SANZAR sees sense

[Gagger]

Alleluia. Having endured a year when the most successful teams were the ones who kicked the ball away, it would appear that the Southern Hemisphere powers that be have felt the disillusionment of rugby lovers in the place the counts the most; the balance sheet, and decided to do something about it.

read more: http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/sanzar-sees-sense/

 

[Lee Grant]

The referees should not congratulate themselves for addressing something at least 10 years too late.

One of the best things that referee bosses can do, but don't, is to reward referees who don't miss things such as not letting go of the tackled player and not letting scrummies put the ball in crooked.

They talk to the press a lot. Instead of the goobley gook they spew forth I'd like to hear them say things like:

"Romaine Poite is being awarded this important test match because he doesn't talk too much. He communicates in short sentences and does not get involved in conversations." [It's true too.]

"Fred Nerk has been elevated to the test match panel because he has been the most consistent ref in making sure that the tackler releases the tackled player before taking further part in the game."

" I have been happy that the ball is going straighter into the scrums in Round 1. Bill Bloggs in particular made sure that there was a fair contest."

Yarda, yarda. It will get the refs thinking that if Fred Nerk gets mentioned then why didn't I?"

If that kind of stroking doesn't work with the refs then they have to be demoted in some way. Getting minor games instead of the big ones, and not getting test matches.

The ref bosses should also work with the assessors so that the matters the really want addressed get marked accordingly - and the referees should know it too. "Sorry mate, 3 crooked throws to the scrum not Free Kicked and that's 50% of your mark this week."

It's not rocket science - if referees think it's too hard, use refs that don't think it's too hard.

 

[Thomond78]

Except the small problem, Lee, is what Poite communicates in short sentences is almost invariably wrong.

He's actually worse that Bryce Lawrence. Genuinely. God help us all, he's worse than James Jones. And even the French think so...

That SANZAR release is fascinating as an admission that they've more or less told refs to ignore the actual laws about the tackle for years. Quelle surprise. :angryfire:

 

[chief]

Thomond wash your mouth out. Lawrence's incompetence is made known on a large scale. He would struggle to referee 1st grade over in Brisbane. Poite is one of my favourite referees, he adapts positive rugby, while making it entertaining. Doesn't waste time on scrums will put players in the bin. And more importantly he shuts his mouth, and doesn't look for as much television time as he can get.

Jerome Garces, is a bloody top quality referee as well, now the French are producing these top quality referees, after only having Joel Jutge.

 

[Thomond78]

Thomond wash your mouth out. Lawrence's incompetence is made known on a large scale. He would struggle to referee 1st grade over in Brisbane. Poite is one of my favourite referees, he adapts positive rugby, while making it entertaining. Doesn't waste time on scrums will put players in the bin. And more importantly he shuts his mouth, and doesn't look for as much television time as he can get.

Jerome Garces, is a bloody top quality referee as well, now the French are producing these top quality referees, after only having Joel Jutge.

Chief, I've seen more of him, and seen his performances in the flesh; and every game he's done has been a turgid kick-fest punctuated by incomprehensible decisions. If there's a GP team involved, Poite's weakness and general lunacy means the English team just kill the ball dead and you get ping-pong. He's appalling.

Garces, on the other hand, is excellent. Every thing you claimed about Poite can, justifiably, be said about Garces, who is a far, far better referee and a ref that, if Paddy O'Brien really had a clue, would be fast-tracked into the international stage via the higher reaches of the HEC as fast as possible.

 

[chief]

Garces surely will be up there soon, very talented. A lot more competence then half of those IRB refs.

 

[Lee Grant]

My post wasn't to put forward the name of a referee as righteous. I should have used the name Parry Hotter. Nor was it to advocate that the examples used were good or bad things.

My concern has been that referees organisations and bosses are letting things drift along - not being proactive in picking what the professional players are likely to be doing, but being reactive - and in the present case deciding to crackdown on something that has always been illegal, instead of fixing up the problem when the problem manifested itself, not long after the pro era started.

They are having trouble controlling referees who by their habits are creating conventions for others to follow. They have issued bulletins as to what referees should do but the conventions seem to have a stronger force. Now we have had more meetings, bulletins and press announcements, about letting go of the tackled player and the ball. I hope it works.

But my point was that the referee gurus should use things other than meetings and bulletins. They should look at things outside of the square to change the habits of referees who follow the conventions set in place by their big brothers and fathers. How else can you explain why scrummies are allowed to put the ball in crooked year after year? - and now I have to say: decade after decade.

Dickenson recently got a public rocket for stuffing up some scrums. Whether he deserved it or not is not important; but why aren't referees given a rocket because they didn't make sure the ball wasn't put in straight? If Bray mentions after every round of the Supr14 something liike: "Parry Hotter and Fred Nerk did a great job making sure that both hookers could contest for the ball but 3 of the others struggled ..." or whatever ... the problem would be fixed in a month.

This is not current procedure and maybe not genteel, but if you want to change outcomes you have to change the way you do things.

 

[chief]

I read this today, obviously Bray is trying to introduce change before a massive revamp of the laws occur in the not to distant future.

SANZAR coaches and referees have accepted joint responsibility at the tackle and the scrums in order to produce a faster, more attractive game.

Something similar happened in England when Ed Morrison took his elite referees to each of the Guinness Premiership clubs in an attempt to reduce penalties at the breakdown and facilitate quicker ball.

SANZAR is attempting to correct faults in a transparent way. The two aspects especially under the spotlight at-re the tackle and the scrum. More specifically at the tackle there is the tackler's obligation to release the tackled play - break his contact with him before playing the ball - when he is on his feet.

SANZAR now has a referees' manager - Lyndon Bray of New Zealand, recently a Test and Super rugby referee. He will be in charge of seeing to consistency in application of the law and compliance with it. The first responsibility will rest with the players to comply.

This is not new but an application of law that exists.

Law (a) When a player tackles an opponent and they both go to ground, the tackler must immediately release the tackled player.
Sanction: Penalty kick

(b) The tackler must immediately get up or move away from the tackled player and from the ball at once.
Sanction: Penalty kick

(c) The tackler must get up before playing the ball and then may play the ball from any direction.
Sanction: Penalty kick

Law 15.6 (c) Players in opposition to the ball carrier who remain on their feet who bring the ball carrier to ground so that the player is tackled must release the ball and the ball carrier. Those players may then play the ball providing they are on their feet and do so from behind the ball and from directly behind the tackled player or a tackler closest to those players’ goal line.
Sanction: Penalty kick

Referees who get their application of the ;law wrong in Super 14 will be told of their problem and the matter could be made public. In fact the buck will stop with the men who select and appoint referees to Super 14 matches - Andrew Cole (Australia), Colin Hawke (New Zealand) and Tappe Henning (South Africa), who is also an IRB referees' selector.

Talking of the tackle, Bray said: "We've agreed philosophically to change what a tackler can and can't do. He's doing too much. In the evolution of the game we've allowed him to remain in contact with the ball and the ball-carrier after he leaves his feet and he stays on the ball and jumps up and rips it away.

"It looks great in a one-on-one scenario, but it's actually against the law. It creates in the game a repetitive scenario where the ball-carrier ends up with no rights because he can't do anything with the ball.

"The tackler inevitably gets the penalty which philosophically goes against what we are trying to achieve. We've agreed the tackler must release everything when he goes to ground and not hold on as he gets to his feet."

Then there is to be emphasis on scrumming within law in an attempt to reduce the resets of scrum which take up to 16% of playing time. SANZAR has appointed three scrum coaches in each of the three countries - Pat Noriega (Australia), Mike Cron (New Zealand) and Balie Swart (South Africa).

If a player in a team is presenting scrum problems, the coach will inform the team. If the problem persists SANZAR has the right and the permission from its teams to go public - let the other teams and the media know.

 

[Lee Grant]

PS

I can't say that I'm a great fan of announcing that the attacking team will be refereed less stringently. We don't won't a return to Brumby Ball. I would rather recognise the key problems and give the refs some public stroking if they attend to correct observance of the law in question - as mentioned above - and demoting them if they do not improve. That will change their behaviour better than a meeting or a bulletin.

There is nothing new in referees favouring the attacking team. I have criticised referees conventions on the internet for over 10 years but there are some good ones. One is that the attacking scrummie is allowed (by convention, not by law) to put his hands in the ruck to fish the ball out. You couldn't do that "in my day" but the game is better for it now.

It lets the game flow.

I would be very interested in how the highest ranked referee, Kaplan, complies with the SANZAR instructions. The others will follow him.

PPS I have just read the article posted by Chief - thanks for that.

Referees who get their application of the law wrong in Super 14 will be told of their problem and the matter could be made public. In fact the buck will stop with the men who select and appoint referees to Super 14 matches - Andrew Cole (Australia), Colin Hawke (New Zealand) and Tappe Henning (South Africa), who is also an IRB referees' selector.


Woo hoo - [where's that patting yourself on the back icon when you need it?]. Let's see how it goes.

 

[rsea]

Australian Rugby has suffered over the past few years by playing positive Rugby during a period where negative rugby was rewarded. Other international teams adapted to the conditions (refereeing interpretations) while we kept trying to play the same flowing type of game that suits us. McKenzie understood this and he had the Tahs play ugly rugby with a bit of success, however negative Rugby isn't our strength and the Australian Rugby public won't accept it as a spectacle.

These changes present a great opportunity to our international and provincial teams. You only need to look at the games against Wales (who also play positively) to see how we thrive under these conditions and to see what a fantastic spectacle Rugby can be.

It remains to be seen if the rhetoric will be taken up by referees and in what domains, but I look forward with hope!

 

[Rolling Maul]

If these new interpretations allow the sort of flowing, entertaining rubgy to reign supreme, the likes of which we saw in the EOYT with Aus vs Wales and NZ vs France, I think that'll we'll begin to see a resurgences of rugby here in Aus. Our teams'll benefit through being able to play the sort of rugby we want to, and crowds benefit from being able to enjoy the spectacle of running rugby. SANZAR are making the right moves in enforcing these laws properly and at the end of the day, it's the sport of rugby that benefits.

 

[Scotty]

And we might see Bryan Habana get the ball at the end of a South African backline.