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DUNCAN JOHNSTONE
Last updated 12:04 09/09/2014
English referees have been told to reduce their reliance on video replays to rule on contentious issues as the rugby debate over officiating explodes following a disastrous weekend of mistakes at test level.
Glaring errors in the All Blacks' win over Argentina and the Wallabies' comeback victory over the Springboks in Perth highlighted the current blight of refereeing mistakes.
It has sparked rugby critics and personalities around the world to continue their push for rugby to use more technology to avoid these ongoing embarrassments in a professional game.
Yet those calls have come in the wake of the English system reportedly being told to pull back on using television match officials (TMOs) because officials are concerned games are running too long.
The Press Association in the UK, covering the English Premiership which has just kicked off, revealed that the guidance had come down from the International Rugby Board and more responsibility had been put on refs to get their decisions right the first time.
"We were rightfully criticised by clubs and the media because we weren't as good as we needed to be. Our aim for this season is to be better," Wayne Barnes, England's leading official, told the agency about controlling games in the high-profile club championship.
"We want to try and take more responsibility. If we're in a good position to see whether a pass is forward or not, we should be calling it.
"Let's not send it to the TMO and take two or three minutes out of the game.
"Let's make as many decisions on the pitch as we can. We should be making decisions ourselves."
Tony Spreadbury, head of the RFU's professional game match officials, echoed that philosophy.
"There has been a tendency to say 'we better check this' or 'we better check that'. But we want none of that now," Spreadbury told the agency.
"When footage of an incident is required, officials have been told to avoid gratuitous use of replays."
South African Jonathan Kaplan, who retired last year as test rugby's most experienced referee, has been hugely vocal on his website ratetheref.co.za throughout the Rugby Championship.
The latest blunders didn't escape his eagle eye and he maintains rugby needs to make more - and correct - use of technology.
"Do I really need to confirm what everyone else already knows ... this was not a good weekend for referees," Kaplan wrote in starting his latest column.
"We are operating in a system where I have said that these type of weekends are not avoidable and until key elements of the system are exposed, and then adequately addressed, this will continue into the future.
"The referees are not getting it right, and it is pointless saying after the fact, that things need to be looked at, when the writing was on the wall from the get go.
"This is crisis management on the part of the powers that be, and smacks of them ensuring that the budgets they offer to this pillar of the game are maintained."
Kaplan said French referee Pascal Gauzere's failure to give Argentina a try from a successful charge down "was not a good look for the game as it appeared the referee didn't understand the difference between a knock and a charge down, which I am sure is not true.
"Are we going to go along the tack that we all make mistakes. Not I. In an age where the technology is available, the referee should have allowed the obvious score, and THEN checked to see if the knock only he saw actually occurred. The fact that he blew his whistle and didn't use common sense is not good enough.
"Argentina were denied and it had a profound effect on the contest.
"The fact is that this type of thing should not be tolerated in professional sport. The technology is there. Use it!"
Kaplan was equally scathing of George Clancy's performance with the whistle in Perth where "there were numerous decisions where the referee got it wrong".
He was particularly critical of the late sin-binning of Bryan Habana for a dangerous tackle.
"Clancy was advised by the assistant referee to confer with the TMO to make sure. He did this and bizarrely still wanted to go to his pocket. That was a poor decision. It is wrong if match officials do not understand the sport at the highest level.
"None of the top 20 officials in the world should be giving a yellow card for that offense. And if you think I am wrong, then there should have been a whole slew of yellows not only in this match, but others in the championship too.
"I have great sympathy for referees who make mistakes on the hoof but not so when they do it from slow motion replays.
"Furthermore, the public will be baying for some sort of action to be taken against the referee as the perception is that they are getting short changed by this type of random decision making."
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/i...hnology-debate