The One About Referees And Red Faces

I HAVE, over my 60-plus years around the game of Rugby Union, refereed a handful of games, but always in a dire emergency, when not picking-up a whistle would have meant no game. Believe me, it's bloody hard, even before you encounter a couple of tight-heads who think they are Perry Mason or Rumpole of the Bailey.

When I was playing, back in the Amateur Era, almost every club had its own referee; if you landed at an away fixture, you knew you would almost have to kill to earn a draw – thankfully, these days are largely past.

But, just as there are great, good, not-so-good, bang average and “What makes him think he can play?” levels of players, some referees are better than others. However, it seems to me, to a level not encountered by players, top referees these days are helpless pawns in a game of Rugbny Union politics.

At the start of the 21^st century, Scottish referees were so-far down the officiating totem pole, they simply did not get appointed to games. But, some really hard work by the SRU's Match Officials department has worked wonders, to the extent, this season our four officials on the BKT United Rugby Championship match officials referees rosters are getting their fair share of appointments.

Hollie Davidson, Mike Adamson, Ian Kenny and Sam Grove-White have, between them, refereed five games over the first three weeks of games. They have proved themselves as good as any.

They are also collectively better than some. Morne Ferreira, the South African referee who had charge of Cardiff v Glasgow Warriors on Friday night was, for me, simply not up to the job. Particularly at the breakdown, his interpretation of the laws left players from both sides wondering what they could and could not do.

To their credit, Cardiff reacted better to the poor officiating and with Glasgow seeming to lose their mojo to an extent, they were in the game for far longer than they might haver been.

However, the loss of both hookers meant the home side had to go to unopposed scrums, and with the consequential loss of a player the space opened up for Glasgow to put a final sheen on a win which came into the “Pug Ugly” category.

Again, credit to Cardiff. They are one of those sports clubs, rather like Celtic or Manchester United in football, where the onus on the players is not to merely win, but, to win with style and elan. Warriors are another side who come into this category, so with both teams committed to trying to win with style, you would expect a frenetic pace with lots of possibilities of error.

The match was all that and more, fantastic entertainment and, if Glasgow's overall team performance will have had Head Coach Franco Smith tearing his hair at times, the Champions had enough players capable of the odd moment of magic to carry the night.

Mind you, Smith and his coaching staff will be asking what went wrong with those two scums which saw the Warriors' pack going backwards faster than the Ferrarri-powered Italian tank of WWII mythology.

But, a win is a win, onwards and upwards.

BACK in the days of black and white TV and amateur rugby, on the very-occasional Saturdays when I was not required in the press seats, I could usually get a game for the most-storied team in the history of Cumnock Rugby Club – the Third XV 'Mean Machine'.

We didn't always win, but, our proud boast was: “Well, we won the fight”, since at that level back then, no game was complete without a full-on punch-up.

But that was then, and 21^st century Rugby Union has gone soft; you see a lot of posturing and handbag swinging these days, but, you very-seldom see the sort of all-in fights which were once common-place. And for that reason, Edinburgh cannot even say: “Well, we won the fight” in mitigation for the thumping they took at the hands of Emirate Lions, In Johanesburg at lunch-time on Saturday. Maybe because, there was little evidence of fight coming from the men in the dark blue shirts – in a week when Celtic, in Germany, “shamed the Hoops” and Rangers, back at Ibrox “Surrendered” - Edinburgh still managed to collect the ”Most Embarrassing Scottish Defeat of the Week” award.

OK, they won the second half, but, turning round 48-0 ahead, it can reasonably be assumed, the South African team knew then, they had the game won. Yes, Edinburgh restored some pride with that second 40 minutes of rugby, but, it was still a hammering which will take a bit of getting over.

The Lions are, in many respects, the “Par” team in the league. If you can beat them, you stand a good chance of being in the mix at the end of the season. If you cannot beat them – you've got problems.

They don't have any superstars, they are lacking in Springboks, but, they are perhaps the epitome of South African rugby – a team which is well-coached, fit and very hard to beat.

Edinburgh had 13 full caps (12 of them Scottish) in their starting XV, six internationalists on their bench. OK, several of them have less than a handful of international appearances, but, you would surely expect a team with a squad of which 83% are international players to be a lot closer to even a South African team comprising mainly journeymen.

I fear this result will only reinforce the view that it is easier to win international caps if you are Scottish than with any other Tier One nation.

The Edinburgh debrief will be an awkward meeting for so-many of the squad, because that first half was embarrassing in the extreme. Edinburgh made every mistake in the book, and added one or two which weren't previously. It seemed that, everry time Lions got the ball, they scored.