More on that Tackle

Much will continue to be said about Warburton red but you have to split the argument in to two parts.

a) Referee were instructed to red card tackles were the players legs are lifted above the horizontal and the player driven or dropped to the ground so that the head/shoulders make contact first.

b) Do players/coaches/spectators/referees things this is acceptable behaviour on the field and what should the sanction be?

Analysis

a) The Warburton tackle ticked all the boxes for that to be a red in the eyes of the referee. The way a referee will judge at a tip tackle is start with a red and work back. Dropping because he realised it was a tip is not a defence. Making some effort to control the player coming to ground is, and that is what Stephen Jones looks to do. Players cannot always control the outcome of where a players body goes in a tackle, but they must try to tackle in a manner which is safe and when it goes wrong control the tackled player to minimise injury.

The video images of Stephen Jones tackle are pretty poor, the referee is just about right given he is judging it in real time without slo-mo replays.

b) A bit of rough and tumble is all very good until someone gets turn, its a valid for grown ups as it was in the school yard. The referee is ultimately responsible for player safety and there must be a suitable sanction to dissuade players from dangerous play. The negative consequences of this are there for us all to see in that semi-final. If you are going to take away red cards for this then what else and how are you going to protect referees that are not able to punish it adequately? Saying that dumps are different to spears brings in more subjectivity that opens up the ref to further criticism. The focus, presently, is what is dangerous? Landing on your head/neck from a height is. How do we discourage it? Red card.

For anyone who thinks it isn't dangerous, please read this.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/641866

How to avoid a tip tackle

The momentum of going into a tackle can result into a players legs going somewhere you don't expect them, this can become a 'tip tackle'. Wales' Sam Warbuton fell foul of this in the most talked about tackle at the weekend. Here we see Gavin Henson tackling Tait, the England player's legs are lifted and if Henson drives through or drops him he would be red card today. Henson has the strength to control the player and bring him to ground safely. Humiliating Matt Tait in the process.

Another example of Mr Rolland's judgement on tip tackling, more of a 'traditional' spear tackle but the man is consistent.

The question must be how many of this delightful compilation you would not red card?

That tackle and the Red Card

As a referee, London Welsh wasn’t a happy place to be last Saturday, well most Saturdays actually. There can be no better place to watch a Wales international short of the the Millennium Stadium itself but as I saw the circumstances of the Warburton tackle I realised I would be justifying the action the referee for the rest of the day. My conversation with the Welsh RFU panel touch judge for the home game was the one exception.

My first instinct on seeing the replay was “oh dear, he is going to get cited and banned for the Final”, a yellow card was inevitable. It was a surprise that Rolland issued the red, not from the action of Warburton but on what referees typically do under such circumstances. A yellow and a retrospective ban is the form and is something we have seen 3-4 times in the RWC, but I’ve seen an Aussie red carded in 3N match for the same thing. The argument of consistency has been made and is a valid one but needs to be applied to the action of the other referees in the tournament. The resultant bans for player show that red cards should have issued at the time.

The IRB in their infinite wisdom has decided that the ‘tip tackle’ is supremely dangerous. It is covered by this;

Law 10.4(j) reads: Lifting a player from the ground and dropping or driving that player into the ground whilst that player’s feet are still off the ground such that the player’s head and/or upper body come into contact with the ground is dangerous play

The upshot is that if you take the player up, you bring him down safely; you do not drive him down (the extreme Melamu/O’Driscoll example), you do not think, “bugger I’ve tipped him I better let go of him now” (as Warbuton did) but you control how you bring him down (as Henson did to Matt Tait in 2005). Intent does not come into it, terrible things happen by accident and we must take the consequences.

What differentiates the referee’s actions on Saturday was he didn’t bottle the decision, he saw what he saw and knew how the IRB had directed him to act and he went to his pocket. The only mistake he made was not consulting his assistant referees, I doubt the outcome would be different but it would have bought himself time to make it clear in his mind and shared the responsibility for call.

Imagine a conversation like this.

REF, “this is what I saw, red 7 lifts blue of the ground and through the horizontal and drops him, he fails to bring him to ground in a safe manner, a dangerous tackle. Do you have anything to add?”

AR1 “nothing to add, it was a dangerous tackle,”

REF, “I am going to award a penalty and issue a red card to red 7”

AR1 “agreed”

The whole world knows what the Ref is thinking, the Ref has a few extra seconds to think about the consequences of what he is doing and he gets the moral support from the touch line. If the AR disagrees him, he will not contradict the Ref, there are code words used, if he thinks otherwise then he could have replied, “ nothing to add, it was a reckless tackle.” Reckless verses dangerous tackle communicated a suggested downgrade to yellow but the referee still has the option to keep it red.

The first responsibility of the referee in any game is the safety of the player and with high momentum impacts between flesh, bone and earth there is a lot that can go wrong. As players and spectators we all love the “ooff” factor of a big hit is exciting and part of the psychological ascendancy that a team looks to establish, however, we all want players to walk off the field. “Dominate do not destroy” is part of my front row talk and it applies to all players, who must have a responsibility to fellow players for their safety.

Much of the criticism of Alain Rolland has been that he has ruined the tournament, Wales were a better team than France and almost certainly would have won with 15 men, thus making a much more competitive final. However, the referee is tasked with managing that game, nothing more. He must make it safe, he must make it fair and he must must punish dangerous play within the parameters he has been given. What ever the consequences for Wales, Alain Rolland full-filled this function and throughout the rest of the game I found him to fair and consistent. Wales did enough to win that match, a little better luck with kicks and we would have still be looking forward to a Final on Sunday.

The broader topic must be how we want the game to be managed by the IRB. Many of the same people saying the red card spoilt the game and the tournament were bellowing for Mealamu to have been red carded for the O’Driscoll tackle. As fans we must be consistent, if we accept that red cards are to be a part of the game we can not apply them selectively. Perhaps red cards should only be used for a foul play; punching, gouging, head butts, ‘genuine’ spear tackles? The latter will keep the debate open on where the line should be drawn.

Brutality in the Sun

Its just about time for the end of season and one last outing at the Rugby Rocks London 10’s. A nice mix of social and vets with some good rugby on offer and the game mostly played with a super spirit. Unfortunately the heat boiled over in the mid-afternoon in a game I was due to ref but was swapped out of.

It was an Old Boys side verse a team mostly made up of players from my old club. I will stress I did not see what happened next but my description comes from discussions with the four refs that did. It seems an Old Boys elbow clocked someone, not for the first time. That provoked a fluffy of fists from both sides, who threw the first punch is unknown, who finished it was the Welsh boys. I arrived as two Old Boys were receiving treatment from the medics. One had a cut mouth and missing teeth and the other had a suspected fractured eye socket. Both were taken to hospital and discussion surrounded whether the police should be called and if the Welsh side should be thrown out of the competition.

The disappointing thing is that despite a ref and two assistants none of them saw enough of the action to identify the assailants. The best account came from the senior ref watching casually. So no one was red-carded as they should have been.

Only one player was clearly identified, the Welsh no8, a player I knew well from my playing days.  Sadly, it is a pattern of play that is all too familiar to me. Most weeks he was involved in some punch up, I remember one year he laid out the no8 from the same team in both fixtures. Apparently, he never started it, no, he is just protecting his mates but he always in the thick of it. The depressing thing is he is not some angry young man, he is in his mid-50’s. Learning to play rugby in the valleys in the 70’s this may be how the game was played. These days its not acceptable, its rare to see it at the top of the game and there is no reason basic thuggery should be acceptable lower down.

This character is a revered clubman; youth coach and past committee man: the only reason his ban for battering someone who provoked him in the club house was over turned.

When you play, or even a spectator and there is some hand-bags its a bit spicy, you may welcome the extra edge its brings to the game. However, as a ref you are responsible for player safety and seeing two players taken to hospital following what is common assault is something that need to stamped out.

The side in question wasn’t playing as a Welsh team, they were a mixed group, but they were wearing the club shirts. Its disappointing for me as a Welshman but from my experience with Welsh teams at the Schools Sevens there is pattern emerging that a basic level of violence is an acceptable part of the game.

No one will be arrested or banned for what happened, there won’t be enough clear cut evidence. The ref team slipped up on that one, a team of three should have got one of them but it was a social afternoon and no one was expecting this. It is clear that one pugilist should retire.
Update
The good news is that the two injured players were not as badly injured as first thought, indeed no teeth were missed and the eye injury was superficial. 

Wales, Italy and a muddy field in Surrey

Blogging has been light this season as matches have been thin on the ground and I don’t want to get on to the debate how good or bad international referees are. What I don’t like is the increasingly public debate about the quality of specific referees and the way coaches now routinely assess the referee as part of the post match interview. The iRB and RFU need to start stamping down on this, we know where it ends up, Ferguson and Wenger being the clues as to where.

My last full adult game was a couple of weeks ago, I would have loved to watch Wales thrash the Italians, but I hadn’t had a run out and, well it’s only Italy. It was my third time with the home team this season: the first ever with the visitors. If there was any doubt that it is players that wind up refs and not the other, then this match illustrated it well. The first half had been largely uneventful, the visitors running up a three try lead and every thing was good humoured. The visitors brought on two replacements at half time, a lock and flanker. Immediately the ‘comments’ started; questioning decisions, calling the line out or forward passes for me. I asked the captain to put a lid on it but it continues. A penalty for dissent is given following a break-down offense and the second, quickly taken penalty results in a try against the visitors. As they regain the upper hand things calm down again.

In the dying minutes the flanker is pinged for going off his feet and playing the ball on the floor, “ Its against you red 16”, he slams down the ball and asks me if I’m having a “Giraffe”, no I’m not but you’re having ten minutes (from the two that were left). As he walks from the field further comments about my refereeing proficiency see me up that card to a red, the first for a while.

In the end, I though it was a reasonable day at the coal face, but two old, lazy props and a mouthy flanker make me think a few beers and the Wales games may have been a better way to spend the time.

Tales and Flags

No game to referee this week as I was undertaking a Touch Judge development course. There is bit more to it that simply raising a flag roughly where the ball goes out. There is good deal about positioning, especially as play nears the goal line. Then there is the need to be the eyes in the back of the referee’s head, spotting trouble and communicating this to him, especially if both of you are wired up and linked to the TV. The secret code used to describe foul play is revealed. If the TJ describes the illegal action as ‘unnecessary’ then he is recommending a caution, ‘reckless’ means a yellow card and ‘dangerous’ warrants a red card.
Our tutor, Old Uncle Bob, is a former top, national referee and it is clear that from the video clips used, he favours swift justice for miscreants, recommending red cards far more quickly than any of the class.
Old Uncle Bob is well stocked with tales from his years with a whistle, two favourites from yesterday included the English international referee (not current) who’s pre-match routine included a couple of G&T’s before he took the field. Sounds more fun than Gatorade. Another English international referee arrived for France v Scotland with only a white shirt, forgetting the French change of strip. His only other top was a red training shirt, ripped at the side. With the aid of some safety pins he took to the field and the game passed without incident. However, his assessor did criticise him for not raising his arm high enough.
Spectator violence is something at has hit the news lately, but one of my classmates recounted a recent London New Zealand v Hammersmith match were a floored Kiwi was receiving a pasting from his opposite number. The swiftest retribution was delivered by the victim’s 5 foot girlfriend who matched on the field to deck the assailant with a decisive right hook! Classy bird!

THE TROUBLE-SHOOTER

The South Africans seem to give their referees a high public profile as the website shows. The story below will now serve as inspiration for my use of yellow cards this season, especially if I encounter my old club team !

The Legend of Dick Jefferys

"The teams were lined up to run on but were waiting for one latecomer to arrive. Dick Jefferys blew a tetchy blast on his whistle and shouted at the tardy one to ‘buck up there'. The latecomer took exception to this and gave Dick a two-fingered sign, with vocal accompaniment, whereupon Dick waved him back to the changing room, hustled the teams on to the field, awarded a penalty on the centre spot to the non-offending (he would have said ‘non-offensive') team, advanced the penalty ten metres on receipt of the inevitable objections and signalled three points virtually before the match had begun. Now that took some doing!"

A lesson to all of you who may be a little too chippy!