Super 14 referees seek fan friendly game

Super 14 referees seek fan friendly game

AAP January 31, 2010, 9:42 am

Referees will focus on freeing up the ball and creating clarity around rulings at the tackle area and scrums to make the 2010 Super 14 rugby competition more spectator friendly.
Additionally, players advancing from off-side positions during kicking phases will also be penalised to maintain the counter-attacking options for the receiving team.
Tournament officials in all three countries have been given a clear mandate to deal with these key areas in an effort to create clarity for players, officials and fans, and to enable the kind of rugby that Super Rugby fans have come to expect.
"There is total agreement between all three SANZAR countries that Super 14 rugby needs to return to its roots and deliver excitement and attack on the field and we believe these initiatives can help deliver a better game for everyone," Sanzar referees manager Lyndon Bray said.
New Zealander Bray said the 2009 season review process brought out four major priorities, which coaches, players and referees have bought into, in order to help create some fundamental change to the game on the field.
"In the past two months, I have attended workshops in all three SANZAR countries with coaches and officials and everyone has responded positively to this approach."
These initiatives were a return to the laws of the game and did not represent any change in law, Bray said.
"We are simply limiting room for interpretation and (this) should create clarity and certainty for coaches, players, officials and fans."
Referee performances will also be measured against these priorities throughout the Super 14 season which will guide the selectors in the appointment of officials as the tournament progressed.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/spo...friendly-game/

To be a bit more specific...

SANZAR coaches, refs work together

To achieve a better (more entertaining) game SANZAR referees and assistant referees will be focussing on freeing up the ball and creating clarity around rulings at the tackle area and at scrum-time in this year's Super 14 competition.

In addition, players advancing from offside positions during kicking phases will also be penalised to maintain the counterattacking options for the receiving team.

Tournament officials in all three countries have been given a clear mandate to deal with these key areas in an effort to create clarity for players, officials and fans, and to enable the kind of rugby that Super Rugby fans have come to expect.

"There is total agreement between all three SANZAR countries that Super 14 rugby needs to return to its roots and deliver excitement and attack on the field and we believe these initiatives can help deliver a better game for everyone," said SANZAR Referees Manager Lyndon Bray.

Bray said the 2009 season review process brought out four major priorities, which coaches, players and referees have bought into, in order to help create some fundamental change to the game on the field.

"In the past two months, I have attended workshops in all three SANZAR countries with coaches and officials and everyone has responded positively to this approach."

Referee performances will also be measured against these priorities throughout the Super 14 season which will guide the selectors in the appointment of officials as the Tournament progresses.

Bray outlined the four key areas as:

Tackled Ball:
"The tackler, once hitting the ground in the tackle, must release the ball and the ball-carrier. This gives the ball-carrier a chance to 'play the ball', and will tidy up the tackle-ball area which has previously been weighted towards the tackler. As well, any player involved in helping make a tackle, who is in contact with the ball-carrier when he is taken to ground, must then release the ball, before then attempting to contest possession, even if he is on his feet. This ensures that in Super 14, we are truly refereeing the Law at the tackle, and it provides the ball-carrier with his rights, having been tackled. After this tackle, any player then on his feet, in a position of strength (his side of the tackle) may then contest possession."

Scrum engagement:
"The scrum engagement must follow a true sequence, starting with all props required to touch, on the touch call. Props must also have their head and shoulders above their hips, and then hit straight on engagement. This enhances the chance of the scrum being contestable, and to stay up resulting in less resets."

Players in front of the kicker:
"Players will be forced to comply with standing still or retiring in relation to being in front of the kicker. This will see referees calling for a player to stop advancing - if he continues to advance, he will be penalised and players must retire from within 10m of the receiver of a kick - otherwise an immediate penalty will be given where these players look to contest the kick. The objective is that this will improve the time and space for players to counter attack, when receiving kicks in general play, and reducing some of the aerial pingpong people we have been seeing in rugby."

Formation of the maul:
"At the time that a maul is formed, players supporting the ball-carrier will not be allowed to obstruct the opposition. This is intended to at least make the maul defendable at the set up stage."

Bray said these initiatives are a return to the laws of the game and do not represent any change in law, but are simply limiting room for interpretation and should create clarity and certainty for coaches, players, officials and fans.

Bray and national referee managers in South Africa (Andre Watson) and Australia (Anthony Eddy) are available to brief media on these focus areas and any other law or officiating questions in the lead-up to the start of the 2010 Super 14 competition. In fact Watson has already spent time in a workshop with commentators in South Africa.
http://www.rugby365.com/tournaments/...ws/2197340.htm

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And by way of illustration...

Laws: tackle watch

Every now and again, usually before some important, high-profile tournament, the is talk about changing laws or emphasising some application of laws. This year, just when the Super 14 gets under way it is the Big Four, especially the tackle, especially what the tackler gets up to.

The tackle is the biggest of the Big Four (tackle, scrum, offside and maul/obstruction) in terms of penalties conceded. The tackle is seen as the reason why play is being slowed down, and referees have been ordered to clean it up.

They are to look above all at the tackler. They are to apply the law that when a player is tackled the person tackling him must release him (and the ball). There is to be a moment when contact between the two players is broken. There has been a lot of excitement about this.

Ed Morrison of England took his Elite Referees to the 12 Guinness Premiership clubs to explain it. In South Africa courses for referees have all laid emphasis on this aspect of the tackle - getting the tackler out of the way and allowing the tackled player a chance to play.

There have been three warm-up matches at Newlands involving the Stormers, the Sharks and the Western Force of Australia. The penalty counts have been high.

Penalties
Stormers vs Western Force: 29 penalties - 14 at the tackle
Sharks vs Western Force: 31 penalties - 15 at the tackle
Stormers vs Sharks: 32 penalties - 15 at the tackle

Totals: 92 penalties - 44 at the tackle.
Averages for three matches: 31 penalties, 15 at tackles, just under 50%.

When Morrison took his referees to clubs, they found a significant reduction in penalties for holding in the tackle. Before, it seemed, the tackler just held on, not allowing the tackled player to release, and so "won" a penalty. In the three warm-up matches at Newlands only two of the 44 tackle penalties were for holding on.

It is obvious in those three matches that there is quick ball from tackles. Quicker ball means less kicking.

More penalties do not necessarily mean less fun.

Here are some stats from five Heineken Cup matches the week before.

Munster vs Northampton Saints: 19 penalties - 11 at the tackle, 2 at the tackle
Edinburgh vs Stade Français: 15 penalties - 8 at the tackle, 1 for holding
London Irish vs Leinster: 15 penalties - 7 at the tackle
Sale Sharks vs Toulouse: 20 penalties - 12 at the tackle, 4 for holding

Totals: 61 penalties - 38 at the tackle

Averages for 5 matches: 12 penalties, 7,5 at tackles, 62%.

Tries

Are tries related to this or to the playing conditions? Hard to tell, but these are the figures:

Munster vs Northampton Saints: 0
Edinburgh vs Stade Français: 1
London Irish vs Leinster: 2
Sale Sharks vs Toulouse: 2

Total: 5

Average: 1 try per match

Stormers vs Western Force: 9
Sharks vs Western Force: 4
Stormers vs Sharks: 4

Total: 17

Average: 6 tries per match.

Did more penalties produce more tries? What about the old accusation levelled at a referee: "He blew the game to death"? Perhaps, just perhaps, he is blowing life into the game.

What about the accusation that it will encourage the ball-carrier to charge mindlessly into the opposition, knowing he will get his ball? There is fair amount of that in rugby anyway, but the evidence of the three Newlands matches suggests than in fact the change has encourage counter-rucking and has produced more turnovers, which means less predictably. After all the tackling player is likely to be higher off the ground than before and so arriving players are likely to drive in higher.

Releasing the tackler is not new law, by the way - not by more than a century.
http://www.sareferees.co.za/news/ref_news/2196401.htm

Very good AS! Clear as Crystal; hope it translates to what happens on the pitch.

Continuing on with the scrum...
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Laws: The Scrum

At the National Referees' course at Newlands and the provincial Referees' course at Hartebeesthoek in January, scrumming dominated discussion of law application. Scrumming is one of the Big Four along with Tackle, Offside and Maul.

There is no change of scrum law or any new application. What was discussed was sheer application, proper application to avoid the mess that is modern scrumming when 12% of a rugby match at the top level is spent resetting scrums. And beyond that the scrum is potentially a dangerous phase of play.

Tappe Henning said: "Getting the scrumming right is a joint responsibility of players, coaches and referees."

At the National Referees' course an afternoon was spent at the Stormers' practice facility at Bellville. The Stormers produced two packs of forwards and the referees were given a chance to referee the scrums. It went on for some time under the watchful eyes of Matthew Proudfoot, the Stormers' forward coach, and Balie Swart, the referees' scrumming coach - both formerly international props, Proudfoot for Scotland and Swart for South Africa with whom he won a winners medal as a player in 1995 and another as a coach in 2007.

Swart was again at the Hartebeesthoek and here the referees did the scrumming - all aspects of scrumming.

The following aspects of application emerged:

1. In the set-up props must be square and aligned to go into the engagement straight - spine in line.

The hooker's feet must be square, that is parallel to the goal-lines. If they are not square, he will not push straight.

When both teams are set-up, the referee starts the engagement sequence.

2. The engagement sequence - Crouch Touch Pause Engage - is not negotiable, and it must be consistent.

Swart was at great pains to get the referees to call their commands loudly and clearly enough and with adequate pauses. There is little to be gained by a careless, sing-song approach running words into each other - crouchtouchpauseengage. The referees who were clearest in their engagement procedure had less trouble with scrums.

At the Provincial referees' course, Swart would catch a referee's eye and hold up a finger. The referee then had to call his commands. If it was not loud enough, he had to do it again. This continued throughout the course.

The players should know the calls before they start the match. This can be done in the changing room well before kick-off. Teams prefer that such talk be held well before kick-off and can be done at the time of the boot and clothing inspection

Both front rows must crouch at the same level.

If a player's pulls out and says he is not ready, referees should accept it but not repeatedly. Second time warn, third time free kick.

If front row players do not crouch, the referee is to award a free kick.
If players - all players - do not touch, the referee is to award a free kick.
If players do not pause, i.e. hitting in too soon, the referee is to award a free kick.
If players do not engage on the command, the referee is to award a free kick against them.

On the Engage call, props must bind and maintain a bind though the law allows props to change their bind.

Law 20.3 (a) Binding by all front row players. All front row players must bind firmly and continuously from the start to the finish of the scrum.
Sanction: Penalty kick
(c) Binding by loose head props. A loose head prop must bind on the opposing tight head prop by placing the left arm inside the right arm of the tight head and gripping the tight head prop’s jersey on the back or side. The loose head prop must not grip the chest, arm, sleeve or collar of the opposition tight head prop. The loose head prop must not exert any downward pressure.
Sanction: Penalty kick
(d) Binding by tight head props. A tight head prop must bind on the opposing loose head prop by placing the right arm outside the left upper arm of the opposing loose head prop. The tight head prop must grip the loose head prop’s jersey with the right hand only on the back or side. The tight head prop must not grip the chest, arm, sleeve or collar of the opposition loose head prop. The tight head prop must not exert any downward pressure.
Sanction: Penalty kick
(e) Both the loose head and tight head props may alter their bind providing they do so in accordance with this Law.

Binding is to be checked and the angle of the bodies.

The direction of the shove of front row players needs to be checked. Often the position of a foot is a good indication of the direction of the shove. Often a referee will stand with his hands on top of each side as this can tell him the direction of the shove.

Just two points:

Standing up in the front row is not an infringement; pushing an opponent up in the front row is an infringement.

Wheeling is legal; the whipwheel is illegal. The whipwheel involves pulling and the loosehead of the wheeling team usually moves out from the scrum, giving his tighthead opponent nothing to push on. The loosehead them moves as quickly as he can.

http://www.sareferees.co.za/news/ref_news/2200826.htm