The chief executives of the Australian Vodacom Super Rugby franchises have called for an inquiry into the competition’s standard of officiating.
According to a report by The Australian, the issue was brought up this week during the executive’s regular meeting.
Rebels CEO Baden Stephenson told the newspaper that all were angered by some of the refereeing performances in the past and this season, but were mostly aggrieved by Sanzaar’s lack of accountability in this department.
This comes in the same week that a partisan Australian rugby website, Green and Gold Rugby, published a ‘study’ on their forum which found that South African referees in control of matches against non-South African opponents had awarded the home sides 159 more penalties in total than the away sides. The study looked at games from the start of the 2017 season, but contained little context for the statistic.
‘I do think as a collective group we should put some heat on Sanzaar about the ridiculous stats that have come out over the last 24 hours about hometown refereeing in South Africa,’ said Stephenson.
‘There is too much at stake for all of us and it is hard enough to win on the road. In my view, the integrity of the competition is turning into a joke and Sanzaar will look the other way and won’t deal with the issue. There should be an inquiry.’
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