World Rugby officials have called for greater respect to be shown towards referees following the furore over the pivotal late call in Saturday’s second Test between Australia and the British & Irish Lions. Alan Gilpin, World Rugby’s chief executive, believes the mental health of match officials needs prioritising and has described the post-game outburst by Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt as “disappointing”.
The call by Italian referee Andre Piardi to allow the Lions’ match-clinching late score was criticised by Schmidt, who was unhappy with the decision not to penalise Jac Morgan for a clear-out just prior to Hugo Keenan’s try. A routine post-match review of the officiating remains ongoing but Gilpin says public criticism of match officials is unfair on those at the sharp end.
“We’ve got match officials who, when they’re criticised publicly, are having their families targeted outside the school gates,” said Gilpin, all too aware of the external pressure to which referees can now be subjected. “That’s not good, that’s not fair, and that’s not right, so we’ve got to support these guys.”
World Rugby chairman Brett Robinson is similarly concerned and says Nic Berry, the referee whose performance was criticised by Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus on the previous Lions tour in 2021, is still suffering from the after-effects. “Nic Berry is a mate of mine from Brisbane and he got absolutely hammered in the last Lions series in South Africa,” said Robinson.
“You talk to Nic today and he is still incredibly scarred by the abuse and trolling that happened to him. This [latest episode] reinforces why we have to protect our officials. The sport needs to respect them. Without these people turning up every week we don’t have a game.”
World Rugby has no plans to release the outcome of their post-game review but Schmidt is set to avoid any sanction for his comments despite publicly suggesting that failing to penalise Morgan for making contact with the neck of Carlo Tizzano undermined the game’s stated aim of prioritising player welfare.
“I think it is disappointing when the reaction is, ‘this means player welfare isn’t taken seriously’, because we have worked really hard on that narrative,” said Gilpin. “Everyone knows we are putting player welfare, in its broadest sense, at the top of the agenda.
“I think Joe….there’s a lot of emotion, understandably. The Wallabies had a chance to win an amazing Test match [and] Joe’s comments have continued to respect the fact that the match officials have got a tough job to do. He might disagree with the decisions that were made, but I don’t think he’s called the integrity of our match officials into question.”
Gilpin confirmed, however, that the outcome of the review process would not be made public despite widespread public interest. “We won’t talk publicly about that decision. The decision’s happened, the game’s finished, we’ll move on. [But] we’ll share with Joe and the coaching team why the match official has made that decision. Joe’s got a view about what was wrong with that decision and there’ll be a debate about that, so that Joe and his players can go into the next Test understanding how that game’s going to be officiated.
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“We are reviewing the way the game is officiated and played all the time. We’ll continue to work really hard with the match officials group to get consistency in the way key areas are officiated and, hopefully, that provides clarity to players and coaches. But like in any high-level sport, coaches are always looking for an edge with their teams, and we respect that.”
World Rugby also say they are still awaiting further details regarding the mooted R360 rebel league, whose backers are currently attempting to woo the world’s leading players. “Investment into the game is great – as long as that investment is driving into the right areas,” said Gilpin. “If it is creating a more financially sustainable game for players and for the wider ecosystem then we encourage it. We’ve got to understand what that means in the R360 case.”
He is also hopeful that an update regarding the new Nations Cup tournament set to commence in 2026 will finally be forthcoming next month. “We’re at the stage now where for a competition that’s going to start next July we’ve got to get this thing nailed down,” Gilpin said. Organisers of the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia, meanwhile, have released details of their ticketing programme, starting with the launch next week of a limited number of ‘Superfan passes’. In total the organisers say more than 2.5 million tickets will be available for the expanded 24-team tournament, the highest number in history.