Sports After Dark

As unfortunate as it may be, referees, touch judges and television match officials will play a huge role in who ends up lifting the William Webb Ellis Cup.

The way the laws of Rugby Union are currently structured there is a great deal of room for interpretation, and it is in the many interpretations of different referees that some teams will thrive and others will fall. For example, Australia play a style based on committing only a few forwards to each ruck and recycling the ball quickly, but if a particular referee allows their opponents to slow their ruck ball down, the Wallabies could crash out of the tournament.

Southern Hemisphere referees like Paul Honis or Jonathan Kaplan say very little on the field and allow teams to play without feeling the need to impose their presence on the game, while Northern Hemisphere referees such as Tony Spreadbury do a lot of talking to players and stamp their authority on the game. Both of these styles work well and are perfectly acceptable, but it will be up to each team to adapt to the style of the officials if they are to succeed.

As most of the Tri-Nations games were controlled by Southern Hemisphere referees, and most of the Six Nations by their Northern counterparts, teams will have to adjust to foreign refereeing styles for some games and revert back to their regular style for others. IRB Referee’s Manager Paddy O’Brien has prevented coaches and players from meeting with referees before games in an effort to prevent pressure from being put on officials which seems to be a positive step.

A disturbing trend that has crept into the world of officialdom recently is the involvement of touch judges coming onto the field to report the most minor of incidents. The more cynical of fans have suggested that certain touch judges are keen to get on television, and have become flag happy.

An obvious example of this came from the past weekend’s Scotland vs Ireland game when a touch judge came on to report Irish flanker Neil Best for punching, but replays showed that while Best swung his arm near an opponent, he did not have his fist clenched nor did he even make contact. Luckily for Best, the referee chose not to take any further action but on another day a bad decision could have been made worse by a yellow card and, if this happens in a knock-out game, it could be the end of the road for one team.

The other problem that has been creeping into refereeing is the constant referral of decisions to the Television Match Official (TMO). Even some of the most obvious decisions are referred upstairs for review, delaying the game unnecessarily when the right call is clear to everyone in the stadium and watching on television.

The need for a TMO is undeniable as they are able to make decisions that are impossible to get right at full speed, but their overuse is becoming a blight on the game as referees continue to offload their decisions. A possible alternative protocol could be adapted from America’s NFL where the officials make a decision on the field, then review the replays and can only change their decision if there is “irrefutable video evidence”.

We can hope that the World Cup will not be decided by a poor refereeing decision, and given the calibre of referees who will be on show it is unlikely, but the referees will have a huge role to play and which ever team is able to adapt to the many different styles of referee the quickest will have a significant advantage.

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The Could officials decide the World Cup? by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.