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At the outset I want to say this is not about nostalgia; rather it’s about common sense.
Certain professional sports played today warrant the embrace of new technology when it comes to officiating in an effort to reach perfection – zero errors.
Tennis is one example. The most recent US Open eliminated line judges for the first time this year.
Swimming and track are others.
However, it gets messier when you look at team sports. To be sure, for some, the use of technology is working.
Referees’ use of technology during soccer matches to call an offside works, or whether the ball crossed the goal line. Rugby union is another matter.
What was initially intended to be a freewheeling sport has today, at the international level, turned into a game of stops and starts.
The referee, thanks to wireless technology, is now being spoken to in real-time by the TMO and his two touch judges – if they feel they have seen an infraction the referee missed.
Common sense alone dictates this approach to be a failed one.
Think about it. You have 30 men covering a 120m long by 60m wide pitch and one man refereeing while three others are periodically suggesting to the referee to either stop play to review a potential illegal infringement, or temporarily hold off on awarding a clear and obvious try because a few minutes prior to the try, there may have been a forward pass.
Aside from the obvious consequences of such officiating – stopping the rhythm of play – the reality is that an international Test match now has four referees with various degrees of authority and three of them with no limitations on when they may want to suggest to the field referee a stoppage in play.
The amount of playing time versus stoppage time is significantly changing and this should be a major concern for World Rugby.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Then there is the mental issue for the on-field referee.
In the past, it was expected and arguably accepted by players and fans alike, that the referee would officiate a test to the best of his ability; that human errors would inevitably occur, but since this was the norm of all other internationally officiated matches, it all washed out in the end.
This approach, to be fair, had its share of problems. To this day, we all recall our respective matches where a bad call caused our team to lose.
Yet, at the end of the day, the referee was not being second-guessed; was not being monitored by three others talking into his ear. There has to logically be a confidence factor if you’re, on the one hand, tasked to officiate a match, but on the other, know that for the entire duration of that match you’ll likely be second-guessed.
We’re seeing this play out and it’s gotten to the point, in some matches, where some referees are now second-guessing themselves.
They say it’s a lot easier to criticise than to offer up solutions, but before ideas can become solutions one first has to identify the problems.
With that said, what are some ideas for improving officiating? For one, significantly peel back the authority of the touch judges, to the extent they revert back to their basic functions of marking where the ball went into touch, raising a flag if a player or ball went into touch, judging whether a player kicked a ball into touch within his 22-meter line and judging whether a penalty kick or the extras after a try went through the posts.
Nothing more, nothing less. As for the TMO: He should only be called upon at the referees’ discretion. Again, nothing more, nothing less.
There will be readers of this article who would argue that these ideas are not potential solutions, but merely turning back the clock to an era of missed calls and more dangerous play.
On the other hand, those of us who have played this game know full well that rugby is a contact sport and it inherently comes with a fair degree of injury.
This is not to say that neck rolls, high tackles and tipping are acceptable, but a referee at international level who’s given back the authority with the confidence to call a match is likely to catch this. The result will be less stoppage time and a nod to the way this great sport of rugby union was always intended to be played.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.