Best referees in the world.

chupacabra

Referee's take alot of flak in the game today, remember Barnes in the world cup quarter final? Or Steve Walsh in.... so many incidents to choose from.... This recent Lions tour posed a lot of questions of the refereeing standard of the modern game, so id like to know what are your opinions to who are the better refs in the world today? A poll, i feel, wouldn't really be fair, as on merit you could probably say there are 2 best referees in the world as the rule differences between the northern and southern hemispheres make the refereeing quite different in certain aspects, and in a poll you can only choose 1 favorite.

Personally i have a lot of respect for Nigel Owens, not only because he is simply one of the best referees in the world, the personal struggle he went through was immense to say the least and he still came out on top (no pun intended... seriously). Also he's a good referee to have if your irish

As for the southern Hemisphere its got to be Jonathan Kaplan, he has had his poor moments. But he is still one of the most experienced refs in the world today and i don't cringe when i hear he is reffing such and such a game.

Also mention has to go to our own lad Mr. Alain Rolland and of course Wayne Barnes who picked himself up after the 2007 rugby world cup and is now one of the best.

EDIT: Ouch i just realized you can make a poll with multiple answers allowed... egg on my face.

d'Oracle

Allain Rolland.

Nice guy.
Speaks the two major rugby languages (sorry Afrikanners)
Good ref.

Big fan of his.

theKramer

Alain Rolland is the best in the world, no doubt. Never seen or heard of him having a bad game. Damn good ref

Stev_o

Mark Lawrence of RSA for me. Like the way he runs the game. Not too mad on Rollaind he tends to be a bit of a home towner on many teams.

thomond2006

Best: Alain Rolland

Takes no BS that guy.

Edit: Yeah Mark Lawrence is decent too.

Worst? Either Nigel Owens or the guy that gave out to Shaggy in Lions 05 (Steve Walsh?)

d'Oracle

Who is that guy with the really squeeky voice, he is either Saffer or Kiwi.

Told Bakkies that he had big ears once.
He is terrible, but Bothas reaction was frickin priceless.

P_1

I'd have Owens, Rolland and Barnes in the top 3 anyway.

Bottom 3 would include Lawrence, FItzgibbon and Walsh.

Special honerable mention must go to the brothers Changlang for their incredible incompetance.

ScrubsfanChris

George Clancey
Could his accent be any more Irish.

corny

Easily Mark Lawrence of the SH refs.

Alain Rolland and Nigel Owens in this part of the world.

Worst has to be Kaplin and that muppet Byrce Lawrence.

titan18

d'Oracle wrote: »

Who is that guy with the really squeeky voice, he is either Saffer or Kiwi.

Told Bakkies that he had big ears once.
He is terrible, but Bothas reaction was frickin priceless.

Matt Goddard, was hilarious."You've got big ears, so use them them."What was going through his head when he said that

Amabokke

Best referees in the world can be difficult. People say we have to judge them on consistency. I say part of it should be consistency but the main part should be fairness and a good game. In other words refs should meet with coaches before a game so everyone understands the way he will ref.

I believe the refs should play a little advantage to both teams (except in a try situtation) to make the game a bit more free flow.

The problem with a consistent ref is that he can be good for 10 matches and then make a small mistake in a semi-final match and the media, supporters will hammer him forever over it. People never forgive refs for silly errors.

Allan Rollaind is good but too much of a robot. He likes to stop and start and blow the whistle to often.

Kaplan is good but as a fellow SA I feel sometimes he makes too many silly mistakes. He is also unbiased.

Lawrence is ok but I prefer Jonker over him.

I enjoy watching Nigel Owens, Bryce Lawrence and Joel Jutge.

I believe Barnes is just out of his depth at test level.

Ref I enjoyed watching the most was Derek Bevan (Welsh).

Also, in this era there seems too much focus on blaming the ref. Any good ref will make a mistake and will be blamed rather than teams taking responsibility.

Sundy

theKramer wrote: »

Alain Rolland is the best in the world, no doubt. Never seen or heard of him having a bad game. Damn good ref

I dont get what people see in Rolland. He refs the basics well but thats about it, technically he is a very poor ref. I saw him ref an AIL game once where the prop never even attempted to bind and he just ignored it despite his touch judge telling him about it. He also completly ignores ignore infringments by the team in possession at rucks.

Personnally i think Owens is a good ref despite not being too worried about offside. Other than that he lets a game flow well and tends to be fairly consistant.

curts82

Bit harsh on Fitzgibbon. Just starting at the lower of international rugby. Rolland is very good. Talks to props at Ail level and I've seen him notice the bind during the game. No ref is perfect every game.

Depp

Nigel Owens or Alain Rolland, no competition best two refs in the world

subfreq

Geez I think Barnes is an awful ref, in fact one of the worst.

Allain Roland is top for me. Like all refs sometimes his interpretations can be unusual but he communicates it so clearly and is consistent right throughout a match.

The NZ refs have been very poor recently and to think that Paddy O'Brien was so good a few years ago. The NZ ref from this series was appalling. I have never seen a touch judge trying to over ride both the game ref and TV match official like he did last week. Unbelievable.

Good to see Stuart Dickinson have a good game today as he is wildly erratic at times.

Amabokke

I believe Steve Welsh is back and might ref again in the S14 next year. I don't particular like the guy because with every whistle he poses as too say " how did I look this time when blowing the whistle". Absolutely loves himself and very annoying to watch.

d'Oracle

titan18 wrote: »

Matt Goddard, was hilarious."You've got big ears, so use them them."What was going through his head when he said that

I'd like to know what went through Bakkies head.:D