The opening round of the Nations Championship delivered plenty of drama, huge scorelines and, inevitably, a handful of controversial refereeing decisions.
With six matches taking place across the weekend, the officials had plenty to contend with, from frantic end-to-end contests to tight TMO calls and fierce battles at the breakdown.
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Some referees emerged with their reputations enhanced, while others found themselves at the centre of post-match debate.
Here’s how we graded all six referees from the opening round of the Nations Championship.
Poll
New Zealand vs France
Luke Pearce — A
Pearce made a strong and composed start to the match, making a decisive early call to yellow-card Ruben Love after just a couple of minutes, which proved correct.
He generally allowed play to flow well, intervening only when necessary, and kept control without any major controversy.
Although he was busy early on with several penalty decisions, none were contentious, and his communication was aided by his effective use of French. He also correctly ruled out a marginal France try for a slight knock-on.
Australia vs Ireland
Ben O’Keeffe — B-
There was so much attacking rugby for Ben O’Keeffe to keep up with as Ireland and Australia entertained the masses with a 10-try epic in Sydney. Allianz Stadium was lit up in gold and green, with O’Keeffe coming under some criticism for two Ireland try-scoring decisions.
The first instance saw Cian Prendergast wrestle his way over the whitewash after just 10 minutes to draw his side level following a hot Wallabies start. With some camera angles appearing to show the ball held up, O’Keeffe was confident in his on-field decision and awarded the try, much to the chagrin of the hosts.
Ireland then closed out the first half with a try from Jamison Gibson-Park, as the scrum-half raced free after collecting an offload from Jack Conan. However, several camera angles raised question marks over the assist, with the ball looking dubiously forward as the Leinster man played in his provincial teammate.
O’Keeffe did chalk off an Ireland try, as James Ryan was adjudged to have obstructed Rob Valetini from making a potentially try-saving tackle on captain Dan Sheehan. The TMO was called into play this time, with O’Keeffe happy to go to the off-field officials for the decision.
While O’Keeffe did well to keep the end-to-end, yo-yoing chaos under control for the most part, Wallabies fans would certainly feel hard done by over the two try-scoring decisions.
Springboks vs England
James Doleman — C-
The TMO was correct to disallow Jamie George’s try after he was found to be offside, but Doleman’s performance was not without criticism.
Former England prop David Flatman questioned some of the officiating on commentary, particularly around the scrum, where several decisions appeared harsh.
A high penalty count also disrupted the flow of the game at times. While many of the individual calls could be justified, Doleman’s handling of the set-piece battle was certainly open to debate.
He kept a lid on proceedings overall, but it was far from a faultless performance.
