We have statistic for just about every facet of our lives: GDP, CPI, crowd attendance, road fatalities and so on.
This is also true in sport. Cricket can’t help themselves, with everything measured through statistical analyse.
This is equally true in rugby nowadays. There are measurements for metres gained, kick metres gained, lineout wins against the feed, tightheads won, time in opposition half, games played and many more.
Statistics we don’t see are ones covering those in charge of the game – the on-field officials.
With AFL offering near non-stop action, league doing likewise and football moving along nicely, except when one of the princesses hit the ground after what is nothing more than a slight bump.
In the crowded winter sport market of Australia, will the performance of the referees come under scrutiny (not the consistency as this an entirely different question)?
I wonder if those who should actually measure the number of times a referee re-sets a scrum (Jonathan Kaplan seems to win this race), the number of times the TMO is called upon to review what the ref’ and/or his assistants should catch, the time allowed for a team to set and eventually throw a lineout or what appears to me the inordinate time taken for a shot at goal to occur.
The Kiwi officials seem to have it down to an art. The South Africans are ahead of us but not by a lot.
I am not asking that we allow our officials to circumvent the laws of the game, just step up and enforce them. If a team is not setting a scrum correctly, sort it out early. Dry weather should not see 10 or more re-sets.
If a team is slow getting to a line out, they will wake up after the second sanction.
And get the bloody kickers moving along – penalties and conversions seem to take an eternity.
As we have such a small pool of Australians refs I guess their mums have seen them on the TV enough by now. Defer to the TMO for big decisions not trivial ones – make a decision and get on with play.
How many times does a TMO need to see the same replay that Phil Kearns, et al, has correctly judged upon?
At one stage we had the premiere referees in the world – Kerry Fitzgerald and, in my opinion, Peter Marshall.
Admittedly, off field referral was not around then but I hope I still make the point. At the moment we are running well back in the on-field official pack.
If Rugby is to compete as a marketable item – and it absolutely kills me to admit it is at the Super Rugby level and above – we need it to be a fast moving one in order for it to be a spectacle.
Uncle Eric
Guest
Stop the clock while the ball is dead. The time taken to set a scrum, never mind all the resets can often blow out to over a minute, the average would be somewhere around 45 seconds. Multiply 45 seconds by the number of times a scrum is called in the game, let's say 12 times for arguments sake and you've lost 8 minutes of playing time. Throw in a few resets, trips to the lineout, time while captains make decisions and I reckon it's likely around 15 minutes a game goes in what should be stoppage time. Take time by all means, but NOT off the 80 minutes (unless of course the Waratahs are playing in which case the downtime is probably more interesting than the game, joke!!).
sledgeandhammer
Guest
In that case the time wasting team should forfeit possession. Too often teams on the defensive use stalling tactics to reset. It's a bit like soccer where maimed players arise from the dead when the stretcher arrives. Threaten to penalise the loafer's team with loss of possession,and I can guarantee the shoe laces will stay in place.
soapit`
Guest
why?
soapit`
Guest
there arent many instances of decisions that are wrong that dont get referred. if theres any doubt they almost always go upstairs. drs would be a waste of time
JIM
Guest
Please NO. The DRS is ruining cricket. Why would you want to ruin rugby as well.
Anon
Guest
for time keeping - there's pretty well 2 main schools of application. The US style every second is sacred - stopping the clock relentlessly, and the soccer/rugby style of letting the clock run. Somewhere in the middle is a comp like the AFL who stop the clock after goals and other stoppage situations - but, not when the ball is 'semi-dead' - i.e. a forward having marked and lining up for goal. Granted he can opt to play on at any time but the umpire still needs to call it before opposition can touch him. FIFA had stats for the 2006 FIFA WC where I think the average actual game time was roughly the same or slightly less than the AFL ratio (AFL ideally 80 mins of 'game time' but with clock stoppages is played over roughtly 120 mins - so, a 2-3 ratio, 2 mins game time for every 3 mins elapsed). For soccer then - a couple of minutes of injury time is nothing compared to the other down time. For Rugby - if the clock were to be stopped as much as perhaps it should be - and there certainly is a fair bit of scope there - then, like Aust Footy and American Footy - you'd probably have to move to a 4 qtr arrangement instead of 2 halves.
蜘王
Guest
I went to watch an NRL match last month and the U20s before it had the captain challenges. They took forever and killed off the momentum and made the game boring. I don't think they'd work in footy
RedsNut
Guest
Stop the clock? I don't have that much time or patience to watch a game to the end if that were to happen.
Shop
Guest
Problem when it is a front row forward tying his laces before a scrum though.
sledgeandhammer
Guest
Biggest time waster is stopping for players to tie their laces, put boots back on, refit contact lenses and have water applied to non existent injuries. Play on in my book, the team with the loafer tieing up his shoes deserves to be disadvantaged.
Shngmao
Guest
Stop the clock for conversations is a logical starting point and impacts no other part of the game, a no brainer. There is 5-6 minutes a game time back which is a hell of a lot of time. The second step is bring back the ELV short arm for scrums, that will speed up things considerably. Give me these 2 and I'm a content rugby supporter.
bobby
Guest
Get rid of hometown reffing it turns mistakes into perceived bias and 'match fixing'!
bobby
Guest
For penalties...stop the clock! For conversions...stop the clock! whenever a scrum is reset...stop the clock until the ball is played out of the scrum!
bobby
Guest
The only thing a DRS could work is only for foul play, off side, forward pass, retreating players (offside) otherwise we go into dangerous ground where we will rub rugby out as an entertaining game.
bobby
Guest
I cant see a DRS being brought into Rugby it would cause more confusion and probably riots. Rugby is designed to be flowing and cant be treated as such to Gridiron or league which can allow interruptions. take for example holding onto the ball some refs interpret this...'you hit the ground you place the ball immediately' whilst we have seen refs give ball carriers around 2 seconds to get rid of the ball. This weekends penalty against the bulls is a perfect example the ball carrier got to ground and did not place immediately, and if he did, the Brumbies 9 would have got the ball as he was unopposed in the first instance when he was on his feet. Refer that to TMO then it is left up to the TMO vs the on field ref....reality vs replay!!! we all know that refs have interpretations of the laws!!! TMO vs Ref interpretation!! League went through a few years back and gave up on it!!
siddeeky
Roar Rookie
Don't slow down the penalties, I use that time to take a leak and/or grab another beer!
mitzter
Guest
Stats of officials are of course taken and have been for many years. I don't know how you can think you are the first person to consider this? The importance of those stats has actually decreased however. The current trend is to judge more on the feel of the game, that the referee is reading it right, and that the right calls or non-calls are taken in key moments. This decision was made as refs were being too driven by these stats.
mania
Guest
good idea johnno but i'm against it. it'll jsut slow the game down and give the refs something else to fk up
mania
Guest
"The Kiwi officials seem to have it down to an art." lol, how soon u guys have forgetton bryceLawrence.
Johnno
Guest
I'd like DRS brought into rugby, a team gets 2 challenges per match, if they get both challenges wrong, then that's it for the game. And that covers all designs they can appeal, forwad passes, tries etc, everything except knock ons, except knock on's at try time.