Last night the Society hosted three of the iRB panel referees, Wayne Barnes, Stu Dickinson (or Dicko, aparently) and Bryce Lawerence. There was an informanal Q&A session and some predicable ribbing about Cueto's non-try in RWC07 (Dicko was the TMO) and the scrum in the 1st Lions Test (Bryce was the Ref).
The most interesting point to come out of it came when the three were asked about crooked feeds at scrums. Barnes said that if every other safety-related issue was in hand, then he would look for crooked feeds. Bryce agreed but astonishingly, admitted that prior to the ANZ Cup season the referees agreed between themselves not to referee feeds.
Bryce showed some humour when asked how he thought England would play he said that he'd been reading the English press and Jonny was going to win it for them and if he didn't it would Bryce's fault. Perceptive man. Our session last night also included a scrumaging presentation, so I hope that helped.
The three were also asked what rule changes they would like to see.
Dicko said he would like to see no points for a drop goal
Bryce said he would like collapsing the maul back
and Barnes said he would like referee replacements!
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