Sports After Dark

The opening weekend of the 2007 Rugby World Cup has shown that referees have been given a mandate to deal with foul play harshly, and as the world is focussed on France, showing non rugby fans that foul play is not part of rugby can only raise the profile of the sport.

There has yet to be a truly spiteful game in this tournament, and there will be one, but the opening weekend still produced six yellow card in just eight games. A number of those cards were for persistent infringements, but some were for single incidents of foul play.

The fact that referees are cracking down on foul play is hardly a surprise, especially on the biggest stage, as this is rugby’s chance to pick up many new fans. Rugby still remains a full contact and confrontational game, but the days of putting the boot into an opponent or fists flying in the scrum are over, and the IRB would like to keep it that way.

The first yellow card of the tournament was picked up by All Black prop Carl Hayman after he threw a punch during a scrum altercation. While the punch was of little consequence and on another day may have simply resulted in some stern words from the referee, the swift and decisive action showed that referees have been instructed to take a much harder line.

Another yellow card could easily have been produced for England captain Phil Vickery when he foot tripped an opponent, but the incident was not picked up by referee Jonathan Kaplan, despite its obviousness. Kaplan did produce three yellow cards in that match, two for persistent infringements and one to Paul Emmerick for a spear tackle.

Of course the crack down is not limited to foul play, two thirds of the yellow cards seen so far have been for persistent infringements, something else referees have clearly been instructed to be harsh on. Too often promising attacks are snuffed out by deliberate infringements which attract no more than a penalty, ruining the game as a spectacle.

If the referees are able to show they are no longer willing to continue this trend, and clean up the game, both existing and new fans will be treated to the brilliant attacking rugby that everyone wants to see.

It remains to be seen if this hard line approach will carry over into the knock-out phase of the tournament, where referees could be tempted to put away their cards for fear of influencing the outcome, but IRB Referee’s Manager Paddy O’Brien has repeatedly said that the referees will be consistent.

The yellow card is a tool that no referee wants to use, but is forced to when the situation arises. The apparent crack down on foul play and repeated infringements is a good step towards making the game more appealing to new comers, as well as allowing teams to show off their attacking skills which is something every fan wants to see.

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• South Africa must improve discipline if they hope to compete at World Cup
• Umaga blasts referees before signing off
• Why do top players lack discipline?

The Referees attempting to clean up rugby’s show piece by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.