LEICESTER TIGERS were rewarded for their initiative and effort in getting their match against Wasps to go ahead when gaining a thumping 34-8 victory which put them top of the Guinness Premiership table.
However, as we television experts clearly saw after replays, two tries at crucial stages of the game should not have been awarded; there was a knock-on at a scrum preceding Murphy’s try and Tuqiri dropped the ball before his touchdown.
Neither of the incidents was spotted by the ref or the touch judges.
Fourteen points certainly made Leicester’s task easier and they followed that up with an awesome massacre of the Wasps scrum.
It brings the referee back into focus after Brendan Venter’s outburst at our officials. Fortunately the Leicester encounter was run by a Frenchman, so our own chaps can breathe a communal sigh of relief as they would probably have been hanged, drawn and quartered in similar circumstances.
I do have a degree of sympathy with Venter’s criticisms of the lottery at the breakdown. Of course, it is a complex area to referee, but it is not the ref alone who is at fault. He has the most unenviable of tasks when the attacker runs straight into the sternum of the closest defender.
Once he has taken the easy option of the Maori Sidestep, the tackler is wrapped round him and, even if he wanted to move away, he can be stuck there. The law states that the tackler has to get away immediately, but the professionals worked out long ago that it is very easy to hold him down so that he cannot get away even if he wants to.
Coaches and players might do their bit and try to get the ball carrier on to the weak area of any would-be tackler - the arm tackle. The pros work hour after hour on their footwork and fast feet, yet they rarely display it in a game. If the defence were forced to make more arm tackles, the ref has a far clearer picture of who is doing what and the attacking team might just get more reward.
Gloucester supporters suffer misery on a weekly basis at the near absence of early ball from the contact area and we are one of the worst offenders at running straight into the middle of the waiting arms of the nearest tackler.
Officials could help their case by reffing the basics of the game more strictly. How on earth can we have calls such as, “Get back onside number so and so”? If he’s offside, he has already done the damage and a penalty has to be awarded without advice from the man with the whistle.
But the referees are under far more pressure than we generally know about.
There is a massive industry of referee coaches, advisers, mentors, fitness gurus and witch doctors. The game has encouraged refs at the top to manage an exciting product when all they should be doing is refereeing.
The game’s authorities ought to insist that the man in the middle does his job strictly, sensibly and fairly. The end product, or spectacle, is down to the players. If a game ends up as a turgid bore with far too much whistle, it is probably the fault of the players.
It is all light years away from the 1970s when Gloucester always played Oxford in their last game before the Varsity match at Twickenham.
When the venue was Iffley Road, local referee Bill Brown usually got the job and the whole busload of Gloucester players and officials would go to his home after drinking Vincent’s Club dry.
Bill’s wife put on a brave face and did not seem to mind too much. When the lemonade ran out, Bill had a trick up his sleeve that no modern top-class ref could begin to emulate. He had a mobile fish-and-chip van and the gas fire was duly ignited and, in next to no time, we all had fish and chips in the outskirts of Oxford.
That was a different age, a different game. There were no league points, no financial rewards (certainly not at Gloucester) and promotion and relegation were terms associated with football. The modern game is vastly different, but it is sad and probably inevitable that fish and chips in Bill Brown’s front room is a thing of the dim and distant past.
Do you agree with Keith? Have your say below.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here