Allan Massie: Referees make mistakes but don’t besmirch them with accusations of bias

Published on Saturday 29 October 2011 02:58

IT WILL be a shame if this World Cup, with its splendid final, is remembered chiefly for arguments over the refereeing.

International referees must, of course, be subject to criticism. They are all now professionals, and quite well-paid ones. On the other hand, we should all recognise that the laws of rugby are so confoundedly complicated, with so many possible penalty offences, that it is impossible that referees should not make some mistakes. If these seem more frequent than they used to, this is probably because TV replays, in real time and slow motion, mean that the referee’s decisions are scrutinised more intensely than ever.

What seems to me unacceptable is the accusation of bias that is sometimes levelled. I have no doubt that all international referees try to be even-handed. One of the more absurd criticisms that has been made concerned the appointment of Alain Rolland to referee the quarter-final between France and Wales. Rolland is an Irishman, and former Irish international scrum-half, with a French father (who was, I believe, a chef in Dublin). It was his decision to send the Welsh captain Sam Warburton off which led some to say that his French ancestry made him an unsuitable referee for that match. Actually the opposite is true. For too long, and too often, French – and Italian and Argentine – teams have suffered from English-speaking referees who have not taken the trouble to learn even the 20 or 30 most common rugby phrases which would allow them to explain their decisions to players who don’t speak English.

The IRB will soon be considering revision of the laws, especially those relating to the set scrum and the breakdown. No doubt improvements are possible, but they should be aware of the danger of another law coming into play: the law of unintended consequences. One suggestion has been aired this week: that the tackler, who is already required to roll away, should not be permitted to play the ball until a third player has played it – that is, someone other than the tackler himself or the tackled player. This would undoubtedly make the referee’s task easier. Unfortunately, it would reduce the chance of a turnover. Is that desirable? Surely not.

Meanwhile, for a few weeks our attention can focus on domestic rugby. Edinburgh and Glasgow should both benefit from the gradual return of their World Cup players. Their rivals are admittedly in the same position, but, in general, the Welsh and Irish teams have greater reserve strength. When Edinburgh played the Scarlets a couple of weeks ago, four members of their pack were aged 21 or less. No wonder they were well beaten. Both Scottish teams need a couple of good wins before they engage in Heineken action, and both sides’ selections looked much stronger for this week’s games, though it’s odd that Lee Jones, having been named Edinburgh‘s Player of the Month on Wednesday, should have been omitted from the squad announced on Thursday. Simon Webster, who replaced him, has been a fine player for Edinburgh, but one can’t help thinking he represents the past of Scottish rugby, while Jones and his age-group represent the future.

On the club scene, even members of other Borders clubs (except perhaps Melrose) may be pleased to see Gala sitting at the top of the first division. They’ve been in the doldrums for years now, too long for a club with their history. I doubt if they’ve been where they are now since Jim Aitken was captaining them, and their voracious back-row, with players such as David Leslie, Gordon Dickson and that finest of uncapped Scottish flankers, Jock Berthinussen, was roaming the field. Their coach, George Graham, took a step down from the professional game to put things to rights at Netherdale, where he is very evidently doing a tremendous job.

Premier Two is topsy-turvy, except for Stewarts-Melville, who sit serenely and undefeated at the top of the table. Everybody else is beating everybody else. One went down to Philiphaugh in some apprehension last Saturday for the game with Jed-Forest. Jed had thumped Kelso who, in turn, thumped Selkirk – by the distressing margin of 33 points. So what happened? Selkirk won comfortably, while the same afternoon Kelso went to Biggar, who had lost to Selkirk, and were themselves thumped.

Finally, given the difficulty that our national team have in scoring tries, especially when camped in the opposition 22, the backs should be set down to watch the video of Selkirk’s first try against Jed. In just that position, the 19-year-old fly-half, Rory Banks, threaded a grubber kick delightfully between the on-rushing centres, allowing the remarkable Fraser Harkness to outpace everyone and dive on the ball.

It was a great rugby league-style try. The message is that you don’t always have to seek to barge through the defence. You can slip the ball past them and score. The All Blacks know this of course. So do the French and so does Brian O’Driscoll.

Perhaps we’ll learn that this is one way of scoring tries before the Six Nations comes round.

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Charles Linskaill

Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 07:05 PM

FAO Col Blimp. To get the web character "forward slash" / (see below) ______________________________________________________ Replace the $ character below with the & character and hit 'Post comment' ______________________________________________________ $#99$#117$#110$#116$#32cynicus ______________________________________________________ You should get this back ______________________________________________________ http://cynicus

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Charles Linskaill

Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 06:54 PM

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Charles Linskaill

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Charles Linskaill

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Charles Linskaill

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Charles Linskaill

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Charles Linskaill

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Charles Linskaill

Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 06:30 PM

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Charles Linskaill

Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 06:29 PM

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Venachar

Monday, October 31, 2011 at 12:06 AM

#3 try sitting in the main stand at Rodney parade and you'll hear real ref baiters. Murrayfield isn't nicknamed the "library" for nothing. On friday that ref missed Cullen holding onto Leonard while off his feet at the breakdown and Boss got through the space he was covering to score a try. Cullen again pulled back Geoff Cross when Ross Ford went storming down the east stand touchline preventing him receiving a pass. It is about consistancy which a lot of the Celtic League refs don't seem to have. The Leinster coach suggested that they were a bit more "streetwise" after the match which matches the impression that quite a few of the 50-50 decisions went their way because the ref possibly missed things. Now I'm not suggesting that there was any bias just that I didn't think he was very good and so did a lot of others.

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midlothianboy

Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 03:22 PM

There is absolutely no evidence that any of the referees involved in the WC were in any way biased.The vast majority of such comments have come from disgruntled supporters whose feelings are understandable but should not be taken too seriously.The issue is not one of partiality but of competence.The game is indeed very complicated to referee and it is not helped by the inconsistencies in directives handed down to officials by the IRB .The IRB rightly states that a tip tackle is dangerous and have laid down strict instructions regarding the use of the red card .They have backed Rolland 's decision but made no comment and took no action against the referees who did not give a red card in very similar circumstances.In addition ,a tip tackle is not the only way of causing serious injury on the park.Taking out a player in the air during a line out is also very dangerous and can result in serious injury ,but there is no directive on the use of the red card for taht offence,and I saw several incidents during the WC which did not even receive a yellow card.If the IRB are going to issue directives on the use of red cards ,which can certainly effect the result of the game , then they need to be much more consistent.

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buccaneer

Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 12:36 PM

Alan makes a good point about the proposed rule change and I hope the SRU helps vote it down. And #1 Scotsmanac obviously didn't read beyond the word 'referee'. I think it makes sense to require all top flight referees to master a handful of phrases in Italian, Spanish and French. And I would love a new rule banning the ref ranters from Edinburgh home games. Sorry, but they are bullying idiots.

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Nymph

Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 12:33 PM

Mistakes are occasional. E.g. NOT Rolland's red carding of Warburton, which most observers now recognise as absolutely correct. Bias doesn't require to be blatant, overt or cynical, but might exist generally over a period, e.g. affecting marginal decisions throughout a match. One example would be the final of RWC 2011.

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scotsmanacx

Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 10:29 AM

The IRB or who ever is choosing the ref should avoid potential conflicts, like having an English ref for a game between their 2 main pool rivals then missing a stone wall last minute penalty which decides the outcome and virtually guarantees that England win the pool. Or having a guy who might be half French ref the France match, naive or stupid, surely one of the two?

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