South Africa for the rest of his life," he said.
"Those who support the Springboks should know that they should behave responsibly and with respect, especially towards referees."
Born in Limerick and living in Cork, the 44-year-old McHugh is effectively a full-time referee, as he's also part of the IRFU's refereeing development personnel. He refereed his first international in 1994, when Gavin Hastings' late try gave Scotland a shock win in Paris, and went to the 1995 World Cup with Stephen Hilditch, sending off three players in the South Africa-Canada match.
He has since refereed Test matches all over the globe: in each of the Southern Hemisphere's big three, in Argentina and Europe, and has overseen a Bledisloe Cup, a Calcutta Cup and a France-England showdown. He took charge of the inaugural European Cup final between Toulouse and Cardiff, and the decider two years ago featuring Stade Francais and Leicester (both widely acknowledged as cracking games).
The resumption of the case against Van Zyl (43), who owns a company in Potchefstroom, 30 miles southwest of Johannesburg, has been set for September 9th. He said: "Referees around the world think they are bigger than the game and they're not. Fans like me is what rugby is about."
SOUTH AFRICA: Greeff, Paulse, Joubert, Barry, Hall, Pretorius, N. de Kock, Sephaka, Dalton, Meyer, Labuschagne, A. Venter, Krige, van Niekerk, Skinstad. Replacements: Conradie for de Kock (50), Russell for Barry (50), Le Roux for Sephalka (60), Rautenbach for Meyer (60), Matfield for Venter (71), Scholtz for Krige (71)
NEW ZEALAND: MacDonald, Howlett, Umaga, A Mauger, Ralph, Mehrtens, Marshall, Hewett, T Willis, Somerville, Maling, Jack, Thorne, McCaw, Robertson. Replacements: Hammett for Willis (55), Kelleher for Marshall (62), Gibson for McDonald (65).
Referee: D McHugh (Ireland)
