Boks Travis-ty

For many, it was as much a travesty as the result of the ridiculous match between Australia and South Africa that saw a referee knock the Springboks out of the Rugby World Cup.

The same thing could be said to have happened in the surf, with the result going to the inferior team on the field. In this case, the team was "losing" surfer, Aussie Burrow, who scored 15.47 in a one-on-one Round Three heat against South African Logie's 15.34, another down-to-the-wire travesty of a sporting code's rules.

However, both shocking results may have less to do with the poor decision making of the judges and the refs, and more about how the rules of both 'games' are applied and policed by the respective governing bodies, the International Rugby Board and the Association of Surfing Professionals.

Burrow himself seemed surprised to have won, while the commentators were clear in their opinion that Logie had taken the heat. The five judges in the tower, however, thought differently, scoring highly (7,47) for a wave where Burrow did only two marginally useful turns. Many were outraged that this wave should score almost as high as the 8 point wave Burrow did deserve his points after an fins-free assault that blew the wave apart (above).

Logie himself Tweeted bitterly: "That was the worst call of my career, I'm seriously over this sport, just watched the footage. I'm gutted. How do u stay positive after that?"

Many fans and surfers around the world agreed, with social networking and surfing news websites in an uproar.

David on a commentary box on Stabmag.com said: "That judging of the Logie/burrow heat was the most ridiculous shit I have ever seen in my life. Watch the heat in its entirety to get a feel for the judging scale there is no fucking way he got the score. The commentators didn't even consider for a second that he might of got the score. The commentators say that logie won, we go to an ad break then find out that burrow has in fact won. Burrows speech is in the simpson /burrow heat he looks so sheepish cause he knows he shouldn't of won. So much worse than the adriano floater because the level of judging had been set."

"WTF is going on? How is there no accountability in our sport? My potty bound grandmother can do better turns than Taj's last wave," said another.

"I'm sure all the judges have sports betting accounts. Nice way to earn a bit of extra cash on the side. The ASP should be really concerned about the way this sport is heading. It's a HOAX", according to another.

"Taj wasn't overscored, he was "Reynoldscored"...ie, if you should have a 7, you'll have a 8.5." said another.