ONE OF the plus points – or is it a minus point? - from the advance of social media is, suddenly, everyone is an expert and has an opinion. It's perhaps just as well they didn't have social media back in 1905, when Bob Deans' try for the All Blacks wasn't given; or we might have seen all-out war between Wales and New Zealand.
One of rugby's written on tablets of stone points is: “The referee is the sole judge of fact.” We forget that, or ignore it, and the game is lost. Even today, with Television Match Officials and instant replays of controversial issues, it is still the man with the whistle who has the final say. He may later be shown beyond all doubt, to have erred, but, at the moment, when he adjudicates – rightly or wrongly – then, that's it, that matter is closed and we move on.
We try to change that and all is lost. But, today, we see television commentators and analysts, few of whom have ever had to make a perhaps match-defining decision, castigating the poor referee and insisting he boobed.
I mention this because the fall-out from Saturday's Australia v New Zealand match, with its two red cards, has got some of our antipodean cousins frothing at the mouth rather more than usual.
The answer to eliminating such red cards in the future is obvious: just get the players to tackle below the chest. Even then, there will still be mis-timed, high tackles, but, in time, I hope we will see them eliminated totally.
Sir John Kirwan
All Blacks Legend Sir John Kirwan has demanded that the red card should be banished from the game; thereby proving wingers are thick. In a game of such ferocity and physicality as Rugby Union, there has to be a cut-off point, a line which, once crossed, means the guilty player has to go. That has to be obvious.
However, I do feel we should be making players responsible more for their on-field behaviour. By all means keep yellow cards with the ten minutes in the sin bin for less-serious foul play. Keep red cards too for serious foul play, but, I do believe there is a case for not penalising the team.
Kirwan is suggesting, a red card should carry a 15-minute sin bin sanction, after which the player rejoins the game. For me, yes, 15 minutes at a man short, after which, the red-carded player is replaced. The guy sent off stays off, but, the overall team is not handicapped beyond the 15 minutes.
OR – how about adapting a suggestion I have heard the great Alan Hosie make numerous times over the years. Alan has long maintained serious foul play should be penalised by a potential ten-point penalty, to be kicked from a penalty spot, on the offending side's 22 metre line, in the middle of the goal. Red card, a ten-point penalty and say ten minutes a man short, before the offender is replaced – I think that might be a suitable deterrent to serious foul play. It's maybe worth a trial.
Alan Hosie, calming things down in his refereeing days
THE SCRUM is rugby's means of re-starting play after a breakdown in its spontaneous progress. Unfortunately, it is also – certainly at the elite level – the biggest plook on the game's visage.
I don't think we will ever be able to stop props fucking-up scrums, but, following a wee discussion I spotted on Facebook yesterday, there might be a means of stopping another minor blemish on the face of scrums – the squint feed.
Any scrum half who obeyed the letter of the Law on scrums, and attempted to feed the ball down the centre of the tunnel, would surely be dropped for the next game. They all cheat, and, what is really worrying is, the referees appear, under instructions form the very top of the game's law-making body – yes you and your committee John Jeffrrey – are letting them get away with it.
In my lengthy career in sports-writing, I have covered over 50 different sports, and, in doing this, I have seen how other sports restart play following a break. For instance, in ice hockey, when there is a break, play resumes with a face-off, when the referee drops the puck between the sticks of a player from each side.
In basketball, occasionally you see a restart from a tip-off, which sees the referee throw up a ball between competing players from either side, while in Austrtalian Rules Football, their umpires restart play by bouncing the ball between a player from either side. And, let's not forget the good old-fashioned fitba stoat-up. The dropped ball, to give it its proper name, is still in the rule book, but seldom used these days.
[Speaking of stoat-ups, over 60-years on, I can still remember a stoat-up at Celtic Park, featuring Neil Mochan of Celtic and Bobby Shearer of Rangers, in which the ball never got a chance to bounce, in fact, how it didn't deflate as these two wee, hard men jousted for it, I will never know.]
So, why don't we eliminate squint feeds from scrums, by having the referees feed them. As an added bonus – make the rival scrum-halves stand behind their packs to wait for the ball arriving. This would also, at a stroke, stop these wee nyaffs from squabbling and starting further fights.
FINALLY, speaking of scrum-halves, it was good to see Stirling County's Caleb Korteweg (pictured below) getting the call-up to Glasgow Warriors for their game with Ulster on Monday night. He even got six mintues off the bench, replacing fellow County man Sean Kennedy.
Korteweg may be an import, but, he is Scotland-qualified and still Under-23, so, by calling him up, Danny Wilson has shown, at least somebody within the SRU's Performance Department knows that Super6 is out there. No hard to Caleb, but, I believe there are Scottish scrum-halves as good, if not better, in S6. Let's hope we see more S6 players called up, and fewer cheap imports brought in.
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