Students Run Riot

Well, not quiet a riot but whilst their classmates caused a nuisance in the West End, I had two excellent sides in a BUSC cup match. In new departure this season I have been refereeing midweek student games as I am out of work. Its proved to be some of the best rugby I’ve been involved in; players who are fit, well drilled and disciplined. They have yet to be corrupted by the old cynics who’s hay-day and last training session with a descent coach was 10 years ago.

In approaching two teams for the first time I, like other referees, will eye up the players and judge who I think will be the side most likely to win. In this case, the home side were mostly lean and tall, the visitors a mixed bag of sizes with a smattering of fatties. This week was to prove just how much I know. Right from the start the visitors were sharper out of the box, controlling field  position and pace of the game. Whilst the home team’s forwards had the edge, the visitors’ fly half was exceptionally talented; its not often you see a 40m drop goal at level 11.

The first half saw the visiting team establish a sound lead, but the second, saw the home team fight back. Pressure on a clearance kick from in-goal saw the ball sliced to touch in-goal; 5m attacking scrum. Excellent pressure saw the visitors defensive scrum disintegrate, penalty; and having watched the TV the captain opted for a second scrum. This time the defensive loose head turned in; penalty again. Captain encourages his pack on; “One time time lads and its a penalty try!”, to which I slap him down, “I’ve watched the telly too, its not necessarily so”. Truth is he was going to get one in all likelihood, but I don’t want it decided for me. The attack managed to score a legitimate try and the vertical position of the flankers meant that the penalty try was there if needed. However, having reflected on the situation, next time I would have given the penalty on the first offence. The front row had stood up, the back row had detached and it was clearly a very unsuccessful and illegal end to a scrum that was heading towards the goal line at at a rate of knots.

The home side definitely held the advantage in the second half and into the last 5 minutes were a score behind and looked like levelling things, until a flanker’s tackle put the ball carrier’s legs through the vertical. Not a spear-tackle but dangerous enough under the recent directive for a penalty, smack in front of the posts and the fly-half nailed it.

A great game and some fantastic feed-back once again, the players felt the advantage I used allowed them to play the game whilst the previous week, the teams had been blown of the park. Rugby was the winner then. Its good news when even the losers are happy with the ref.

3 Yellows and a flying Prop

With the words of last week’s assessor still fresh in my ears it was off to the Surrey countryside for a local derby in the merit league, a scrappy game full of incident was to follow. The home side (Blue) looked to be mix of youth and experience whilst the visitors (Black) seemed well loaded with experience. The pitch at this club has a significant end to end slope and this is a key factor in choosing sides at kick off. Use the early advantage or take the easier option for tired legs in the second half. Black choose the early advantage. This didn’t work out so well with an early, fast paced try for Blue. This seemed to wake-up Black who used their considerable forward advantage to dominate field position and possession.
Black’s mix of oldies looked to bully Blue early on and I warned them to calm thinks down. Minutes later as a promising move came to end just short of the Blue goal line, Black 16 had words with a Blue player before open-handedly slapping him. The ensuing yellow card was met with protests that it was only a slap, yes it was, if it had been a punch then it would be have been red. From scrumaging under the posts, Black were marched down the field. At 15 minutes in, it was certainly my earliest yellow card and the assessor’s advice did result in taming Black’s temper.
Another Black move came to end 3m out as a Blue player goes down over the ball, killing it. Again a yellow card but no penalty try as Black didn’t look to be certain to score. However, they did from the penalty and turned around 12-10 up, not a great advantage since they would be playing up hill in the second period.
The lack of position and procession had seen a big penalty count against Blue and the captain was warned to keep discipline in the second half but their new strategy was to use the slope and speed of their young backs to keep the old fellas in Black away from the ball. This worked with two early tries which put the game beyond Black. A bizarre aspect of Black’s play was the number of accidental off-sides from ruck and maul. I say accidental but there is a case for obstruction and a penalty, but I judged that the forward players were just too lazy to retire properly. They found this very frustrating but I offered the penalty interpretation and that quietened the complaints. There was to be a third yellow card as a Black winger, chipped through, the Blue defender, jumped to charge it down but deliberately landed in a way to trip the attacking player. The captain had been warned that the penalty count was high and that was reckless play.
The scrumage in this game was a tough one to control. The wizened operators of Black verses the bulk and youth of Blue. The first half, pushing down hill, Black adequately contained the Blue pack. I over heard the Black tight head complimenting his 19 year old adversary on his efforts. However, in the second half, it all started to go wrong; Blue were now pushing down the slope and Black struggles to hold the engagement hit. This resulted in a couple of free kicks for the early push and for delaying the put in. However, in the final quarter, Black’s loose head popped up repeatedly. The first penalty was against him for not taking the pressure and standing up, then against Blue for driving up and then, once again against Black at the loose head flew up in the face of an almighty shove. There is often an element of lottery in getting the call right on front row offences but I am getting more confident calling it right and going for a sanction rather than a re-set.
What did it take out of this match? It was a spirited but disappointing spectacle, there were too many penalties but try as I might they were generally clear, obvious and fair. The early and confident use of a yellow card calmed things down and got both sides focusing on the game. I cut down on the commentary to players and acted with more confidence in key game management phases and the new positioning at kick-offs, line-outs and goal kicks seemed to work well. Final score 31-12 to Blue.

HQ acts to curb blight of uncontested scrums.

About time too, hopefully this will filter down to all levels.

Run out of Props? Tough Luck!

Too many sides, getting stuff in the scrum, have an injury and on comes another flankler
Update:
It looks like this has its roots in an IRB ruling and it is interesting to note the decline in uncontested scrums when this was trailed in France; from 145/994 to 2/994!
More details here

International Rugby Board - ELV recommendations

Its looking like sense is going to prevail with regard to which ELVs are taken forwards as full changes in Law.
Quick throw-ins and no gain in ground from 22 kicks are to stay, but maul pull downs and line-out numbers are out.
MOST IMPORTANTLY- the sanction laws (lets make Union as dull as League) are not being put forward (at least that what it looks like) - though there may be further examination of this one.

International Rugby Board - Rugby stakeholders agree ELV recommendations

All those puffed out props and backs recovering from ruffled hair will be glad to know that rolling subs will be allowed in the community game as well as the potentional for U19 scrum variations being used in the adult game (a new point on the discussion board for me)

I have said that my original hostility to change was tempered by the experience of refereeing the changes but the maul pull down and the sanction ELVs were the most danagerous and they look to be dead. Expect Mr O'Neil of the ARU to throw a strop.

Yellow Peril

Watching the France v Wales in the chasten comfort of my own home rather than the London Welsh club house afforded me the luxury of listening (more soberly) to the commentary. It becomes clear that, whilst Jonathan Davies is unmatched in his tactical analysis, his technical appreciation of the laws is some way behind. Austin Healey on the other hand, may be a folically challenged, scouse motor-mouth, he was spot on in calling the French disallowed try.
The French had driven the ball up to the Welsh line, the ball was picked up off the floor by Harinordoquy who was at best bound to the ruck, but to me, looked to be supported by his shoulder on the body of a player on the ground. The TMO gives the offence as handling in the ruck, he could have chosen playing the ball off his feet. Either way, a lucky escape for Wales – that time!
Jonathan Davies’ called for a yellow card on Shanklin’s aerial contact with Harinordoquy, this was certainly dangerous and illegal but I am less certain it justified a yellow. The TV commentariat seem to believe there are certain offences which automatically warrant a yellow. Some are certainly more likely to result in at least a yellow (punching, stamping) but the referee always has discretion. This will determined by the temperament of the game, the general penalty count and how dangerous/stupid the tackle/action (and if the miscreant is English??). Shanklin is clearly going for the ball and then pulls out, his arm is trailing (I suspect deliberately) but it make contact high on Harinordoquy's body unbalancing him, but it is not as dangerous as taking out his legs or enveloping a player in the air.




I do like the aerial camera during scrums, it’s a view that isn’t available in real life and it certain picked up the French front row pulling the scrum sideways for the wheel. Sadly, it wasn’t as obvious at the ground-level angle for the referee.
England’s penalty count on Saturday at 18 verses Ireland’s 9 was double most other teams’ count for the weekend’s internationals. When the referee encounters that level of indiscipline he will go for the card sooner not later.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking...?

A few days ago I commented on Green and Gold (very one-eyed) Aussie blog

Green and Gold Rugby-Referees for Wallabies Euro Tour

I think Paul Ackford must have read what I said.

I see the Aussies are blaming the ref again for their poor showing against Italy.. and what is it they call us, whinging poms?

Sunny, South West London

The rugby season is now in full swing so, what feels like the sunniest Saturday of the year bakes the turf of Motspur Park. This was another Level 11 game and one that amounts to local derby. The referee training from Thursday night was fresh in my mind so focus on the front rows and closing off at the tackle were to be my points of focus in improving my game.
As it turned out the scrums were generally well behaved and proceeded well compared to last week. The home side lacked the of bulk of the visitors but as with the rest of there game, were better organised. They typically managed to step over the ball as it was put in, though it did catch them for a crooked feed once. Two scrumage incidents stood out; KCS had an attaching scrum on the 5m line, there was a tremendous shove as the ball went in and the defending tight –head stood up, the shove looked straight so I awarded the penalty to KCS which they took quickly and scored under the post. Wimbledon protested they had called a man down; nobody looked hurt as the scrum broke up so I was happy not to stop KCS using the advantage. It turns out it wasn’t a front-row and was merely a knock on the leg. It hardly warranted a stoppage so it was a good call; Wimbledon needed to react to the whistle better.
ELVs came into play in the second incident, a strike against the head saw the KCS back line needing to rearrange defensively, they rushed up and took a stand on the old, back-foot line and it was obvious to spot. Strangely, ten minutes later, the strike went the other way and Wimbledon conceeded the same penalty. ELVs played a part in the second try as KCS scored in the corner, the corner flag was clearly taken out as the ball was grounded, and against short lived protests, the try was good.
The tackle area was particularly scrappy, with KCS frequently handling and Wimbledon going off their feet. One incident saw the visitors turned over in the tackle, Wimbledon had no players in the game at the ruck to complete when KCS stepped over and picked up the ball. There was no penalty as there was no contest, KCS had won the ruck and by picking up they were being positive in getting the ball going forward. In making any discussion, referees should always look to reward positive play. I am not convinced Wimbledon saw it that way.
Sadly, there was no de-briefing with the visitors, post match, so I will have to wait for the card to come back. The home side gave me some good comments but at 34-0, they were bound to be pleased. From my own point of view, I was happy with my response to the high level of chat which diminished with action and I felt more confident that I was dealing with the scrum decisively. However, it was a bad afternoon for positioning, with three scrums as the ball carrier ran into me or being on the receiving end of a clearance kick – ouch!

Thursday's a Training Day...

One of the great benefits of the London Society of Referees is that it is able to attract great speakers to training nights. Wayne Barnes, a graduate of the society is a regular at meetings and last night one of the newest premiership referees PJ Doyle was giving the benefit of his wisdom. The main event was Neil Hatley, the Guinness premierships, most experienced prop and academy coach at London Irish.
Neil gave a fantastic talk on scrumaging, what players and coaches want from referees and how to achieve a fair contest. The England scrum coach Phil Keith-Roach gave an excellent talk some time ago, but Neil added a practical and well illustrated angle.
Key recommendation were to get front rows square and stationary before calling the engagement and what was extremely useful was to show front row misdeeds. Its all well and good talking about what should happen and what to look out for, but having it played to you in slow motion with an expert pointing it out was marvellous. The fact that many of these infractions were un-penalised by international referees provided much debate. It made me realise how much I had been missing or at least allowed to go, not realising the disadvantage I had perpetuated. Clearly a new vigour will apply at Saturday’s game.
ELV and IRB directives also came under discussion, as you might expect this included the 5m scrum offside enforcement, or lack there of. There is so much to watch at scrums, primarily because of safety, the distant drift of defenders to the ‘old’ offside will rarely be caught, particularly without touch judges. Out of the corner of the eye, 3m looks much the same as 5m. Unless the scrum is going well, not even the premiership referees appear to have penalised this yet.
Finally, we are under strict instruction from the IRB to enforce players onto their feet at rucks. We are all conscious of defending players diving off their feet to ‘win’ (read kill) the ball. Less emphasis has been placed on attacking players driving over the ball and going to ground or bridging the tackle. This prevents and obstructs the opposition trying to ruck the ball fairly, and needs to be punished. You have been warned, plenty to take into tomorrow’s game.