No not that one… the 2007 game against France.
The dour headmaster tells thusly in a biography of him due for publication soon.
He tells of how the Englishman Wynne Barnes had awarded the All Blacks only two penalties in the match out of a possible 40 infringements the French committed. None were awarded in the last 50 minutes to the All Blacks.
Henry found it incomprehensible that rugby did not possess a mechanism to investigate bizarre results like cricket does, particularly in cases of clearly wayward refereeing.
The headmaster finishes off by saying that poor refereeing, the oldest All Black excuse in the book, cost New Zealand the match…
Funny how when South Africa raised similar concerns about another bizarre match result there were idiots who thought it was because the Boks were poor…
That said, Wynne Barnes is a poor referee and (in spite of what certain All Black supporters in our Facebook page have said) he is no friend of South Africa.
The example made of Bryce Lawrence and Paddy ‘O Brien after RWC 2011 should be more transparent by the IRB instead of being done in a decent gentlemanly way. It should be made clear why these people have been fired rather than hiding it under a sheen of pretence of redeployment and retraining.
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July 29th, 2012 at 1:32 pm
How come Lawrence was the NZ Ref of the Year
- only to be fired by Sanzar a year later?
July 29th, 2012 at 2:14 pm
You hypocrite!
The whole world had respect for you as a professional, now you come out and feed it to the dogs with unadulterated hypocrisy and undo all the good work.
NZ never deserved that 1/4 final, France were better, in spite of the forward pass. McCaw got blown up for being a cheat, and Thierry Dusautoir outplayd him like a man.
Barnes was 100% better than the arsewipe you had that rigged the 2011 world cup so you also win it.
July 29th, 2012 at 2:38 pm
Reply to Welshbok die Brandwag @ 2:14 pm:
July 29th, 2012 at 9:26 pm
Reply to Welshbok die Brandwag @ 2:14 pm:
Me two
July 30th, 2012 at 2:46 pm
Saffas no better. It would seem all refs are terrible. Lose a close game and blame the ref.
Fokkin sad.
July 30th, 2012 at 5:30 pm
Reply to The Year of the Cheetah @ 2:46 pm:
I beg to disagree dude.
When you have been deliberately robbed like what happened in our 1/4 final exit last year, you have every reason to cry foul.
They would NEVER have tried this nonsense with a mean straight shooting president (Louis Luyt)in control of our rugby, because it was pure blatant unadulterated match fixing, the IRB should hang their heads in shame for only chasing the bastard now, and forever tainting our rugby. It’ll never be the same again, neither will cricket for that matter.
Have you ever heard of the reference: “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission”? We were played dude, it was decided beforehand that we were going to exit before the semis, they might as well have gone straight home after the pools.
NZ were dealt an unfortunate mistake decision with a forward pass, we were dealt around 80 blatantly wrong decisions at the breakdown, and ABSOLUTELY violated from behind by a MASTURBATING SHEEPSHAGGER.
It was rigged, and nobody in their fair unbiased judgement would ever see it differently.
One thing at least though, Bryce “I’m a CHEAT” Lawrence delivered us all from Snor, for which I’m eternally grateful.
July 30th, 2012 at 6:36 pm
Reply to Welshbok die Brandwag @ 5:30 pm:
No. You have to be seriously blinded by bias not to see that NZ had as much a case in that game as SA had in ’11.
Both close games, and in both many instances where under normal circumstances a referee would have given a penalties that would have swung the match.
In both cases the hosting nation benefited.
In both cases there were no solid evidence.
July 30th, 2012 at 6:44 pm
One also has to consider that perhaps it was payback for Suzy.
It seems clear that the Kiwis believe she was real and was part of a plot.
No solid evidence on that one either. But a possibility non the less.
July 31st, 2012 at 6:05 am
Reply to Timeo @ 6:36 pm: good balanced comment – obviously some are still very emotional about the whole thing. I liked Steve Hanson’s comment when approached about the allegations. Although assistant coach to Henry at RWC2007, he said: “it’s more than 5 years since the game and I have moved on since then”. I think we should all move on and recognise that Henry’s book is about to come out – hence the comments.
July 31st, 2012 at 9:30 am
Reply to Welshbok die Brandwag @ 5:30 pm:
round and round we go, but once more:
WE DROPPED 3 BALLS ON THE DAY.
each could have been tries that would have made us win at a canter. Is that also refs fault?
July 31st, 2012 at 9:32 am
Boks in WC were a bit like Stormers. They neglect to use the ball for 3 years and in a crunch game decide to run it yet the passes are poor and the handling even worse.
Then we blame the ref?
You guys are so used to being 3rd now you start finding fault with everyone but yourself. Its a problem.
July 31st, 2012 at 10:25 am
RWC are given and not won.
NZ fixed it. Simple just like we did in 95. France were the winners in the semis. This is the way of the professional game.
I did not rate the Boks before the RWC at all, but watching their progression I did believe they would give the Kiwis a hiding come finals. They showed great maturity in the face of clear intimidation but the pig Samoans and showed great promise against the Aussies. They were just never allowed a fair contest.
Reply to The Year of the Cheetah @ 9:32 am: Dude really, no matter, what they would have not allowed it to happen. If you have not realized whats happened its not your f ault but I would suggest watching the game again.
Both the semis and finals and its clear. Even my die hard kiwi mates are sheepish about the RWC. They just keep saying 95 over and over again.
July 31st, 2012 at 11:05 am
Reply to Kevin Rack @ 10:25 am:
I simply fail to believe that one man has control over who wins in a game with as many permutations as rugby.
Wales should have beaten us in that world cup – why not argue that that game has been rigged by the southern hemisphere powers that be?
Yes refs make bad calls, but hell if I pass to the player next to me and he is in a position to score yet knocks the ball on – the issue lies with me.
Telling ourselves we lost because of the ref is just not the way to build to build a sporting nation. Its slapgat.
If we were 20 point better than Oz on the day we would have won by 15 regardless of the Ref. But for years prior to the World cup (even in our glory year of 2009) we were only too happy to win games by 5 or 6 points.
Why score tries and edge ahead if you can score 3 pointers and be cocksure about your “suffocation” strategy in the media?
Come that day when you have dubious decisions go against you then rather lead by 15?
Point is we dont know how to dominate ANYONE in the world anymore. We grind out paltry wins no matter who the opposition. In close games therefore we lie exposed and then blame the bloody REF?
Ag nee man
July 31st, 2012 at 11:33 am
A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.