Refs boss happy with S14 whistles
Refs boss happy with S14 whistles
By DUNCAN JOHNSTONE - Rugbyheaven
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/2000400...h-S14-whistles
Former top whistleman Andre Watson, now Sanzar's manager of referees, says he's comfortable with the standard of officiating in the Super 14 despite the usual early-season criticisms.
Most of the barbs have been coming from the media and fans with some patchy officiating over the opening three rounds of the championship.
Watson says he has yet to receive any official complaints from any of the Super 14 sides.
But the Waratahs' Chris Hickey is one coach who went vocal over Australian referee James Leckie's handling of their win over the Highlanders last Friday.
"Unfortunately, rugby is a game where if you go looking hard enough you can find plenty of reasons to blow the whistle and then unfortunately the game doesn't develop. That is probably more the concern," was Hickey's diplomatic appraisal of Leckie's whistle-happy efforts.
Sanzar are operating an elite refereeing panel for the first time this year, meaning the best get the big jobs rather than neutral refs. It's also a way of countering a lack of top refereeing depth in all three countries following retirements over the last couple of years.
"It's been much better then it was at the same time last year," said Watson when South African website keo.co.za asked him to sum up the officiating over the first phase of the competition.
"There are certainly some referees who still need some work, in terms of applying the hybrid ELVs correctly, but overall there has been a high pass mark thus far.
"Clearly the referees who are not on the merit panel have not always had solid games, which just shows that, like the players, we too have a starting lineup and a bench, although some of the our 'bench' referees have done a great job."
The ELVs, slightly tweaked for their second season at this level, are still causing a few problems and Watson said the drive was on to get improvement officiating and playing at the contentious breakdown areas.
The last round in New Zealand was highlighted by rival captains Richie McCaw (Crusaders) and Rodney So'olialo (Hurricanes) both getting sin-binned for infringements at the breakdowns.
"Penalties at the breakdown are given for offsides and entering the ruck from the side," said Watson.
"I don't believe a player will not know why a penalty has been awarded, maybe some fans might not know but the referee will always communicate to the player why he has been penalised.
"The one difference that we have seen this year is that referees have now been awarding penalties and in some cases yellow cards for repeated infringements.
"We now have much more consistency and that is why I believe the product is so much better this time around."
