Refereeing Blamed For Wallabies Defeat

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30233, 11 September 1963, Page 10

Refereeing Blamed For Wallabies Defeat

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY, September 10. The Wallabies’ manager, Mr R. E. M. McLaughlin, today blamed “changed interpretations” by the referee for Australia’s fourth test defeat at Port Elizabeth on Saturday and loss of the ■Rugby series to South Africa.

. “After his handling of the second and third tests, we understood the interpretations of the referee, Captain Piet Myburgh,” Mr McLaughlin said.

“But his interpretations were different in the fourth test and confused the Australians, particularly the hooker, P. Johnson, and the half-back, K. Catchpole. “Ten minutes from the end, we thought the match would end in a draw and we would win the series.” Mr McLaughlin said a Wallaby centre’s kick had then gone astray “and that was the turning point in the game.” “The riot did not disturb us as much as the referee’s rulings. They were meet confusing.”

Mr McLaughlin opposed a suggestion that a neutral referee should control international matches when Australia again visited South Africa. “That is not the answer,” he said. “Let’s have a world referees’ association to interpret the laws and insist that every country follows these rulings. Then we would get uniformity.” He said he had pressed for the English-speaking referee. Mr Englebrecht, to handle the fourth test, but the South African Rugby Board had appointed Captain Myburgh. Worst Ever Seen At Perth, where the tourists arrived back last night, Mr McLaughlin described the riot in the crowd as “the worst thing I have ever seen on a football ground.” He said none of the Australian team was hit by bottles thrown by the crowd, “but the players seemed to be affected by the riot, and I think they lost interest in the match. “I am not saying that the riot . . . was the cause of our defeat, but our boys seemed to lose interest in the Rugby.” The fighting erupted eight minutes from the final

■whistle after South Africa scored its second try. “People hurled bottles and ran screaming on to the field,” said Mr McLaughlin. “The police fired the bottles back into the crowd and several women were injured. Our players were greatly upset to see women with blood streaming from cut faces. “John Thornett (the Wallaby captain) asked the referee if he was not going to stop play until the rioting had ended and people had been cleared from the field, but the referee’s attitude was. ‘What can I do about it?’ "Some of the players turned away from the game to watch where the bottles were flying, and who could blame them?” Relations Terrific Mr McLaughlin said al Sydney that Rugby relationships between South Africa and Australia were “terrific ” “They really were great to us and they feel they have got friends in us as we have got friends in them," he said “They will ask for some of the Wallabies to return next year to play, in their centenary matches.”