Change guidelines to weed out ‘cheats’
I’m not going to do a Rassie and make a 60minute video nasty slagging off a specific referee but before the Lions tour disappears in our rear view mirror there are a few little refereeing items that need addressing under ‘any other business’.
First can we, for the last time this summer I promise, quickly discuss waterboys in general and not just Rassie’s bastardisation of the job?
The World Rugby guidelines on ‘additional persons’ state that they may enter the ‘field of play without the referee’s permission during a stoppage in play for injury to a player or when a try has been scored’.
That clearly needs reworking. All the players start the game well hydrated and even at the height of last summer when we came out of the first lockdown there was just 90 second water breaks on 20 and 60 minutes. That worked well, why not stick to that and keep the gilet jaune waterboys and girls off the park as much as possible?
It also states that ‘appropriate trained and accredited first aid staff can enter the field of play at any time to attend to an injured player’.
So a few thoughts come to mind on that one. There is no mention of medics being allowed to hang around in the in-goal area – very much in play – five metres behind the most important scrum of the game three minutes from time when the Lions were looking to force a possible series winning try. As was the case last Saturday.
The miked-up Boks medic wasn’t treating anybody and play had very much recommenced but nonetheless she still appeared to be bellowing instructions to the Boks forwards, relayed no doubt by the coaches in the stands.
And then, when the scrum started to develop, came her screaming appeals for a penalty to the referee, followed by celebrations before issuing more instructions to the jubilant Boks forwards. It’s hard
to fathom how rugby has got to the point where this is allowed. Get off the bloody pitch!
You will also notice that there is no mention whatsoever of waterboys being permitted to wander on when play has stopped for a TMO decision to be debated – the favourite modus operandi of Erasmus who presumably thinks that either nobody has noticed or, probably correctly, that World Rugby are too lily livered to act in any way
He rushed onto the field on both occasions in the Second Test when it looked like Cheslin Kolbe might be sent off.
There are some massive holes, however, in the additional persons guidelines which is why it is abused. For a start there is no mention of how many waterboys can be employed. Most teams use five or six but you could use 15 if you so wanted, one per player on the field.
It does stipulate that ‘coaches can only attend their team on the field at half-time’ but again the referees have bottled that one, both in South Africa recently and for many years
previously. The point is that by not taking control the referees are significantly undermining their already fragile authority and these things add up until they become compliant figures who can be manoeuvred, managed and frankly bullied by unscrupulous players, coaches and directors of rugby.
This recent series was, for example, an all-time low for crooked feeds at the scrum and the argument that the refs didn’t want to ruin the spectacle just doesn’t wash.
There was no spectacle and almost no rugby in the first place to ruin. In fact the one area where there was bit of a contest and action was the scrum battle, which would have been all the more riveting if the scrum-halves – both sides – were prevented from feeding their second rows.
That tapped penalty nonsense at the end? Artful dodgers – mainly scrumhalves with plenty to say for themselves – are always trying
to get away with quick penalties nowhere near the mark to either create or score a try but most often to draw a ‘not ten’ from defenders that literally have no opportunity to retreat. The attackers point and scream ‘not ten’ at the same instant as they tap from the wrong mark.
Sorry but if the tapper messes up and is caught stealing three or four yards, tough cookie, that’s the risk you take. Scrum to the defending side every time. Why should they get two bites of the cherry? Goal kickers don’t get two pots at goal, lineout throwers don’t get two attempts when they mess up. Just be better and stop cheating.
Glory be the refs at the Olympic Sevens clearly decided to enact this after an opening day at the men’s event when everybody – but most prominently the Fijians – were taking the mick at tapped penalties.
Words were clearly spoken overnight because for the rest of the tournament – and all of the women’s tournament – the clever clogs trying to cheat the system were called back and the defenders awarded a scrum. Bloody marvellous.
The other one is why refs consistently allow those kicking for touch to steal four or five yards and those kicking at goal two or three yards. The latter is comical but can also decide a game and again its undermining to the ref.
The routine rarely varies. It starts with the goalkicker pointing to the post and getting the ref to indicate the mark. Then the goalkicker solemnly places the ball on the mark and will even sometimes theatrically move it back six inches or a foot to satisfy the ref of his integrity and honest intent.
When the ref ’s back is turned, sorting out other pressing matters and somebody is bringing on the tee, said kicker accidentally on purpose clumsily brushes the ball lightly with his foot and it rolls forward gently.
And finally when he picks it up he takes another casual but long crouching stride forward so that it is now two or three yards forward from the original spot before he puts it down again. They all do it, the disease is highly contagious, but if you get a chance just check out Morne Steyn’s routine for his first penalty kick when he came on last week.
In one way you could argue that these are relatively minor issues in the big scheme of things but every time a player or a team gets away with a little bit of modest cheating it chips away at the ref. The players are in control, not the bloke with the whistle.
It’s high time some refs showed some ticker and demonstrated who is in charge. Don’t allow this stuff and it will stop happening and their authority will be enhanced. If refs are going to be so minutely criticised for their every move by coaches and directors of rugby, turn the tables and expose the casual cheating that their teams have hitherto got away with for far too long.