Super Rugby Pacific referee review: The 13-man Blues and a disappearing yellow card

In an epic, see-sawing clash at Eden Park, the Crusaders once again trumped the Blues, in a salivating 34-28 down-to-the-wire contest.

And adding to the drama were some of rugby’s curious laws, as referee James Doleman had to navigate his way through some tricky situations out in the middle.

The 31-year-old is a ref on the rise, having whistled the final of the World Rugby Under-20 Championship in 2019, before making his Super debut the following year, then stepping up to test footy in 2021 and featuring in the Six Nations last month.

Here’s a look at those significant moments Doleman had on his plate on Saturday night, where fans may well have been left scratching their heads.

Uncontested scrums, Blues forced to play with 13 men (36th minute)

Competing with the six-time defending champs with 15 players is tough enough, but with two men short it’s nigh on impossible.

And the Blues indeed conceded two tries in the 10-minute period they were forced into in that situation, going from 21-19 up to 31-21 down.

So how did the situation arise?

The hosts had some awful misfortune in losing both starting props – Alex Hodgman and James Lay – to injury inside the opening quarter hour. They then shot themselves in the foot when one of their replacement props – Jordan Lay – was yellow-carded for a cynical infringement on the goal-line.

Incidentally, there were some calls for a penalty try due to Lay’s actions – not rolling away at the tackle.

Remember, while all penalty tries have to be accompanied by a card, not all cards near the goal-line have to be accompanied by a penalty try, and for an automatic seven-pointer to be awarded, the foul play has to have prevented “a probable try from being scored”.

While Crusaders prop Joe Moody was swarmed by several other defenders, there indeed could have been a case, as it appeared he had a simultaneous grounding with Lay at the time (who wasn’t meant to be touching the ball). A TMO check could have potentially swung this one.

In any case, the Crusaders scored straight from the scrum they opted for. Of course, that was helped no end by being up against just 13 men.

Once Jordan Lay was in the sin bin, it left the Blues with no other props to bring on, leading to uncontested scrums for safety reasons.

Due to World Rugby law – 3.18: Only when no replacement front-row player is available is any other player permitted to play in the front row – they had to inject reserve hooker Kurt Eklund into the contest, because, even though he is not a prop, he is a front-rower.

They then had to drop another player to accommodate that, with blindside flanker Cameron Suafoa the unlucky man.

But here’s where things get tricky. There is a quirk in the laws now where a team forcing uncontested scrums must be ‘punished’ for doing so by losing another player. This was introduced following a controversial Wales v Georgia test in 2017.

This situation also arose in round two in Melbourne, where the Fijian Drua were forced to 13 in their 46-17 loss to the Waratahs.

There is an excellent video below from top English referee Wayne Barnes explaining this intricate rule, where he shows the very useful chart (also below) which outlines in what scenarios teams should or shouldn’t lose players, and how many.

So the Blues opted to take off fullback Stephen Perofeta, and with law 3.15 stating: Uncontested scrums as a result of a sending off, temporary suspension or injury must be played with eight players per side, the Blues were on a hiding to nothing defending with five backs, with Leicester Fainga’anuku duly going over in the corner.

Codie Taylor disappearing yellow card (50th minute)

Not long after the Blues had been restored to their full complement, it looked like the Crusaders were about to lose hooker Codie Taylor, thanks to a cynical slap of the ball out of Blues halfback Finlay Christie’s hands at a ruck.

Doleman swiftly blew time off and even got as far as bringing the yellow card out of his pocket, before quickly getting a call in his ear from his assistant referee that he had in fact missed a knock on by Christie moments prior.

The Blues were playing under penalty advantage, so Doleman went back to the original mark for that one instead, explaining to Blues captain Dalton Papalii that “this penalty [against Taylor] would never have happened” had he originally spotted the knock on.

The home side did end up scoring a try a few minutes later and went 7-0 during the time Taylor could have been in the bin, and Doleman’s call not to punish Taylor seems logical.

Where things get interesting, though, is had Taylor’s actions been considered dangerous, such as throwing a punch, then that supersedes anything, and Doleman could have rightly given him marching orders.

There is nothing specific in law covering this, though.

The closest is: law 7.2. Advantage ends when...

(c): The non-offending team commits an infringement before they have gained an advantage. The referee stops the game and applies the sanction for the first infringement. If either or both infringements are for foul play, the referee applies the appropriate sanction(s) for the offence(s); or

(d): the offending team commits a second or subsequent infringement from which no advantage can be gained. The referee stops play and allows the captain of the non-offending team to choose the most advantageous sanction.

The Blues’ knock on wouldn’t be considered an ‘infringement’ (penalty), while the Crusaders did commit two infringements, but play should not have been happening for the second of those to occur.

But should foul play (defined by World Rugby as: anything a player does within the playing enclosure that is contrary to Law 9 governing obstruction, unfair play, repeated infringements, dangerous play and misconduct) be punished regardless, where you could apply the ‘two wrongs don’t make a right’ theory?

The incident has divided a few opinions in refereeing circles and is set to make for some interesting discussion at the Super refs’ weekly Tuesday meeting with New Zealand Rugby high performance referee manager, Chris Pollock, and coach Mike Fraser, along with their Australian counterpart Mitchell Chapman.