Rugby Australia referee coaches have been flown to Japan to support the Aussie refs at the World Cup, Nic Berry and Angus Gardner, amid increased scrutiny on the match officials at the tournament.
World Rugby issued a statement on Tuesday night saying match officials had been sub-standard in the opening round of games at the World Cup, saying they’d conceded they “were not consistently of the standards set by World Rugby and themselves”.
World Rugby indicated there’d been “challenges” with technology and communication between match officials, “which impacted decision making”.
"These are already being addressed by the team of 23 match officials to enhance consistency,” the World Rugby statement said.
“Given this proactive approach, a strong team ethic and a superb support structure, World Rugby has every confidence in the team to ensure that Rugby World Cup 2019 delivers the highest levels of accurate, clear and consistent decision-making.”
Rugby Australia boss Raelene Castle revealed on Wednesday they’d flown RugbyAU referees coaches Scott Young and Mitch Chapman to Japan to provide individual support to Berry and Gardner, as per their usual practice during the rest of the year.
Berry refereed Italy v Namibia in the opening round without incident, but Gardner came under fire for several contentious decisions late in France’s tense victory over Argentina.
In Tokyo ahead of the Wallabies’ game against Wales on Sunday, Castle said she backed World Rugby’s push to better resource high performance in refereeing.
"Rugby Australia has been working with World Rugby and supports their recognition that more needs to be done to support the referees, and more alignment between World Rugby and SANZAAR and World Rugby and Six Nations, and World Rugby and other refereeing (bodies),” Castle told reporters.
"World Rugby don't have any referee coaches here, at the tournament. So Rugby Australia has paid to bring our referee coaches from Australia up, to support our rugby referees.
"We think it is important and that’s the support they get during Super Rugby and TRC, so we think that should remain in place for the world’s biggest rugby tournament.”
A World Rugby spokesman later clarified that referees had a “superb support team” in Japan, containing reviewers, selectors, trainers, physio, analysts and a psychologist.
.@WorldRugby have released a strong statement tonight in which the referees admit their officiating has been "not consistently of the standards set by World Rugby and themselves". #RWC2019 https://t.co/8q3FoR53DT
— RUGBYcomau (@rugbycomau) September 24, 2019
Castle said there was a global recognition that more money can be spent around referee coaching and development.
"There is a review in place by World Rugby and a recognition that more money needs to be spent, and a more aligned program across the world for refereeing and that’s a piece of work that is in train at the moment and Rugby Australia is very supportive of that,” Castle said.
Berry referees England and USA on Thursday and Gardner's next assignment is between the host nation Japan and Ireland on Saturday.
