Laporte
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@MajorRage said in Laporte:
@No-Quarter said in Laporte:
Here we go - stuff article from 2012. Damning stuff
All Blacks coach Graham Henry was so stunned by the lopsided penalty count in the 2007 Rugby World Cup quarter-final loss to France he urged the New Zealand Rugby Union to call for an investigation into referee Wayne Barnes' performance.
In his biography, 'Graham Henry Final Word', by veteran author Bob Howitt, Henry reveals he briefly contemplated match-fixing as the only logical explanation for the All Blacks' upset 20-18 loss.
He analysed the game on video for his report to the rugby union and found Barnes had awarded only two penalties to New Zealand during the game.
His gut feeling, according to his biography, was that the video "would confirm that referee Wayne Barnes and his touch judges, Jonathan Kaplan from South Africa and Tony Spreadbury from England, hadn't exactly covered themselves in glory at the Millennium Stadium, that they had missed an obvious forward pass when France scored its match-winning try - a pass so forward everyone in the stadium had witnessed it except the referee - and that Barnes had been pretty lenient on the French at the breakdowns, probably costing the All Blacks the game".
His analysis was that France deserved to be penalised up to 40 times.
The video had three different angles and featured statistical breakdowns of lineouts, scrums, penalties, tackle counts, territory and possession. On those statistics, the All Blacks dominated. They had an overwhelming 73 per cent territorial advantage, winning 166 rucks to France's 42 and making only 73 tackles compared with France's 331.
A mind-boggled Henry was so stunned by his findings he told the rugby union it should "pressure the International Rugby Board to institute an inquiry".
He also said it was ''incomprehensible'' the IRB did not have strategies in place to investigate bizarre matches.
Howitt writes: "He knew if a comparable situation had occurred in other sports, it would be investigated. But there existed a blissful purity about rugby, or at least that's how everyone wanted to perceive it. It wasn't politically correct to even suggest the match officials might have favoured one team."
The rugby union chose not to push for an investigation.
He's sounding a bit Sith Ifrican here ...
I moved on. Got up the next day, flew home and then watched the semi's and quarters in a pub with my friends.
Henry, Smith, Hansen kept their jobs. And ultimately, delivered a world cup, and set the base for the following one as well.
At the end of the day, we still should have won. We didn't.
Sport in a nutshell and why we watch it.
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Really we somehow got the loss in 2007 being brought up? FFS there was no corruption, (Barnes an inexperienced, young ref) made a mistake or 2 during the game, and ABs made more and lost the game.Nothing more or less, Henry actually later said he had at first thought there was something no right, but said after he calmed down he realised he was just to upset. Barnes says of the missed forward pass, andwondered at times if it was only forward pass missed during the WC.
Classic fern.
Thread started about corruption linked to France in the rugby world cup and morphs into a thread about corruption linked to France in the rugby world cup. Staggering.
