Wayne Barnes - Rugby’s Refereeing Poster Boy
Referee Profile
Full name: Wayne Barnes
Born: Gloucestershire, 20 April 1979
First Test: Fiji vs Samoa on 24 June 2006
Latest Test: Wales vs France on 26 August 2007
Number of Tests: 8
Profession: Barrister
World Cup experience: None
Wayne Barnes is the youngest and least experienced of the Elite-level referees, having referee’d just 8 tests. I’m not saying that Mr Barnes is anything less than honest. I am merely suggesting that some more experience at the highest level of the game might have been a good thing, particularly in light of the number of poor decisions made in his most recent game, the game that cost the worlds’ greatest side the World Cup. In the very apt words of Hamish McBrearty:
Although the All Blacks played badly and did not deserve to win, the worst performance of the night came from referee Wayne Barnes. The sin-binning of McAlister was comical and perhaps cost the All Blacks the match, and somehow all three officials missed an obvious forward pass leading up to Jauzion’s try.
McAlister was shown a yellow card in the 46th minute for taking out a French player who was chasing a kick. Replays, even at full speed, showed McAllister turning to chase the kick and Jauzion running into his back.
Of course, this is what a certain other media commentator had to say on the subject:
Fantastic! Sheer fantasy! Amazing Saturday went spirally upwards into fantasy! There has never been a day like it in World Cup rugby.
Whether France deserved to win or not, doesn’t matter one iota.
I’ll let you figure out for yourselves where that twat guy comes from…
I’m off for a drink.
6 Comments »
Leave a comment
So this is Home. Bugger.
Q. What’s this ‘Shanghai’ place you live in?
A. Shanghai used to be a muddy little fishing village on the banks of the Huangpu River. Then the British came and set up civilization, which immediately led to huge numbers of illegal immigrants arriving to take advantage of the business climate. Some very decent Americans, Japanese and Russians also showed up. Oh yes, and some French. By the 1920’s Shanghai was a booming centre of trade and had become known worldwide as ‘The Whore of the Orient’. Never had the world seen such a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Nowadays, of course, everything is very different: more people have televisions and some of the buildings are a little taller. There’s an ambitious social program (due to be completed by 2008 2012), in which people are being trained to walk across the street only when the little green light is on. An even more ambitious and longer-term program aims to have all citizens able to both walk and chew gum simultaneously without any foreign assistance whatsoever by 2057. It’s all happening in this fast-changing mega-fishing village.
Q. What’s a ‘Laowai’?
A. Laowai is Mandarin for a no-good, uncultured and stupid barbarian who basically just comes to glorious China to steal jobs and women. Laowai’s come from uncivilized and awful places that have no culture, no history, and nothing whatsoever to like. A laowai, in fact, is the lowest conceivable grade of pond-scum. A less accurate, but more literal, translation is ‘foreigner’.
Q. I don’t live in Shanghai, am I a laowai?
A. If you can read, write and know who your parents actually are, rest assured that you are, indeed, a laowai.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
-
A Laowai Is Me
-
EFF.org
-
Human Rights Watch
-
-
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
-
Archives
- September 2008 (1)
- August 2008 (10)
- July 2008 (14)
- June 2008 (6)
- May 2008 (6)
- April 2008 (7)
- March 2008 (12)
- February 2008 (4)
- January 2008 (8)
- December 2007 (6)
- November 2007 (8)
- October 2007 (7)
-
Categories
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
I couldnt have said it better as I drown my sorrows *sniff*
Conspiracy theories - No!
Incompetent - Obviously!
Wonder if we’ll see him referee in NZ in a hurry? Lol Lol Lol!
Loss aside - go France!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
U are right - he is a shocking referee!!!! After the SA vs Tongo game I though he was going to be banished to some far away desolute island. Quite frankly, the quality of referreing at this world cup has been abysmal. Alan Lewis in the SA vs Fiji game also missed a good game - according to him the new high tackle law is only penalisable above the eyebrows - what a joke!!!! Sadly, the decision has been made and there is nothing anyone can do about it. I am just relieved that Suzi has not been blamed for this loss!!!! By the way, Barnes also missed the forward pass that led to the AB try but there has not been any comments about that. AB supporters, get over it - I expect the guys from that teeney, weeney island and the guys from the much bigger island to behave like this but not the AB supporters.
Fair call, GDJ: what has happened, has happened.
The All Blacks cannot now be tournament winners, but all their supporters need to show that they can be good losers. It was disgraceful they way it happened, but c’est la vie and all that. None of us can change it now.
Wow, here I am trying to find out how many tests Wayne Barnes had controlled for an article and I find the answer I want and myself quoted on the same page. Keep up the good work on the blog!