Bin players who appeal for yellows
In last week’s TRP Bob Reeves, a past RFU president, gave his suggestions as to how the current state of rugby could be improved. It was revolutionary stuff, as he actually suggested that referees should adhere to the game’s Laws, rather than simply ignoring some of them!
The bit that struck a particular chord was when he told the story of U20 England props telling him that the purpose of scrums was to win a penalty! He and I can’t be the only ones who believe that’s totally against the spirit of the game? The first weekend of the Six Nations gave further examples of how referees’ laissez-faire attitude towards the Laws and values of rugby is damaging the sport.
A friend of mine always reckons you should quickly be able to tell which player is a team’s captain: it can be because of obvious inspirational leadership, but generally it’s because he’s the one talking to the referee. It has for a long time been generally accepted that the captain speaks to the referee on behalf of his team, but the first round of the Six Nations showed that things are getting out of hand and a clamp-down is needed.
In the Ireland v England match it seemed to be open house for the Irish players, with most of them chirping away in Jerome Garces’ ear. It was in his power to instantly stop this, but for whatever reason he chose not to do it – he was totally wrong in that. It has become the modern style for referees to have a bit of banter with players, but it should be up to the ref to initiate that – players moaning about the opposition, and proffering advice to the officials is just plain unacceptable, and the sooner that’s made clear the better things will be.
However, it got much worse, with the Irish captain, Rory Best, and Peter O’Mahony, committing what I see as a cardinal sin, which should have earned them at least a stiff telling off, if not more. Both, at separate times appealed for Garces to yellow-card an opponent, something that is sadly becoming more prevalent in the game, but in my book is the lowest of the low, every bit as bad as an act of foul play – how does that fit in with respect for the officials and opponents?
This happens too often now, although it seems to be a particular problem with the Irish provinces and the national side, and it needs to be eliminated. I’m probably from the Attila The Hun side of the disciplinary fence, but an instant yellow for appealing for a yellow would stop this overnight!
Also in the England game we had what seemed to be confusion between Garces and his TMO. It concerned the try scored by Mako Vunipola, which was then subsequently disallowed. Sadly the commentator talked over part of the conversation, but it sounded as though the TMO wasn’t in full agreement with the ref, but wasn’t able to get his view across, and eventually capitulated. Garces, of course, is French but was speaking in English, whereas the TMO was Glenn Newman, a Kiwi.
Why would you not give a French ref a French TMO – isn’t that just asking for trouble? For me this is symptomatic of an attitude problem that exists within the game, where ensuring we get the correct result is sometimes treated as being incidental.
In this instance they just about got away with it as England still got their bonus point, but had the ref and the TMO managed to get their act together, the margin of England’s victory might well have been wider, and with points difference counting, that matters. In what is a huge showcase for rugby, this is a tad amateurish and really isn’t good enough.
In the France v Wales game Wayne Barnes, by far the best ref around, made his usual valiant attempt to speak some French, whereas there are other refs who communicate only in English, irrespective of which teams are involved. Surely it’s just a matter of courtesy and respect to try to learn at least a few words of both sides’ native language?
In both of yesterday’s matches we had French refs and English TMOs, with an Argentinian and a Japanese assistant chucked in just to keep things lively! This afternoon Nigel Owens will officiate at Twickenham when England meet France, with the same Kiwi TMO appointed, and it will be interesting to hear whether there’s any French spoken – if there isn’t then in my book it’s insulting to the visitors.
I can fully understand the logic of wanting refs from different countries to gain experience of working abroad, but surely, bearing in mind the stature of the competition, care should be taken to ensure that things work smoothly.
When a team travel away the odds are already stacked against them, so surely the least that can be done is to give them a bit of help by conducting the odd bit of officiating in their mother tongue?