Smith ‘sorry’ for criticism of referee

BRIAN SMITH has apologised to Jonathan Kaplan for publicly criticising his refereeing performance in England’s 23-15 RBS Six Nations defeat to Wales.

England’s attack coach accused Kaplan of not being even-handed and claimed his performance at the Millennium Stadium had been influenced by the Wales management.

Smith was rebuked for his comments by the International Rugby Board and warned to direct any future concerns through the proper channels.

Smith confirmed yesterday he has spoken with Kaplan and admitted he should not have questioned his performance so publicly.

“We have spoken since the Wales Test match, and I believe it was a positive conversation,” said Smith.

“I apologised for expressing my views publicly, because it would have more productive to have raised those directly with him after the match.”

England had two players sent to the sin-bin against Wales, and immediately after the match Martin Johnson claimed his side were suffering from a “perception problem”.

But Smith went a large step further and claimed Kaplan’s demeanour showed he had been put under “heaps of pressure” by Wales to crack down on England’s ill-discipline.

He said: “The way our team was addressed prior to Wales took me a little bit by surprise. It was clear to me that Wales had done their job in terms of getting stuck into the referee.

“What we are really trying to say to the refs is: ‘Please judge us the same way you judge other teams and do not come into the game with a pre-conceived idea’.”

Smith also queried the sin-binnings of Andy Goode and Mike Tindall and questioned why Wales full-back Lee Byrne was not sent to the cooler for taking out Delon Armitage in the air, when Shane Geraghty had been shown a yellow card for a similar offence against Italy the previous week.

But the IRB praised Kaplan’s performance at the Millennium Stadium and stated: “Comments made by a member of the England team management that appear to question the performance of IRB referee Jonathan Kaplan were unwarranted.

“The official performance review of the Wales versus England match at the Millennium Stadium ranks Kaplan’s overall performance as high, and the IRB are satisfied that Kaplan followed the correct protocol for addressing both teams on and off the field and dealt with England and Wales in a fair and professional manner and refereed what was in front of him.”