Refereeing a team you played for is quite OK
Another thrilling try-fest in a Gallagher Premiership game on Saturday is being marred by a supposed refereeing controversy. This time it involved a decision by the international referee Karl Dickson, a former Harlequins player. Dickson penalised Quins scrum-half Danny Care for pushing a Northampton player off the ball but did not give him a yellow card for playing Saints scrum-half Alex Mitchell as the ball emerged from a breakdown 10 metres from the Quins line.
To his credit, Northampton coach Phil Dowson gave a very measured comment about the incident. “Karl has had a good look at it, the TMO has had a good look at it, several times,” Dowson said. “They took plenty of time to look at it and if they thought it wasn’t a second yellow then it is not.”
This was the comment of a coach who knows his side played 30 minutes with a man advantage and should have made that count in any event. That they did not was down to an atypical series of handling errors and imprecision at crucial points during the game. Dowson was big enough to know that Saints simply did not play well enough.
So, why the controversy? It is because of the inference by some that Dickson did not give a second yellow card to Care because the referee was a former Harlequins player. Lest you think this is confected, this scenario was prefaced last week in an article in the Northampton Chronicle and Echo. The Saints’ local paper claimed Dickson should not have been put in charge of the game because his decisions would be open to criticism due to a conflict of interest.
It further claimed that there were plenty of other referees who could have been given the game and that removing Dickson would have prevented the sort of criticism now being made. His removal would have had that effect, but there are other points to consider when calling for a blanket ban.
First, there is no evidence that Dickson’s decision was made because of any bias, conscious or subconscious. If he was biased to Quins, why did he give them three yellow cards, at least one of which was debatable?
Commentator Lawrence Dallaglio thought the Care incident was a “stonewall yellow”, but then he played for Wasps and probably hates Quins. The fact that I made that comment about Dallaglio is probably because I played for Quins and am biased.
This rabbit hole has no end, so let’s not start down it.
This bias imputation is conjecture at best and, moreover, does not consider the reality of refereeing. The laws are complex, and officials are deliberately given discretion in interpretation so a game can progress without constant stoppages. Without this flexibility, no game would flow.
It is also not the case that there are plenty of referees who would be as well qualified to officiate in such a top-of-the-table clash. Dickson was one of a handful of Premiership referees with the right experience and to ban him from officiating for a prejudged potential of bias would be an unfortunate precedent in club rugby.
The real evil of setting off down this path is betrayed by later comments in the Chronicle article. It goes on to criticise the fact that Wayne Barnes, one of the best referees of the modern era, was constantly allowed to referee Saints games after he sent off Northampton captain Dylan Hartley for allegedly calling him “a f------ cheat”.
You see where this kind of thinking goes? You get to a point where you are calling for referees to be banned if they have any “previous” with you. In doing so, you are implicitly criticising the referee, not players’ misconduct, nor the often-abusive conduct of supporters on social media. Is this what rugby wants?
Rugby is constantly calling for former players to become referees, and it would be good for the game if they did. If you had this ban, what would you do with someone such as Andy Gomarsall, who played for seven professional English clubs? While he is an extreme example, there are many former players who have played for three or four Premiership clubs. You cannot have it both ways.
It is true that international referees must be neutral, but they are treated differently because of the different environment. As the comments of national coaches, players, fans and media clearly show, nationality invariably eradicates any vestige of objectivity. Rugby should not give in to these baser traits at club level.