TALKING POINT: Run rule on referrals

Senior rugby writer Gavin Rich discusses a subject that has been causing him some anxiety of late….

Rich dictionary definition:

Frustration: name – how South African franchise coaches feel when their teams play Vodacom United Rugby Championship matches abroad.

This feeling of frustration is caused by a tendency for poor refereeing which goes against their teams and sometimes, as happened to the Stormers last weekend, can cost them a result. This has been happening since the first year of the URC, for a while it seems to be improving, but the discomfort – I feel it – is back, and significantly.

Stormers coach John Dobson, who is of course prohibited from making negative comments about match officials, including referees, was not the only local coach to be aggrieved last weekend. The Bulls won quite comfortably against the Ospreys and produced the South African performance of the weekend, but they would have won a lot more without the poor refereeing performance which allowed the Ospreys to make a better fist of it in the second half.

Bulls director of rugby Jake White has rightly called for the red card to David Kriel to be rescinded. The referee in this match seemed to be reacting to the crowd – it didn’t look like he was going to report the incidents in question to the TMO until he heard the boos and groans from the crowd.

THE REFS RESPOND TO THE EMOTION OF THE CROWD

There is a lot of crowd intimidation at Northern Hemisphere matches, where the atmosphere is heightened by the crowds being accommodated in much smaller stadiums. The 6,000 people at Loftus for the Ulster match would not have been as intimidating to the referee as the same number at a 6,000 capacity stadium.

Furthermore, the tendency of South African stadium DJs to be out of step with the progress of the match, highlighted by his colleague Brenden Nel a few months ago, prevents referees from being subjected to the same type of pressure during matches played here. .

When a controversial incident occurs at a local game, the crowd will likely chant “Sweet Caroline” or “Don’t worry, be happy.” Or, as was the case in the test match at Mbombela, where a possible carding incident was discussed by the referee and the TMO, they could be asked to take out their phones, turn on the lights and wave them in the tunes.

Perhaps the spectator who enjoys doing this doesn’t care too much about how many players are left on the field or whether the referees got it right or wrong, but there are many who do care and will have shared the frustration of the coaches watching last week’s game. game on television.

It is true that there were also complaints about the refereeing during the Super Rugby era. But the referees seemed much better than those currently operating within the URC. They were standing, as were New Zealander Paddy O’Brien, South African Andre Watson and other referees from those two countries, plus Australia.

The late Ian McIntosh may not have liked Australian Peter Marshall, but he was at one point considered one of the best in the business.

CRITICISM IS NOT WELCOME BUT IT IS NECESSARY

When you look at URC, you don’t see that kind of seriousness and stance in the game, and that might be partly because of what I’m doing now. Who wants to be a professional referee when you are constantly criticized?

One of the reasons I’ve often been more lenient with referees than others is that they have an unenviable job. Just like rugby writers, they will never make everyone agree with them or make everyone happy.

Forget mainstream writers and the TV pundits who criticize them: the real modern scourge is social media. What is said on this forum is not limited by any sort of respect for media ethics, and for a good referee like Wayne Barnes to receive death threats at the end of his career was shameful.

But while recognizing that criticism can impact the appetite for refereeing and contribute to the apparent lack of good referees in a competition like the URC, it would also be a dereliction of duty on the part of those involved in rugby d ‘ignore the problem. This is damaging the sport.

Since it’s a professional sport, the stakes are also high. The Stormers arguably finished in two games on their overseas tour.

I didn’t watch their match against the Ospreys live because I was in Mbombela for the last Rugby Championship match, but watching the replay it was easy to see why the Stormers were aggrieved by the scrum calls which were going against them or should have gone. in their own way, but didn’t do it.

BAD CALLS COST TEAMS’ GAMES

Stormers management then took it up with URC refereeing officials and, according to forwards coach Rito Hlungwani, they were in agreement – ​​the Stormers were eliminated by at least four appeals. That’s a lot and quite significant in terms of the outcome of a very close game until the Ospreys got a late penalty try.

Speaking of penalty tries, there were at least two that should have been awarded to the Stormers against Edinburgh, one at the time of the maul and the other at the scrum.

Referee Ben Whitehouse may have failed to warn Edinburgh’s scrums, which is why the scrum penalty try was not awarded. But they should have been warned again and again.

Just like the try he initially awarded to Grant Gilchrist earlier in the game should never have been awarded either. The TMO finally knocked it down, the ball was clearly on the ground short of the line. Whitehouse was not seen at the time, you can see that in the replay, but then why did he give the try?

The much-publicized final hands in the ruck incident were just as egregious, and if Dobson wanted to do a Rassie Erasmus and release a video, it could be the same length as the one Rassie produced after the first test. of the 2021 British and Irish Lions series.

Of course, some of this comes down to interpretation, and sometimes just the referees’ subjective interpretation of how the game should be played. In the Bulls game, the referee kept barking at the Bulls scrum half to “use him” when it was pretty clear that the Bulls wanted to use the power of their scrum. Which, as the laws currently are, is their right to do.

SOLID MANAGEMENT IS KEY

URC refereeing chief Tappe Henning has no doubt heard from White on the matter, and he will certainly hear from Dobson as well, if he hasn’t already after his team conceded a record number of penalties for a URC match involving them, and with a high number of penalties. proportion of those who are very doubtful.

When Henning, a South African, was appointed it was well received locally, both by coaches and referees, but there seems to be a feeling that although many complaints are listened to, there is no doesn’t have enough action.

Strong refereeing can be created by strong leadership. Andre Watson wasn’t always the most popular figure when he was in charge of the referees in South Africa, but he had a strong personality and perhaps that’s why this country had so many class referees world at his time.

What will not serve rugby well is for the URC to resent the criticism rather than focus on the real problem. There is no denying that the standard of URC refereeing needs to be raised, and significantly so, and burying our heads in the sand and burying our heads in the sand will not help.