Official warning to weak refs

PERHAPS the third British and Irish Lions Test in South Africa will be a turning point for rugby’s rule-makers and enforcers. Water-carriers-cum-coaches such as Rassie Erasmus should be easy enough to outlaw — but what the hell has happened to the scrum feed? Increasingly, it is a joke but even given lax modern standards those delivered by Cobus Reinach (right) of South Africa were an affront to intelligence. They weren’t just slightly skewed but thrown directly to the second row. The otherwise excellent Mathieu Raynal did nothing, as if referees have simply given up. Reinach even shaped to feed the ball in diagonally with not even a hint of pretence. As all scrums appear to take three minutes to set these days, and directing the throw to this extent makes them as good as uncontested between top-tier nations, what’s the point? It is little different in other sports. We all accept that every throw or free-kick in football is taken 10 yards in advance of where it should be, and at Trent Bridge last week India’s batsmen KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant were about to adjourn the play for rain by walking off, without even consulting the umpires, until persuaded otherwise by James Anderson. Incredibly, the officials seemed less bothered than anyone. Later, five minutes before lunch, they let Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja break for a drink. Equally, fielders now leave the play on a whim. Stamina is one of the supreme tests of elite sport, yet this removes that challenge. It can be argued that the modern focus on health and safety makes umpires uncomfortable with any refusal of refreshment or even rest. Yet, generally in sport, there seems a reluctance to deal with the minutiae. Yet the scrum feed is not a minor detail, nor is the position of a free-kick, and certainly that the commencement or curtailment of play is the umpire’s call should be sacrosanct. Officials must get tougher.