The One Mainly About Refereeing

ONE OF my favourite rugby legends is the tale of that late, great Kelso referee, George Murray's final game. George signed-off with a Border League game, involving Langholm; and, as the story goes, his ante-penultimate act was to award the opposition a penalty, right in front of the Langholm posts, for an offence by Langholm scrum-half Cyril Johnstone.

“What was that for George?” asked an irritated Johnstone.

“Twenty years of lip from you,” was the response. I think Cyril has forgiven George by now.

I rehash that old chestnut following the news that gobby Johnny Sexton has been upsetting referees again. Maybe George had the answer and, the next time Sexton starts yapping, the match referee should penalise him, and make it clear, that's going to happen every time he speaks out of turn.

I would suggest the same tactic might also work with Northampton's Dan Biggar.

SPEAKING of Biggar. I have, in the past, remarked on my admiration for his ability to constantly steal at leat five metres, every time he has to kick a penalty to touch.

Watching the professional rugby coverage from the BKT United Rugby Championship, the Top 14 and the Gallagher Premiership over the weekend, I noticed, the Biggar metres-stealing ploy is now almost common place.

When I was a boy, back in the amateur era, the referee would indicate the mark where a penalty had been awarded, and the kicker then had to kick through that mark, or risk losing possession. Today, it seems to be accepted that the penalty mark is the starting point for the kicker's run-up.

It the non-offending side opts to kick at goal, then the mark is the spot from where they kick, but, if they are going for touch, it's seemingly the starting point for the run-up – come on referees, let's have a bit of consistency.

Another law from my time which also seems to have gone by the wayside is the foot fault when throwing into a line-out. Back in the day, the thrower-in's foot had to be fully outside the line of touch. Then a wee bit of easing saw the thrower-in allowed to have his feet on the touchline, so long as he wasn't encroaching into the field of play.

Nowadays, the norm appears to be that the thrower-in's heels are on the line, although, on Sunday in the Wasps v Northampton game, Wasps' hookers were consistently throwing-in from well inside the line, and getting away with it.

But, we should be thankful for small mercies, the referees are still at least penalising about one in four of the squint line-out throws, although, I dare say, line-out throw-ins will soon regularly be as squint as scrum feeds, the way the game is going.

SPEAKING OF illegalities which have been allowed to creep into the game, I had a read of Nigel Owens' column on Wales Online, in which he mentioned his new role with the URC, in a panel overseeing the performances of the referees. Wee Nige mentioned one thing they have quickly caught hold of – the way some forwards, in appearing to compete at lines-out, actually jump across to mess-up opposition ball.

That's a good start, but, even if the new panel identifies and highlights one wee ploy per week, I reckon, in maybe 25 years, they might have got round to sorting things out, at least in the URC. I reckon it will take the RFU another 50 years to catch-up in the Gallagher Premiership (always assuming that competition lasts that long), then another century or two for the French, not to mention the Australians and New Zealanders to catch-up.

Progress has never been speedy. In aviation we went from powered flight to men on the moon in 66 years, rugby will never move that quickly.

I NOTICED an interesting wee news item this week. The Hong Kong Sevens, the first event in the 2022-23 HSBC/World Rugby Sevens Tournament kicks-off in just over three weeks.

This will be the first regular event in which Team GB competes. This is a composite team of English, Scottish and Welsh players. I presume the driving force will be the RFU, although, as far as I know, oor ain Scott Forrest is still coach of the Women's squad. A new coach will be in required for the Men's team, however, since Simon Amor, who was the Team GB Coach at the Olympics last season, has just been unveiled as the new coach of the Japan Men's Sevens squad.

You would think, with the big start so close, we might have a squad announcement, or even details of the organisation behind Team GB, but, I spent a fruitless couple of hours on Google this morning, and found nothing.

I would love to know which Scottish players and officials will be involved.

NEXT. I see Wasps are the latest Gallagher Premiership side to hit financial bother, apparently going into administration with this weekend's match against Exeter Chiefs already called off.

So, the question is, which club will be next, since it is becoming increasingly evident, the English mega-club model isn't working. We might moan and groan about some of the decisions made by the Murrayfield Junta, but, clearly, having professional rugby run by the Unions rather than clubs, would appear to be the surest way of keeping the game going. Provided, of course, the tsunami of legal claims which could be coming from players in the years ahead, does not bankrupt the game.