New Zealand referee Ben O’Keeffe is open to fronting the media after matches like coaches and players do and has urged World Rugby to ‘innovate’.
Match officials are often thrown into the spotlight after big games, but they aren’t given the same luxury as the players and coaches in being able to comment on decisions or their performances.
However, O’Keeffe is open to giving it a go, having copped his fair share of criticism throughout his career, particularly during the 2023 Rugby World Cup when he took charge of South Africa’s knockout wins over France and England.
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Former referee Nigel Owens hosts World Rugby’s Whistle Watch, and while O’Keeffe is a fan of the show and how it educates fans and clears up controversial incidents, the New Zealander is open to answering questions himself.
“The game of rugby is always trying to innovate on the field, and I think we should be trying to innovate off the field as well. The referee’s feedback afterwards is a really important avenue that we haven’t explored enough,” he said on the DSPN Podcast with Martin Devlin.
He does admit that doing so in the immediate aftermath of a game is perhaps not the best idea, but he believes that doing so after the officials have reviewed the game and their performance would be ideal.
“Coaches get to say what they want to straight after a game,” he continued.
“I know that I would have liked to say a few things as well, straight after, but that is probably not the best time for referees to be giving feedback.
“It’s not until I guess the day after, when I’ve actually gone through the decisions, apart from knowing what happened live in my head, that I need to go through in detail what those decisions I made were. So, to be well informed, I reckon that’s really important. Then, like on Monday or maybe even Tuesday, after we’ve done our full review with the rest of the coaches.
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“The process will be my management staff, and my coaches, in terms of the referee coaches, will get together and try to be aligned. Once we’re aligned, then you know this is the decision that it should have been.
“On a Tuesday, potentially we could do that, and to stop, I guess a lot of the controversy or the continued discussion that happens throughout the week, what if on Tuesday we could say ‘Yup, hand up, we got that decision wrong, or actually this is the law and this is the reason why we made the decision, this is why the decision is correct. Here are other examples of when it has been correct.’
“So, potentially, what was said in the media or what was said over the weekend is wrong, and I reckon people would love that because people just want to be educated on the game.”
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Impact of the crowds
O’Keeffe also commented on the impact and influence that a crowd can have on a match. The experienced referee says that the fans jeering and cheering does become white noise and doesn’t really impact the officials’ decision-making.
However, he does admit that they do keep the officials on their toes, something he only really realised when he took charge of the second British and Irish Lions Series Test against the Springboks in 2021, with the clash taking place behind closed doors.
“They never really get inside your head, but it’s an interesting feeling that I bring up because I refereed the second Lions test in South Africa a few years ago, when there was no crowd,” he said.
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“That’s when I realised how important it actually is; you do feed off a little bit of the atmosphere, it makes you sharp in the warm-up, during the game. So, it actually helps you as a referee. You feel like when there’s a big tackle, everyone goes, ‘Ooph’ and you make sure that you make sure there’s no foul play in that.
“So that’s sort of how the crowd does impact, I guess, the sharpness of your decision-making, rather than actually getting into your head because they’re screaming, they’re yelling at every decision – that’s all white noise in the long run for us when it’s happening throughout the whole game.”
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