We need zero tolerance towards bullying tactics
With the new season around the corner, it’s a good time to make a wish, and mine is about referees. I’d like the Premiership to adopt a zero tolerance attitude towards the questioning of referees’ decisions, from players and coaches.
One of rugby’s core values is,‘We respect our match officials and accept our decisions’, and it’s a crucial aspect of the game that needs to be rigorously enforced, and not merely words. Sports don’t go from the situation where the ref is treated with respect, to one where officials get crowded and jostled, in an instant – it’s a slow erosion over a period of time.
Players, professional and amateur, are a bit like kids inasmuch as they’ll always push the boundaries to see how far they can go. If you let them make one small step towards the unacceptable, another will follow shortly afterwards, and so on. The line in the sand has to be drawn, and maintained.
On the pitch it’s relatively straightforward, if there’s sufficient will.We need to get back to the days when the old adage still held:‘The referee is right, even when he’s wrong’. I’m sure there will be those who will mount the argument that the stakes are now so high that refereeing mistakes can’t be tolerated, but they are plain wrong – refereeing mistakes have to be tolerated and accepted, because the alternative leads to chaos.
We need to rigorously enforce the situation where the only person who speaks to the ref is the captain, and it’s at a time of the official’s choosing. Any other player who tries to remonstrate with the ref should get a warning, and then a yellow card. If a players goes beyond what the officials consider to be acceptable behaviour, big fines and bans should follow – if they did then coaches would read make sure their players didn’t transgress.
That leads us on to coaches, and they’re the ones who, in my opinion, can do the most damage to the game. Their comments sometimes undermine the authority of the officials, and that mustn’t be tolerated. In post-match interviews, coaches should be instructed to simply say that they can’t comment on decisions that were made, as they will be taking them through the proper review channels.
If a coach goes beyond that, as plenty did last season, slap them with a fine and a ban – if a couple of Premiership head coaches were barred from being in the stadium for a match or two, they’d toe the line.
Last season we had the then Worcester Warriors boss Dean Ryan going off on one about refereeing decisions, and a confidential report which he said showed his team was getting the rough end of the stick. Did he get the punishment his actions undoubtedly merited? No, he got a lucrative job with the RFU! That will hardly have acted as a deterrent.
English rugby is on the up, with success at both club and international level, the salary cap has gone through the roof, and it’s hard to visualise the train hitting the buffers anytime soon.That’s why it’s imperative than someone takes a step back and thinks about the soul of the game. That’s exactly what football didn’t do when its gravy train started rolling, and now they have the richest group of disrespectful prima donnas on the planet, and haven’t a clue how to fix their problems.
Rugby must not go down the same road, and making sure that officials are respected, and their decisions are accepted without any public questioning, is a crucial part of that.
Is the way Scottish Rugby has handled the changes in its coaching structure inspired or inept? Supporters must be scratching their heads at the way the SRU dealt with the departure of current coach Vern Cotter, and the appointment of Gregor Townsend.
They want shot of Cotter and they want Townsend, but in announcing it nine months ahead of it actually happening, I suspect they have weakened both country and Glasgow Warriors.
Whatever the current spin, I don’t reckon there’s a chance that the transition will go smoothly, or that the timetable will survive. The added complication is that the Warriors’ players will be thinking about the Kiwi, Dave Rennie who will be Townsend’s replacement.
My hope is that the individuals concerned will have the good sense to scupper this daft plan. If Townsend is going to be good enough come June, then he’s good enough now, and Vern Cotter is a world-class coach who shouldn’t spend the next nine months in rugby limbo.