Reffing again

Lets hear it for the refs in the last round of AIs. I thought all were good. I particularly like the refs actions in the Fiji / Italy game. Not afraid to use the cards. threatened a red card but quite rightly did not use it as there had been a long period of non dangerous tackles as he said quite clearly.

good use of the replays with refs taking a decision on what they saw on the screen. I think the refs are getting used to this now.

Its almost impossible to ref a game perfectly but these guys are coming close. Well done to the refs.

 

No one? Quick to criticise refs but slow to praise them?

Praise? That depends. Some of us have another round or two to go. The ref who officiated the France v Samoa games also took the necessary action agaisnt foul/dangerous play. Let's hope he continues this into tomorrow night's game.

So far it seems all ref's have been good. They've been ten times better than what he had in last year's series.

Eng v Aus ref and line judges, toes on the touch line, forward passes and knock on's, did they have an impact on the result, yes. Did the officials have a good game, if you are not English no.

glamorganalun wrote:Eng v Aus ref and line judges, toes on the touch line, forward passes and knock on's, did they have an impact on the result, yes. Did the officials have a good game, if you are not English no.

There have been feet in touch, knock ons in scoring plays, offsides, and foul play, not to mention reffing teams struggling to comunicate, disputes and coaches questioning all sorts...

But as long as they keep checking the replay on the screen!

The officials in the ENG V Aus games normally ref in the RABO so I was not shocked they only reffed one side they do it in most games, even the Irish think they are poor.

I meant just the last weekends games - the previous weeks have been done to death. No glaring mistakes I saw this weekend

Fair enough, big improvement in the games I saw.

Just a comment:

What are your thoughts given the significant difference in the number penalties and cards handed to visiting sides vs the home side in most games this November?

I haven't counted them but you would usually expect the home side to get less penalties and cards

I think they've generally done a good job :claps:

TJ wrote:I haven't counted them but you would usually expect the home side to get less penalties and cards

It's the general trend.

SA vs Scotland Double the penalties and a man in the bin for 10 minutes
SA vs Wales About 1/3 - 1/2 more penalties and an additional man in the bin

NZ vs England About 1/4 - 1/3 more penalties and a man in the bin
NZ vs France About double the penalties

Australia vs Ireland  About 2 and 1/2 times the penalties a yellow and red card.
Australia vs Italy About 1 1/2 time the penalties
Australia vs England About 1 1/2 times the penalties

* Penalties = Penalties and Free kicks based on match stats from ESPN.

I don't think it was the same down south

e.g.
2012 Irish tour: 1 1/2 times penalty count to NZ in the first test. Card advantage to Ireland second and card advantage to NZ in third.

2013 France tour: 1 1/2 advantage to NZ first test, more than double penalty advantage to France second test, and card advantage to NZ last test.

2013 Lions tour 1 1/2 penalty advantage to Australia 1st test, 1 1/3 penalty advantage Lions second test, 1 1/4 penalty advantage to Lions 3rd test.

Or even last year up north

2012 NZ Northern tour. Close penalty counts, NZ down men in 2 games and up one in another.

To be sure I'd have to do more work. There's obviously more to refereeing than a straight count (e.g. when, where, what, what wasn't, the impact). But, my feeling is that the penalty count for the home sides is strong this Autumn. I can't help but wonder if that influences how people feel.

For the most part, they've been good, but Leighton Hodges was disgraceful when officiating the Italy v Fiji match. He yellow carded four Fijian players in the space of eight minutes, and another one later in the match:
https://youtu.be/wU9VZYesObQ?t=32m43s - Failing to put the tackled player back on the ground safely.
https://youtu.be/wU9VZYesObQ?t=37m57s - Tackling with a swinging arm
https://youtu.be/wU9VZYesObQ?t=40m42s - Dangerous tackle
https://youtu.be/wU9VZYesObQ?t=45m36s - Deliberate knock-on
https://youtu.be/wU9VZYesObQ?t=1h31m10s - Tackling off the ball.

I'd argue that while all of these are penalties, only the fourth could reasonably be argued to be a yellow card, and even then it was very soft.

The FRU have now made a complaint to the IRB about Hodges' conduct, and in my opinion they are right to do so.

The first one seems a bit harsh. He held him in the air dangerously, but put him down safely by the looks of it. The yellow card early on was intended to set a precedent I guess, which obviously didn't register with Fiji. We usually criticise refs for not issuing more cards for foul/dangerous play when somebody is already in the bin, now it seems we're criticising for issuing too many. If it was Wales with the five yellow cards everybody would be saying how completely justified they were . Fiji should look at addressing their dangerous play instead of complaining to the IRB. I think the IRB will back each and every one of Hodge's decisions. If you want to see joke yellow cards look at the two Wales received versus Argentina.

Can a ref not give a red to a player already on a yellow, due to a 'change in behaviour'?

If it was Wales. The press would be up in arms. The IRB would probably publicly sanction the referee, who would then retire, the penalties would be rescinded and the offences removed from the record, a documentary would be made, and old men would talk about in 50 years time.

blackcanelion wrote:If it was Wales. The press would be up in arms. The IRB would probably publicly sanction the referee, who would then retire, the penalties would be rescinded and the offences removed from the record, a documentary would be made, and old men would talk about in 50 years time.

Whereas the All Blacks would just take it in their stride and blame it on the ref having a cold. 

If we lost by 2 pts and had 5 players carded I'm sure everyone would hear about it. We'd be crying blue murder. I doubt we'd get much sympathy. I think it's fair enough the Fijians are asking the question.