Boomerang Rugby Ball Shot

Fascinating! Between the posts and above the bar. Its a successful kick

Rugby Club Bar #6

Another student bar and yet again I'm on own. I'm beginning to get a complex, the visitors had to catch their bus back but at least popped in for a take-away. The home captain popped up to pay expenses but didn't buy me a pint. Still, a nice bottle of Fuller's London Pride and a quick chat with the soccer ref.

Red steal the win, an omen for Friday?

An eventful afternoon with two University 2/3rd teams both showing great commitment and if moderate skill. Red scored first but yellow soon replied with three cracking tries. The scrum is looking like a key area of attrition. Yellow have a hugely strong Saffa loose head whilst red have a smaller but technically proficient Welsh tight head, with a high opinion of himself. The first quarter brings 3 scrummage penalties; driving up (yellow), driving in (red), standing up (red). After this they start getting the message, hopefully that they have a ref that has an idea what's going on. It wasn’t the end of the penalties but things settled. Truth is that the Saffa was single handedly destroying the oppo. I needed the “dominate, don’t destroy” chat at one point.    

Towards the end of the first half, red score wide out. I'm standing close by for the conversion, about half way between touch and mid-field. As the kicker is running up I see that the touch judges haven't made it to the posts, so its going to be my call. My angle isn't good and the light is poor. Initially it looked to be going wide but the wind seemed to push it through, I am reasonably confident its a good kick and I give it. From the yellow players' reaction is immediately clear that it missed. I stand by my decision. The first half ends 19-14 to yellow.

Yellow score first in the second half, 26-14 but its a fair contest until the final quarter. A scrum on half way see red break and as I’m start running to follow them a body appears at my feet and my face hits the dirty. I struggle to blow my whistle to stop play but it seems red are crossing the line to score. I can’t give it and bring play back for a scrum. Red’s forwards are applying some good pressure and even score to bring it to 26-21. More pressure and yellow kill the ball 7m out; yellow card and No4 is out for the rest of the game. A red scrum 7m out sees the No8 break but he careers into me but keeps running, crosses the line and drops it, I’d called advantage for the bump so it comes back for the scrum which red score. 26-28 and we are into the last 5 minutes.

A sweeping wide move sees yellow score again to make it 31-28 with the conversion missed, surely its all over. With less than 3 minutes on the clock, play moves into the yellow 22 and red earn a scrum, its won scrappily and the 10 takes it on a broad banana run which sees him round the defence and score. 31-33 with the conversion missed I blow for time.

Yellow are now furious about the earlier conversion and I have some sympathy - I was probably wrong. My defence is that they needed to make more of an effort to provide touch judges. Despite this the feedback from both teams was positive and it was a game with some great rugby and plenty of enjoyment for all. I hope the 6 Nations has some matches with as much excitement…and Red stealing the win of course.

Flashy and Forceful

Two games last week and both ended up being disappointing. The first was a mid-week student game, out in West London and happened to feature the same visiting side as a week earlier. They had been big winners then but given the strong sports tradition of the home side I expected a closer contest. The traditions didn’t extent to the groundsman, who seemed of have marked the grass for every sport except rugby. The additional pitch stripes did make spotting forward passes much easier, not that seem to amuse the visitors too much

As the side’s behaviour was fresh in my mind, I prepared myself, strong scrum, width and speed on their counter attack and captain and No8 that don’t know how to keep quiet. In the first half, they certainly found things tougher; the home side where physically smaller, but threw themselves in to the game with great spirit and where only 12-0 down at half time. Having the advantage of the substantial wind and slope in the second half they could expect to even things up.

The wet and windy weather meant that last week’s spectacular mis-passes  from the fly-half were going all over the place and contributing to the scrum count. The home side fell apart in the second half conceding 6 tries, including an impressive chip and collect that would not have looked out of place on an international field. Final score 46-3 to the visitors.

My weekend game was a merit league match, first place vs second. However, this too proved to a one sided affair, with the home side running away with it. Brute force and team work were the defining features of the home side. A few beefy Saffas, who inevitably spent the whole game refereeing the game for me. However, it was the visitors who conceded my fastest yellow card. Attempted interception from Blue, knocked on, but I played advantage, the Red fly-half stops in his tracks and screams at me about the missed knock-on. You can go for rest matey!

The second half became very disjointed as injuries took their toll, one was nasty as a Red player was left with a hyper-extended neck injury which, thankfully only left him with a painful stinger. Scrums became uncontested after Blue loose head attempted to hook the ball back in and the scrum collapsed injuring the shoulder of his tight head. Blue finished as 43-5 winners. I had some good feed-back from both sides, but I think each expected the whistle sooner for infringements I was running advantage or judged immaterial.

Rugby Club Bar #5

An ageing but well loved/used bar at this South London Old Boys club. 3 rugby matches and some hockey players and even Lacrosse made for lively and crowded bar. Hook Norton bitter and Young's (very) Ordinary. The home skipper and some friendly alickados made for some good banter, especially with regard to scrums.

Rugby Club Bar #4

Shocking afternoon. The students I reffed today had NO BAR! Won't be going back there anytime soon!

Splashing About

No one drowned this week, but it was a close thing. Plenty of games have been called off because of the water logged pitches in recent weeks. Indeed the venue for this match was swapped with the opposition, playing rugby in the mud is slowly being phased out. Despite the change of ground, the playing surface included three distinct puddles, the largest about 2-3m across! I warned the captains that I would blow quickly unless the pile ups happened in the shallow end!

The matched ended up as a great and good humoured tussle, the visitors (though technically the home side because of the ground switch) got the better of the first half, the first try was well worked with the player tackled on the line. The player landed with his back to me, though I was positioned slightly in front of him. I couldn’t see the ball, but judged it to be on or just over, it was only when he rolled over to get up, that I realised the ball was probably just short.  I wasn’t going to reverse it and even with a TMO I wouldn’t have gone upstairs. There was surprisingly little complaint from the home side which was surprising given my previous experience with that team. Half time ended 15-3 to the visitors.

As the second half got underway, it be came apparent that the the home side were tightening up their game, they had a significant forward advantage and there two second half tries came from push over tries. Given the current discussion at the top of the game, these was well executed and the opposition took the pressure and didn’t drop it, stand up or disintegrate. Scrummaging under the current laws is possible if the players want to play to them.

The second try came after the yellow card was brandished for killing the ball 3m out under the posts. The ruck was a big pile of bodies but the purple arm across the ball was clear to see. If you are going to commit an offence in that position, don’t wear fancy matching under-vests.

With the game balanced at 15-all the home side where again camped on the visitors line, the ruck developed into a pile of bodies. The purple player at the back was on the wrong side, but couldn’t escape. It was going to be an attacking scrum until the scrum-half decided to intervene, 2-3 stamps onto the side ribs of the prostrate player. No question of a yellow, but a real question of whether it was red. Once again it had been a good natured game I warned the player that they might not be so lucky with another referee and in the end I didn’t fancy the paper-work.

Great feed-back from the players and score that was a fair result for what the two sides brought to the game.