Australian referee Paul Marks has been removed from the Super 14 officials panel following his handling of the Waratahs vs Sharks match last weekend.
SANZAR referees chief Lyndon Bray has also admitted that a penalty try should have been awarded to the South Africans but the result of the match will not change. .
Sharks coach John Plumtree had plenty to say about Lawrence's performance following the match which the Sharks lost 25-21to the Waratahs at the Sydney Football Stadium after Kurtley Beale knocked down a pass to Ryan Kankowski.
One can never know if the pass to Terblanche would have been caught by Kankowski who was waiting on the wing as passes frequently go to ground in situations like the one in the match. Referee Paul Marks was at the time not convinced that a try would have been scored and only gave Beale a yellow card.
Beale insists that he was trying to intercept the pass and that had he caught the pass a try would have been scored the other way. matches
The referees' selection panel of Australian Andrew Cole, South Africa's Tappe Henning and New Zealand's Colin Hawke have now reviewed Marks's performances in his past two matches and have voted to drop him from the Super 14 panel until he has rectified shortcomings in his game management.
South African referee Pro Legoete has also been stood down indefinitely.
"There was some imbalance from a management perspective, how he (Marks) arrived at these big decisions and how they were presented," Bray told the Australian and added that Marks's decision not to award the Sharks a match-winning penalty try was only one event and his overall handling of the game was taken into account..
"In fairness to Paul, you could debate the penalty try ruling all day," Bray said.
"We believe the right decision in the cold light of day was to award a penalty try, but you could argue why a referee would back off it."
Referees' selection panel member Andrew Cole also maintained that front-on video footage had shown that contrary to South African claims Kankowski would have had an unimpeded run to the tryline, Waratahs centre Tom Carter was coming across in cover defence.
"Admittedly he had a fair bit of work to do, and we all know how quick Kankowski is," Cole said.
"But Paul would have seen him in his peripheral vision . . . he would have known there was a defender there."
Cole will now work with Marks on improving his game management and is confident he will be back refereeing at the top level before the end of the Super 14 tournament.
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