Alain Rolland's inbox must make for grim viewing on this cold November morning. Wallaby coach Michael Cheika was very clear after the 27-24 defeat to Joe Schmidt's Ireland: Australia lost the test match because of referee Jerome Garces.
Cheika refused to be magnanimous. Blunt was his default settling with a particular nod to losing the penalty count 13-3.
“I thought we played a lot of footie, mate, but we got penalised a lot didn’t we?” he began.
“A 13-3 penalty count costs you field position, territory and then obviously points as well. You can’t win a test match giving away that many penalties or that big a difference between the two teams. Impossible.”
So, yet again post match, the officials were isolated and under the spotlight. This time Jérôme Garcès, with some able support from Nigel Owens, were guaranteed heavy criticism, the specifics of which will remain private (unless they are leaked).
“It’s something I will be dealing with Alain Rolland afterwards,” said Cheika. “He is the referee’s boss so I’ll go through the proper channels as opposed to making it an issue out here. And see if we can get something out of it.
“But I doubt it.”
That last sentence ensures it became an issue, out here in the public forum.
“It is about the application of the rules. [David] Pocock was taken out about 10m behind the maul [just before Garry Ringrose’s try]. That’s something we would have got penalised for against New Zealand a few weeks ago.
“Ireland played well and deserved to win and put us under pressure in the first half in particular. I mean we got too far behind.”
Rules for the All Blacks
But there’s that inference again; rules for the All Blacks, and rules for everybody else.
“We have to do that stuff with the refs mate,” Cheika said when pressed for specifics. “We have been told that we can’t talk about that in public, because they don’t want the interpretations being done in public. That’s the edict they have given us, that we can’t say anything about it, we’d love to but we are not allowed to.
“I don’t want to get myself in any strife.
“We’ll go through the proper channels with Alain Rolland and we’ll get on with [talking about] the game, is that cool?”
Cheika is cool but we are mired in this debate now. And anyway, he couldn’t really talk about the game because, from his perspective, the result was so heavily influenced by refereeing decisions.
Joe Schmidt and Steve Hansen made similar comments last weekend. It was even alleged by the New Zealand media that Rolland told Hansen that Aaron Smith’s yellow card was incorrect.
Referee Jaco Peyper has not been defended or admonished by World Rugby, both actions we have seen in the past, and now it is Garces under the post-match pump.
So, apparently, a serious problem exists between coaches and officials.
“There is no problem for me with the referee,” Cheika protested. “It’s the decisions made in the game. Not the relationship with the people.
Consistency
They are human relationships you have. It is about consistency of what we are doing. That’s what will be the discussion. Not, aw, that guy or this guy. Everyone has got their own opinion I suppose. Everyone saw it out there, felt it, but we got to do it through the proper channels to effect some change.
“If change doesn’t happen, we can’t do anything about it. We are outside that scope.”
Any chance of getting any joy from such a meeting?
“No, not really. We have had meetings with Alain Rolland before and tried to do it that way. Maybe we just got to wear it. We’ll discuss it and see what happens.”
Mr Peyper is refereeing England versus Australia at Twickenham next Saturday. A summer romance rekindled, Eddie Jones is already questioning the Wallabies scrum technique and seeking a meeting with officials, which Cheika is welcome attend.
“It’s good everyone is having meetings, aren’t they?
“Mate, our scrum got penalised everywhere tonight so [England] should be pushing us around no trouble.”
