Romain Poite was right – Referees are there to enforce the rules, not coach players who can’t be bothered to obey them
Stuart Barnes
Sunday July 05 2020, 12.01am, The Sunday Times
It wasn’t one of rugby’s great moments. No soaring drop goal to clinch a World Cup, just an awful act of indecision on the part of the far-from-famous Waratahs (New South Wales) wing James Ramm. The end result was a tackle by a chasing (Queensland) Reds centre that took the wind out of him. That’s all.
Yet there was no more telling incident in the first game of Super Rugby AU (Australia’s five-team internal tournament) than the wing’s embarrassing change of mind. Briefly, the excellent Reds scrum half, Tate McDermott, kicked downfield from deep in his own half. A defending hand made fleeting contact with the ball.
Ramm may or may not have noticed. So Nic Berry, the referee, decided to offer verbal assistance. As Ramm picked up the rolling ball in his own 22, I heard a piercing scream, “touched in flight”, and then another urgent “touched in flight”. The referee was coaching the wing. All but telling him that if he kicked to touch the Reds would have a lineout from where he kicked the ball away.
That is not his job. Ramm checked. He might well have been thinking of a clearance kick. Had he not seen the deflection upfield that would have been unfortunate but not as unpleasant as the tackle that cut him in two and directly earned the Waratahs a penalty.
Referees are not coaches. Romain Poite infamously pointed that out to Dylan Hartley and James Haskell as England suffered their ‘Stupid Sunday’ against Italy in 2017. “I’m sorry, I’m a referee not a coach,” he said in reference to England’s confusion at Italian ruck tactics. World Rugby would do well to send a copy of Poite’s comments to Berry and many other referees.
Berry was barking orders. It wasn’t on the ultra-polite level we have become used to in the United Kingdom. At least it wasn’t a case of first-name terms but again the familiar refrains were bleeding through the television speakers. “Stay there, Red”, when a player was thinking of straying off side.
Let him stray, penalise him. Punish players for misdemeanours. “Back foot”, another warning at the breakdown, and countless cries of “release the ball”.
The whole point of a zero-tolerance attitude at the breakdown is to emphasise that negativity will not be rewarded. As a broadcaster I was taught that we tend to speak three words a second. That is a second in which defences can reorganise. A second does not seem much but an extra second in attack enables a fly half to play flat and on the front foot. That second is a substantial advantage.
One of the consequences of young and superfit referees who have only been referees is their lack of understanding of what occurs on the other side of the whistle. Knowing the laws is not knowing the game. Berry, a former player who was forced into an unfortunate premature retirement by a series of concussions, should know better.
It was noticeable to see how often both teams rushed into offside positions in midfield. Sometimes the officials penalised them, on occasions they forced the attack back infield. With the tackle area not enforced rigidly, the game meandered into an exciting muddle.
The teams struggled with World Rugby’s new trial laws in the first few weeks in New Zealand but with the clarity of referee calls by week three, there was a big improvement in the shape of the game.
As for the Australian trial laws, the 50/22 kick, whereby a team can secure a lineout if they kick the ball from their own half and bounce it into touch in the opposition 22, was only twice seen. On neither occasion was it utilised as a way to force wings deep. If the offside line is properly refereed, the space will exist. Accurate refereeing, not gimmicks derived from league, should create space. We shall see.
We saw, for the first time, a drop-out from the goalline replacing five-metre scrums after players are held up over the tryline; this can only be from an Australian aversion to scrums. Michael Hooper carried the ball over his own line and was tackled. Instead of the scrum, where Queensland held advantage, New South Wales dropped out from their own 22. Thankfully these are only trial laws. The law — in this case— is an ass. So too referees who think themselves coaches.
Topic: Refs are there to officiate not coach (Read 1831 times)
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