Blog: “Thrown under a bus” or “open and accountable”?

For years, the social media commentariat have called for transparency, accountability, and more openness when it comes to (and from) referees.

For years, the referees have talked, should anyone ask, about their approach to self-review, assessor review and then group/peer review as part of their every day/week development. (Covered here in this feature clip on BT Sport (geo-restricted))

This happens throughout most levels of the refereeing community all over the world – from ‘referees with potential’ groups, through development panels, scholarship groups to professional elite referee groups – it’s now a fundamental part of being a match official.

So, it comes to the end of the first round of matches in 2019 Rugby World Cup. As a group, the referees have been working together to review their own games. If anyone has ever done a self review on a sporting endeavour, or even a personal or work-related one, you’ll know that you will always be your own harshest critic. None outside of the RWC Team 21 will be harder on themselves than anyone inside the group. I’m pretty sure Angus Gardner will have looked at the offside in France/Argentina (among other things) and chalked it up as a miss. Jerome Garces will have done same with the Kieran Read line out incidents (uncited so obviously not as bad as being made out!). Ben O’Keeffe and Rowan Kitt will have analysed the Reece Hodge incident and now with added angles, possibly agree that they should at least have had a formal look at it. The angles shown across social media don’t *actually* show what people are claiming it does. There’s no contact point, and his arms end up ahead of him so it’s just not the same as the Farrell incident in the framework video. The citing commissioner and teams have access to *all* angles and can make their case 12-24 hours later – not just the one or two TV shots available at the time.

The officials all review their own matches, as do the assessors and management team – who at RWC 2019, include Alain Rolland (Head of WR referees), Lyndon Bray (SANZAAR referees) and Joel Jutge (EPCR Referees) with their performance reviewers. And then look at conclusions as a group and look at learnings to take onto the next round games. Happens every week and it’s generally shared with the teams’ management in the respective countries where this happens. The BT Sport clip suggests it does in England anyway.

Pic: Jae Hong/Associated Press

The same thing has happened here in Japan, but in addition, the overall conclusion has been shared to the media pack too. It’s being reported that this that the referee team is getting a kicking from “World Rugby” and a “dangerous precedent”. Maybe we’re more of an optimist, but we just don’t see it like that. Did the statement need to be made? No, we don’t think so, but hope they agreed they’d put something out regardless. Does it show the group are adult professionals in their space of work? Yes. Does it say it’s the view of the World governing body? No. Does it say it’s the collective view of the team? Yes, it does.

This is the “media note issued:

Following the usual review of matches, the match officials team recognise that performances over the opening weekend were not consistently of the standards set by World Rugby and themselves, but World Rugby is confident of the highest standards of officiating moving forward.

Elite match officials are required to make decisions in complex, high-pressure situations and there have been initial challenges with the use of technology and team communication, which have impacted decision-making. These are already being addressed by the team of 23 match officials to enhance consistency.

Given this proactive approach, a strong team ethic and a superb support structure, World Rugby has every confidence in the team to ensure that Rugby World Cup 2019 delivers the highest levels of accurate, clear and consistent decision-making.

As this tweeter says, if a player or coach identifies issues or makes mistakes, they get help and support. If a group of match officials errs..heaven forfend…

If a player drops the ball we support them with coaching. If a coach needs development we offer courses and maybe mentoring.
When referees get the odd thing wrong we should be supporting them too. #CoreValues #TREDS https://t.co/a6O69maoyf— ER Pathway SE (@ERPathwaySE) September 23, 2019

One final point to throw out there. We think it’s worth remembering that six of the Team 21’s twelve referees, five of the six ARs and one of the TMOs have made their RWC debuts in the last four days. Oddly, no leeway seems to be offered by anyone to allow them to settle any nerves as they have done for any other participant. It shouldn’t be an issue at this level, but from a human perspective, it must play a part.

Hopefully, the transparent approach will continue next week, when the statement can be issued again, but with a different conclusion.

9 Comments

  1. All well and good but these are supposed to be the best referees in the world.

    They are not comparable with the players. If a player screws up they’re yellow carded, binned, red carded, banned, fined and yanked out of the team.

    Watch the compilation of unpunished foul play in the NZ/Bok game … right in front of Garces ! If Hodgve gets cited and rubbed out then Mr Garces et al has some explaining to make.

    Quite frankly, the level of refereeing was not up to international standard and apologies from substandard referees and how they intend to fix their substandard performance should be forthcoming. These are not weekend warrior Dad refs at grade school, these are the best in the world !

  2. I agree.. And the one thing nobody spoke about is the poor performance from the touch judges… They are suppose to be the extra eyes of the ref on both sides….

  3. Well said Tony! It’s not only the big fouls being missed. Garces missed multiple side entries (by NZ) and that elbow on the ground – it was becoming farcical! P-S du Toit was even patting him on the shoulder and showing the AR, who was totally oblivious. The refs in this game were hardly debutantes! If that’s the best in the world you’d better go fetch your whistle Mr Kaplan there’s a job for you! These blokes are hopeless!

    • it’s nice to have so many enlightened South African readers… Any fan with as much time on their hands as we’ve seen this week, can go through any game and find any examples they like to suit their narrative. I could spend my day clipping out the 63 missed tackles that happened in that game or the 23 handling errors, but if you want to focus on the referees, using any of the 23 camera angle slowed down with graphics to help, then knock yourself out…

      We’re adult enough to recognise that it’s a tough job and there’s work to be done. There’s always work to be done. But some recognition from the fan base of the difficulty in refereeing international rugby would be nice, rather than this whole “they’re out to get us’ type stuff.

      But thanks for your comments!

      • You’re supposed to be the best in the world like the players. Time to live up to the tag and perform accordingly … you’re paid to do the job. Fans expect better or we’d just take a ticket in the Lotto.

        By the way, I’m not a South African and I have time on my hands because I worked hard for it and became one of the best in my field, internationally.

        At international level there should be minimal “work to be done” and if you need to get continual positive affirmation for the job and whine about it, then you have a problem and maybe refereeing is not for you.

        • Tony – thanks for waiting three sentences before telling us how awesome you are. Not a single referee Ive ever met is seeking positive affirmation for their job, they just trying to help the game happen. The players all make mistakes throughout a game – and they all have ‘work to be done’, even at the very top of the game. Referees are striving to make themselves perfect like you. One day maybe…

          • Sigh! So defensive. Take it on board and pick up your game like everybody else does and stop whining about criticism. It is deserved … tell us what you are going to do to be better.

  4. Point taken & accepted, however there is no acceptable explanation for the 3 elbow on the ground incidents to have been missed by the ref, 2 touch judges & tmo. Even if we pretend they were unsighted or whatever on all the other blunders they made.

  5. As a Kiwi I was always worried regarding the refereeing of the ABs games. But as a referee i know the issues that all referees face. We can only rule what we see and while technology is there to help, i would rather see referees making tge decision rather than constantly going to the TMO. Did the guys have a bad weekend? Maybe some did but what team came away from the weekend totally happy with thier performance? As was explained in the blog, we all review our own performance and identify where we can improve. My only complaint on those selected is why is Jacko not there!

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