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The Highlanders’ frustration with the refereeing of their clash with the Crusaders on Friday will go up a notch after whistleblower Ben O’Keeffe admitted he should have given prop Joe Moody a yellow card for hitting Jack Regan in the face.
A wild Moody threw open-palm punches at Regan after an early maul, but O’Keeffe only saw fit to award a penalty to the Highlanders, a decision that proved flawed in Monday’s umpire review session.
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Ben O’Keeffe trashes Crusaders captain Scott Barrett against the Highlanders on Friday, but the Crusaders were lucky to get away with just two yellow cards.
“My phone went crazy right away,” O’Keeffe said. The breakdown Monday.
“We had our review today and that was one of the big talking points, how to handle that at the time and what was the correct result.
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“We resolved that, going through the process, Joe Moody should have received a yellow card for punching in the face.”
The Crusaders conceded 15 penalties and two yellow cards at Dunedin during an effective but poorly disciplined performance and Highlanders coach Tony Brown lamented after the game that teams that committed multiple illegal acts were not being punished enough.
While he also acknowledged the inability of his own to bring down the Crusaders, Brown will now feel a sense of vindication after O’Keeffe’s admission that he messed up with Moody’s call.
“That’s really the standard we want to be able to set,” O’Keeffe said. The breakdown.
“If you’re going to do something deliberate like that without the ball, then you should get a yellow card for it.
“I was the referee at the time and at that time I made a call based on what I felt was correct in that situation.
Dianne Manson / Getty Images
Crusaders mainstay Joe Moody takes a break at Forsyth Barr Stadium on Friday.
“I was going to give a penalty, talk to the two men and both captains, calm down the game and go ahead and play some rugby.
“But that’s the benefit of reviews. We sat down and watched the process and the upshot of that is that it should have had 10 minutes in the bin.
“As a group of referees we will learn from that and that is the standard. If we see that later in the competition, they will be very lucky if they don’t get a yellow card. “
Joe Allison / Getty Images
Coaches Tony Brown and Scott Robertson catch up after the Highlanders-Crusasders game.
Meanwhile, the umpire’s review also showed that Jordie Barrett’s controversial “no conversion” decision was correct, O’Keeffe said.
Hurricane fans were up in arms Saturday when Barrett’s second-half attempt was ruled out even though he appeared to sneak inside the post.
However, O’Keeffe said that assistant referee James Doleman’s position under the posts had given him the best position to see the kick and that the camera angle on television coverage had been somewhat misleading.
“If he goes right over the post like he did in this situation, then it’s not a conversion,” O’Keeffe said.
“The camera angles didn’t help us.”
