Will there be refereeing consistency come the RWC?

This is all starting to annoy me a little too much. There's so much at stake for clubs, and players. The sport has evolved incredibly. The technology and ability is at an all time high! But has the officiating got left behind?

Is the same professionalism seen in the playing of the sport absent from the global officiating? What are the internal processes? Are there reviews and inspections of refereeing performances? Are refs held to account if even privately. Or are they allowed to make bad calls and ignore rules without being challenged? Is the training and education continual? Do they have meetups? Training days or what?

I've seen so many refs interpret incidents differently, and some even seemingly ignoring obvious laws.

If you are a player gearing up for the world cup - do you know the exact 'do's and don'ts', or is it a case of reading the particular ref on the day and seeing what flies in the first ten minutes before carrying on with what you know you can get away with?

Here is a supposed masterclass in turnovers by Pocock. By my reckoning, he is the tackler in 3 out of 4 of them, and did not release before challenging... I'd be annoyed if I were a Blues fan...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=29&v=utr0rYMWG2w

Yeah they'll all consistently ref the calls in England's favor.

Will there be refereeing consistency come the RWC?

Yes they will all be consistently controversial.

LordDowlais wrote:Will there be refereeing consistency come the RWC?

Yes they will all be consistently controversial.

I think that is pretty much the quote of the day for me. And sadly probably the most accurate predication I have seen with regards the RWC too.

I think they will all be consistent, however whether us fans will think that in games that we have an interest in will be another matter.

Interesting to see how difficult it is to spark a debate on a serious topic that affects all sides both club and national.

I guess everyone would rather either be a tin hat conspiracy theorists, or somebody who enjoys pointlessly arguing against ridiculous viewpoints.

Does anyone actually know if the referees are held to a certain standard, or if they receive ongoing training or reviews like any other profession would have?

Agree with you Lord dowlais and Scarletspiderman sadly there is not much refereeing consistency.

It's frustating because the refs have become so important to deciding the outcome of matches whether it's a decisive penalty,YC, allowing or disallowing a try - their influence is so great.

I am sure as fans we can look at plenty of incidents which went for or against our team but so much is still missed by the officials.

You even see the supposedly more experienced refs making errors.

I don't have much faith in the officials -ironically I think the best of the English bunch is Wayne Barnes.

The AP got it horribly wrong by picking a youngster for the Saints-Wasps game - it was no surprise the young ref bottled it. Doesn't help the youngster or reffing in general.

An experienced ref like Barnes should have been given the job.

The refs are reviewed/assessed but not sure how regular etc. I have never bought into the fact that a ref deliberately makes a wrong decision to affect the outcome of a game - has it ever been proved that fixing of the sort goes on, not that I am aware of.

Yes they get it wrong as does the TMO but not IMO on purpose to deliberately affect the outcome.

bedfordwelsh wrote:The refs are reviewed/assessed but not sure how regular etc.  I have never bought into the fact that a ref deliberately makes a wrong decision to affect the outcome of a game - has it ever been proved that fixing of the sort goes on, not that I am aware of.

Yes they get it wrong as does the TMO but not IMO on purpose to deliberately affect the outcome.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that Bedford. It's not the direction I want this thread to go in anyway.

Simple question is this, when fans and commentary and pundits all say "I don't think that was the right call", does anyone actually adjudicate if that Referee/TMO/Touchjudge did their job to the correct standard? Or do they let it slide?


Who's policing the police?

Like I said I know they get assessed but not sure how often, wasn't one removed from doing some games last season because they thought he had dropped a few clangers and wasn't up to standard.

I neither agree nor disagree that the refs will be shyte.

problem is not the refs. problem is the overly complicated rules, and massive increase in technology.

scrum - nightmare for refs and tjs
breakdown - there are no hard and fast rules about how long is too long for holding on to the ball, not releasing the tackler, precisely where the gate is before the ruck is formed, quite how much of a retriever's weight must be fully supported by him on his own, etc, etc.
forward passes - laws are clear, direction of travel of ball must not be taken into account, it is direction relative to forward momentum of passer, yet this regularly gets wrongly let go or penalised
obstruction - my personal bugbear, seems to be more given when all the players appeal for it and dont bother trying to tackle, which is a shambles. no consistency here as to what constitutes actual obstruction
catching the ball in the air, and being tackled or challenged while doing it. just ask ulster how badly that can be interpreted by some refs vs others. and all decisions/interpretations are probably accurate, and the colour of card or not is just down to the refs judgement.

with so many rules that leave so much up to the referees to decide, is it any wonder this place turns into a bitchfest when one's team loses a tight match?

Refs are assessed after every game at Int and top flight club game. Certainly in the AP they have a debrief every week with Ref assessor. As with lower levels captains/coaches also fill out a report card.

Problem is not consistency by individual refs. It is from one ref to another. This happens because we have "interpretation" of the laws. Refs deciding which offence is most important, which to ignore etc.

I think ALL the refs from the same league as each other should have a meeting at least once a week, even if it takes all day, and explain to each other WHY they give the decisions they do, perhaps then, when they all decide WITH EACH OTHER if they agree or not, perhaps we would get a bit of consistency within our leagues.

LondonTiger wrote:Refs are assessed after every game at Int and top flight club game. Certainly in the AP they have a debrief every week with Ref assessor. As with lower levels captains/coaches also fill out a report card.

Problem is not consistency by individual refs. It is from one ref to another. This happens because we have "interpretation" of the laws. Refs deciding which offence is most important, which to ignore etc.

LT,

Yeah that will always be the case and cause problems, I guess the most obvious one is the advantage rule or more to the point when the advantage is over or how long to you let it run for etc.

Do most refs believe that a no arm clearout of a ruck, or a no arm tackle in broken play is somehow more illegal than when it is done to prevent a try in the corner.

1 minute mark - Ashton V Clermont. Laws ignored.

https://youtu.be/BgMQVYJMFDs