Give refs more latitude on cards - Skivington
GEORGE Skivington believes referees should be given more latitude over challenges that involve head contact following Freddie Steward’s rescinded red card in Dublin last weekend.
The England full-back was sent off after Hugo Keenan stumbled into him and took a blow to the head from Steward’s elbow as Steward braced for a contact he could not avoid.
Referee Jaco Peyper thought long and hard about the colour of the card the incident merited before concluding that the current climate demanded that it be red.
“Too many games are being decided on these decisions,” said Skivington, Gloucester’s head coach. “I sympathise with referees because they are in a no-win situation. It was clear that Jaco Peyper did not think it was a red card offence but he had to send Steward off because of the pressure he was under.
“England were making the game a real scrap. They may not have won had Steward remained on the field, but without him it was a very hard task. I think it is an issue that has to be addressed because too many games are coming down to this.”
The southern hemisphere has in the last two years operated a 20-minute red card. A player who is ordered off is able to be substituted after the 20 minutes are up.
“That is going some way to a solution,” said Skivington. “This has to be looked at because everyone is frustrated with it all. Someone has to take a stand and that means someone powerful coming up with a plan.
“Steward’s red card was overturned, but that was too late for England. It has become very, very messy and you can feel aggrieved after a game.
“We are at a stage now where everyone is scared to say we are getting it wrong. Referees should not be put in a position where if they do not act they will get slaughtered. I have had chats with them and they are boxed into a corner. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. It makes it hard to coach players when decisions are made and then pulled back. What was Freddie Steward supposed to do having no time to react? This has to be sorted out.”
Skivington last week announced the signing of Cardiff’s powerful centre Max Llewellyn. He confirmed the club would be spending up to the increased salary cap of £6.5m but said the Premiership could not afford a repeat of the pre-Covid wage inflation.
“We are 95 per cent there with the squad for next season,” he said. “There will be some announcements in the coming weeks but it is still a hard place in terms of recruitment.
“Rugby has been a bit of a disaster this season from an outside point of view with clubs going down and so many players and coaches, good people, unemployed. If there is going to be a silver lining it is that we press the reset button, pay lads fairly and not let things run away again so that they blow up further down the line.
“Max is a good player. We think we can make even better. He fitted the puzzle nicely and I hope he is here for a long time. You have to do that if you are to build a squad because if you sign a lot of older players, they are not going to be around for very long.”
Gloucester have had a plague of injuries all season. England centre Mark Atkinson has been out since October and will not be back until next season with the medics yet to set a return date.