Luke Pearce has weighed in on former colleague Chris Busby’s decision to quit professional refereeing following criticism by Ireland and Connacht winger Mack Hansen.
Busby’s final match was the clash between Bath and Clermont in the Investec Champions Cup on Sunday. The Irishman reportedly cited personal reasons as the main factor behind his decision, but the fallout from Hansen’s comments is believed to have contributed.
Hansen’s remarks, made after Connacht’s Vodacom URC loss to Leinster, claimed that Busby’s officiating made it feel like playing against “16 men”. He copped a six-week ban for the remarks with three weeks suspended.
Speaking on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast with former England loose forward James Haskell and broadcaster Alex Payne, Pearce addressed the challenges facing referees while highlighting that match officials do accept accountability for their actions.
“Accountability is huge. We as referees, and I speak on behalf of them – a bit unfairly perhaps because we’re not meeting for the Six Nations tour at the end of this month so maybe what I’m saying won’t be in agreement – but we’ve got to be held accountable,” Pearce said.
“I think we are, people just aren’t aware of the levels of accountability. We can do way more work in communicating with the wider world about decisions. That’s not necessarily doing what football do, in every Monday going on ‘Referee Watch’ and [saying] here’s what we got right, here’s what we got wrong.
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“But we can educate people on laws. If we give a card that’s deemed wrong in a review, is there much harm in coming out and saying, ‘yeah, we’ve looked at it as a group, we don’t think that’s the right decision.’ Maybe that’s what we need to get to.”
“The only thing I would add – and I love the idea of free speech, I love the idea of people being able to voice their concerns and opinions and in general, I don’t think it’s a bad thing – however, people in senior positions have consequences for their actions,” the Englishman added.
“Once a player or coach speaks out in public criticising a ref, if they want to do that, the impact that has, it basically takes the button off for the public, and the public then pile in, so it opens up a can of words to everyone else.
“You end up generating way more attention, way more messages on social media, and if you want to be on social media you’re open to it.
“I don’t think it’s the wholehearted reason that Chris has walked away and finished refereeing, but it’s part of it.”
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