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SANZAR gives nod to referees to reward attacking teams
- Wayne Smith
- From: The Australian
- January 25, 2010 12:00AM
THE shackles are set to be taken off Super 14 rugby following a directive by SANZAR to its international referees to start rewarding the attacking side.
National referees coach Andrew Cole has told The Australian that SANZAR has advised referees to focus their attention less this season on the attacking side and more on the non-compliance of defenders at the breakdown. It is an edict that has the potential to completely open up the presently kick-dominated code.
The directive can be traced back to the post-season review of the 2009 Super rugby season conducted in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa last August.
At those meetings, representatives of the coaches and referees identified that too many attacking movements were being killed because referees were almost automatically penalising any tackled player isolated from his support, no matter how briefly.
SANZAR's referee manager, New Zealander Lyndon Bray, last month conducted seminars in all three countries with leading coaches at which it was decided that instead of cracking down so hard on the team in possession, the new focus would be on ensuring that defending players roll away from the tackle and then contest the ball only once they have regained their feet.
The experiment was given its first serious test at the Waratahs-Reds pre-season trial match in Lismore on Saturday night, when referee Ian Smith took a hard line against defenders who attempted to illegally slow down the ball. Even players who subtly interfered with the tackled player while getting back to their feet were penalised.
"As far as I could tell, there was not one penalty against the team on attack," said Cole after observing the experiment.
Rival Queensland and NSW coaches Ewen McKenzie and Chris Hickey withheld their opinion of the new approach. And McKenzie warned that SANZAR needed to take care that the contest did not become too heavily weighted in favour of the attacking team, as happened in the closing years of Super 12. But equally he said attacking sides needed to be given more latitude than they were last year.
While it would be reckless to draw too much from a trial match in January, where players generally attempt to impress by keeping the ball in hand, the Lismore game was played at a cracking pace.
Initially it seemed the 2009 pattern was about to reassert itself when the match opened with a box kick from Reds halfback Richard Kingi.
But when it became apparent Smith intended to give the attacking side every opportunity to clear the ball, the imperative to kick for field position eased.
"There was less kicking as teams became more confident they could build phase play," Cole said.
Last season it was a case of kicking triggering even more kicking because the kick-receiver invariably looked up to find himself confronted by a wall of defenders. Rather than risk being isolated behind their own advantage line, fullbacks and wingers tended to take the soft option of putting up a return garryowen.
The result was one Tri-Nations Test in which the Springboks passed the ball only 43 times. Many of those passes were thrown by halfback Fourie du Preez to the designated South African kickers Morne and Francois Steyn.
There will be some good news for defending sides this season, with referees told to be on the alert to ensure players are not obstructed from contesting possession with the ball-winner immediately after he has come back down to earth in the lineout.
The reintroduction of the law forbidding defending sides from collapsing the driving maul has handed attacking teams an advantage. But SANZAR has directed the ball-carrier must be in contact with the defence, at least initially, before the ball can be smuggled to the rear of the rolling maul.
Cole also revealed SANZAR would be targeting scrum collapses this season. "Referees will be looking to cut down on the number of scrum resets in games, without detracting from the scrum contest overall," he said.
"Statistics show that as much as 10 minutes of 80-minute matches can be taken up setting and resetting scrums."
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225823043793