Gregor Townsend looks to referee to lay down law in Calcutta Cup

Published on Thursday 11 March 2010 22:04

THE referee's role in tomorrow's Calcutta Cup match has come firmly into focus, after the Scottish camp highlighted for the second time this week the crucial part the match official has to play.

• "England are very effective at lying over the ball for a few seconds" Gregor Townsend

Earlier this week, Scotland coach Andy Robinson drew attention to England's increasing use of blocking runners and their tendency to get away with what he deems to be illegal play, and called for the referee to be strong if tomorrow's opposition at Murrayfield try to obstruct Scottish tacklers from reaching the ball carrier.

Now Robinson's assistant, Gregor Townsend, has expressed the belief that Scotland will be allowed to play a fast, open game because South African match referee Marius Jonker has a reputation for penalising players who try to kill the game by slowing down the time it takes the ball to emerge from the breakdown situation back into open play.

The Six Nations tournament organisers have flown up five southern hemisphere referees to help improve the standard across the championship and Scotland have their first this weekend in Jonker. The South African official took charge of the Super 14 match last month between the Lions and the Chiefs that ended in the incredible scoreline of 72-65 for the visitors from Waikato in line with the southern hemisphere's demand for more exciting rugby.

The referee is increasingly influential in the outcome of international matches and there is no doubt that whistlers have been slow in the RBS Six Nations Championship to produce yellow cards for deliberate killing of ball – the only sure route to opening up rugby while rucking remains outlawed.

Townsend said: "We're excited that he (Jonker] is refereeing the game. In that (Super 14] game he gave a lot of penalties away against players slowing down the ball. England are very effective at lying over the ball for a few seconds and that was also happening with Italy.

"We have a team that wants to play rugby and it looks like the law-makers are moving in that direction, to encourage the attacking teams, if they go forward, to get away. We don't want to be in the situation again where twice in the 22 we have been stopped from playing, someone takes a tap penalty and is not allowed to score a try.

"We want teams, not just ourselves, to be rewarded for trying to play with quick ball. There is always space on a rugby field but that space won't be utilised if you don't get quick ball."

He is also pleased that Robinson highlighted England's increasing use of blocking runners, which has become clear to them in their analysis ahead of tomorrow's Calcutta Cup clash. But he acknowledged that the winning and losing of the game still comes down to the ability of the Scotland players to execute basic skills better and more consistently than they have done in this tournament so far.

And one note of caution: Jonker's first Six Nations match ended with France beating Scotland 42-20 in 2007 and his last was England's 26-12 Calcutta Cup win at Twickenham last year.

Townsend accepts that England remain the favourites despite Scotland having won their last two meetings in Murrayfield. He experienced only one win in ten Calcutta Cup encounters, and it came not when he had Craig Chalmers, Gary Armstrong and the Hastings brothers alongside him, but in 2000, towards the end of his career when he was at centre outside the points hero Duncan Hodge. The pair are now working together as coaches in Robinson's backroom team, and Townsend says the fixture still holds that special excitement for all of them. "You don't get any more motivated as a Scot than playing against England," he added, "but as a former player maybe that adds to the mix this weekend as well. We tend to stand back a bit as coaches on match-day, because we are creating a culture of leadership. We want Al Kellock and Chris Cusiter to do the talking on the pitch.

"But we've all got memories. I was at the Grand Slam game in 1984, when I was 11, and I remember I had a Scottish Schools game a week after the 1990 match and we went into that with the spirit of Finlay Calder taking the ball forward. This was always the biggest game and I'm just as excited about it now as a coach."

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