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Rugby should consider the NRL's two refs system

19th June, 2011
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19th June, 2011
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Graham HenryAll Blacks coach Graham Henry has taken a valid, and timely, swipe at today’s rugby referees suggesting they are simply not good enough.

This is valid given the increase in Super Rugby tries being scored off forward passes, which Henry rates as “ridiculous”. And he included the “touchies” in his criticism.

Henry said: “You watch the game at the moment; the number of tries being scored from forward passes is ridiculous. I just wonder what the guys are doing on the sidelines. It’s diabolical. It doesn’t make any sense. They are all trying to do a decent job but they are making mistakes.”

This is timely, with the Rugby World Cup kick-off only 81 days away.

Henry qualified his complaint by begging the question, are the referees physically up to it, or are they fatigued?

The answer may well be an underlying problem.

This year’s Super Rugby has been played at a cracking pace, it’s been spectacular, with the vast majority of the teams’ players in their 20s.

But as the vast majority of referees are in their 40s, there’s no way in my opinion they can compete for pace over the full 80 minutes, no matter how many short-cuts they can muster.

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Mark Lawrence is 46, Jonathan Kaplan 45, Stu Dickinson and Marius Jonker 43, Vinny Moore 42, Bryce Lawrence 41, and Keith Brown is 40.

The only top Super 15 refs under 40 are Steve Walsh and Chris Pollock (39) and Craig Joubert, who is 34.

It’s much the same story in the northern hemisphere.

Alan Lewis (Ireland) is 47, Alain Rolland (Ireland) and Dave Pearson (England) are 45, Christophe Bardos (France) 41, and Welshman Nigel Owen is 40. The sub-40s: Frenchman Romain Poite 36, Irishman Georg Clancy 34, and the youngest ref in world rugby, England’s Wayne Barnes is 32.

It doesn’t paint a positive picture.

As anyone who has competed in any sport knows only too well, once you’re tired your thinking isn’t as sharp, and your reaction time slows.

There’s no time for either as an elite rugby referee, the moment is lost. But that theory doesn’t exonerate the “touchies” for the mounting monumental blunders they are making.

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By comparison their job is a walk in the park, with four extra eyes, and no pressure, to assist the referees.

So this is a very rare time to support the IRB, as the governing body is between a rock and a hard place.

If they look to far younger refs, who are fit and fast but inexperienced, they will no-doubt crumble under the pressure of take-no-prisoners international rugby.

Or they can stick to the current format, and hope for the best. But that’s Russian roulette.

So there’s a lot to be said for rugby league’s two refs on the paddock at the same time for the full 80 minutes.

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