A quote from Stephen Jones of the Times: “England were also helped by referee Bryce Lawrence’s assault on Australia at the breakdown and, most bizarrely of all, by the fact that he allowed England to knock-on blatantly three times in the second half. At least that allowed England to keep some kind of pressure going.”
Tags: bryce lawrence















bizarre, esp. those in at the side ones when we’re the first person to form the ruck.
Brycie is colour blind, he thought that the white of England was the black of NZ. I thought the knock ons were so obvious that a ref with cork eyes could have seen them. As for the man going through the middle of the ruck, I’d forgotten about that. Admittedly Brycie was on the other side of the ruck, but couldn’t the touch judge on that side have told him.
If this is the standard of international refereeing then it’s about time they started importing them from Mars.
Just makes me angry.. We had a similar ref on the weekend in the US. (which I can justify – he was english) but at international level ???
If even Stephen Jones is coming down on the side of the wallabies….well….enough said.
Agree that the reffing of the breakdown seems harsh, but the knock-ons? Geraghty looks OK, the Wilko one midfield is a marginal, and the Monye one the ball never stops going backwards so obviously isnt a knock on. Use your eyes.
I thought it was us that were meant to be the whingers?
Gagger, not sure if it really is a knock-on. If you look carefully at exactly 4 secs u can see him get a hand to the ball and just knock it backwards. Initially it goes forward when he fumbles, but it is going backwards after his last touch.
Look where his body is between the 5th and 6th second when the ball hits the ground after hitting his hand. He’s knocked it on.
PS – Get with the programme!
Ah i didn’t see the other comments at the bottom there. Really stuck my foot in it there. Anyway not a big deal
It seems to me that the ball came off his right arm, rebounded off his left arm and went down and forwards before going back at a hundred miles an hour. It would have been hard for a ref to pick up in real time, but I’m satisfied that it went forward.
I watched the game again last night. I thought the rulings at the breakdown were tough but reasonably consistant.
Alexander was caught offside too many times he should have learned after the first mistake (The refs word is law, make the mistake learn and move forward)
Haynes isn’t offside in the above as he was the first tackler, and horwill comes straight through the gate
The knock ons… well some were obvious f-ups, but others were 50/50 and just look bad in the context of their qunatity
Basically this all goes back to Wallabies once again not playing the ref, this is something SA and NZ do brillantly and we especially George has lost.
We have Kaplan on the weekend if we don’t listen, influence and ultimately play to the edge of what Kaplan will allow the we have lost the game before we sing the Anthem
Thanks Gagger, that proves it. The ball never travelled towards the Aus dead ball line. Monye only slowed its progress towards the English dead ball line.
Thanks
He slowed it’s advance by knocking it towards the Australian dead ball line.
It’s obvious you pommy whinger
No. We have the original laws of physics here in the NH.
Not your “special” ones.
It’s how it leaves his hands (knocked forward), not where it ends up in terms of eventual distance gained.
It’s the same for forward passes, otherwise many passes where the passer and catcher are running at pace would be forward.
Any other basic rules you need explaining?
DEFINITION: KNOCK-ON
A knock-on occurs when a player loses possession of the ball and it goes
forward, or when a player hits the ball forward with the hand or arm, or when the
ball hits the hand or arm and goes forward, and the ball touches the ground or
another player before the original player can catch it.
‘Forward’ means towards the opposing team’s dead ball line.
Simple question – does the ball ever travel towards the Aus goal-line, except where it bounces forward?