Rigid refs are putting casual fans off rugby

SomeTImeS the best advice comes from people who know nothing about the game. when I was a player, I had a terrible season when I lost my place in the Great Britain rugby league team. There was a guy who worked down at the running track and he said to me: ‘You’re not quite as aggressive as you used to be, are you?’

He didn’t know much about rugby but his words really stuck with me and within a few months I was back in the team.

I had a similar experience at the weekend, when I had a few friends round to watch the games. They don’t watch much rugby, but they hover between sports and one of them said to me: ‘The problem with rugby, Shaun, is that the referees are on TV more than the players.’

It put them off, and these are the kind of neutral fans the sport needs to attract.

There was one red card and two yellow cards in england’s game against australia. rugby isn’t an easy game to officiate but we have some fantastic referees. I just think they need to be given a bit more leeway around red and yellow cards.

at the moment, if you hit someone on the head it’s a red card. obviously the game needs to be safe but I think the system is too rigid.

Because referees follow a strict formula around cards now, we’re seeing players protesting to draw incidents to their attention. I worry that too many players are appealing every time there’s a little bit of contact.

It’s like soccer where the players throw their arms up in the air. That’s not rugby, is it? I’m worried we might be at a bit of a tipping point.

People ask me how France won the Six Nations and the first thing I say is we didn’t get any red or yellow cards. most fans would like to see fewer cards in the game.

People pay a lot of money to watch a Test match and I’m sure they would prefer to watch 15 versus 15. I just hope they don’t start voting with their feet.