A Way of Cutting Down on Offences

[Blackberry]

As refs we are the best group to pick up on common mis-conceptions where usually the player's epiphany comes shortly after an unexpected loud blast of the whistle. As well as picking up on common mstakes, we can get that information out to players, coaches and spectators.

This way we will get less offences and, let's be frank, less dissent. Why less dissent. Let me explain.

A society should have on its website a Players' Page where an ongoing list of common problems could be kept for players to catch up on from time to time. It would be an expectation of the society that players read it, this takes the education/explanation on the pitch monkey off our backs, and straight onto those who should know...the players. It will become required reading.

A couple of points, first off it can only deal with simple issues, ie He Hasn't let him Up Ref, or Blocking a Quick Throw. Second, it must be written in an accessible way, and not (here's the master stroke which lets it all happen) written as "official" law, instead as advice on how the law seems to be being interpreted. I know that might sound mealy mouthed or very Yes Minister, but it allows the passing on of advice to happen.

So, imagine after the rollout, players are routinely being directed to the webpage by their clubs to keep up to date. Of course, a few won't, but theu would be in no worse position that they were before the page was set up.

And the elephant in the room??? Yep, it will also help all our refs who may be falling victim to misunderstandings too (see "Bad Experiences")

I will try and paste in a training session I did, see that it is written in the third person as it is a players' page and is written as a way of improving a team's performance. Here goes...

 

[Blackberry]

During the season there have been some critical / game changing events where we or our opponents have made basic screw ups by not knowing the laws. I kept a list of these events and if you read on, I will tell you how to deal with them. This will give you a significant advantage in future games, both in defence and attack. Read on….

How Not to Block a Quick Throw In
We’ve kicked for touch and the opposition are trying to take a quick throw in. The big mistake you can make is to try to block it without going back to the five metre line. It’s a straight free kick against you, possibly a penalty. Looking at it from the other way round, if someone tries to stop your quick throw in by standing close in front of you, chuck the ball gently at him, look outraged and wait for the ref to ping him.
So… if you’re trying to block a quick throw in, make sure you’re back five metres.

“The Lines Have Formed Ref”
Don’t get caught out here. If we’ve kicked for touch and they look like taking a quick throw in, its no good us putting two or more players into the lineout and shouting “The Line’s Formed Ref”. The ref will just look at us briefly in a funny way, then watch the other team take the quick throw 20 metres away. You have probably worked out the problem already… there must be players from BOTH teams before the line is called as formed. From the other way round, if the Quick Throw in is an option for us, don’t whatever you do go and step into the main lineout as that might stop us having the right to the Quick Throw in.

“The Lines Have Formed Ref So the Ball Can’t Come in Quickly”
Yeeees, sort of, but there is something called a Quickly Taken Throw in. This is where the two lines have formed, and while everyone is getting themselves sorted out, we simply throw the ball in catching the opposition unawares. Its not always given as the referee might be using the downtime to sort something out, or he might be unsighted, but it is there as an option, so don’t stand still, transfixed if the opposition try it on us. Like England did against Wales a few years back.


“You’ve Got To Let Him Up!!”
Agghhh!! Referees have asked to be allowed to punch the lights out of players/coaches/idiots on the touchline who bleat this out. The RFU are getting back to them on it, but they are confident. It causes refs so much grief, but worse still if we believe it, it cuts down a valuable option for us. Here’s what the laws say. You can’t tackle a player on the ground, however, if the player is on the ground and we try to grab the ball off him (see, we are not playing HIM, we’re playing the ball) he has to let go immediately.
Don’t touch him, just try to yank the ball off him, and he has to let go immediately. Otherwise PEEP.

Not Ten From the Kick Off
If we kick off and it doesn’t go ten, be ready to pounce on a popular cock up. If one of their players catches the ball…he’s now our bitch. Well ,that’s to say he has made the ball live, and the game carries on. He will not be expecting that, so have some fun. Better still, if he tries to catch it and drops it, it’s a scrum to us. From the other way round, if they kick to us and it doesn’t go 10, don’t touch it.
Bye the way, the ball doesn’t have to go the 10 metres in the air, it can skoot along the ground and still count.

“You Can’t Take the Second Penalty Quickly”
This is up there with the “You’ve Got To Let Him Up” myth and if we believe it we are going to miss a lot of attacking options, and probably concede a few tries too. Here’s what the Law says, read it well. We cannot take the second penalty until the ref has made the mark. So watch him. The moment the ref makes the mark.…game on.
This is especially good close to their line, where no penalty can be closer than five metres. So, if we have a penalty seven metres out, they infringe so the ref marches forward….. two metres and makes the mark. We can go straight off from there and are almost guaranteed a try or even a penalty try.

Charging Down Conversions
First off, we can charge down conversions from a penalty try. Second, if the kicker is about to start his run up, and the ball falls over… watch closely what he does. If he asks the refs permission to reset it, he is a wise man, if he simply walks up and tries to reset it without asking, he has begun his run up and we can charge him. And there’s more, if the balls falls over after he has begun his run up, there is nothing he can do, we can carry on charging.
And do the maths. If you want to try and charge it down, stand as close to the kicker as you can, not under the posts facing out on the angle towards the kicker… this give you further to run.

Charging Free Kicks
You know the difference between a penalty and a free kick? The ref will signal a free kick with a bent arm. Well, we can charge Free Kicks (and Marks). Once the kicker starts to run forward, start your charge. It is especially effective if the kicker doesn’t know you can charge his Free Kick. 
Incidentally, if we catch the ball from a penalty kick, free kick, drop goal attempt, and we are in our 22, we can call a mark as if its from a normal kick.

The In Goal Area is not Narnia.
Its not a magical land with its own altered reality. Pretty well all the offside and forward pass laws still apply in the normal sense once we cross the touchline. So if our winger runs over the line then sees his prop lumbering a few metres ahead of him closer to the posts, if he passes the ball to him, its going to be forward, so it’s a scrum against us.
Also if we kick out of defence from the in goal area, anyone who wants to chase it must have been behind the kicker just as they would in normal play.


Maybe the In Goal Area is a kind of Narnia
In some ways the in goal area does have its own laws. A ruck maul or scrum stops existing the moment it crosses the try line. This means many things, we don’t have to release the tackled player, we can go down on the ball, we can dive into a scrum to ground the ball (remember this one if we drive a scrum over their line, their scrum half can dive in and ground the ball before we do. The ref will keep order by pinging any dangerous play, so its not a free for all Hunger Games kind of moment.

 

[dave_clark]

ahem...

http://www.rugbyrefs.com/showthread.php?11309-exploding-those-myths&highlight=exploding+those+myths

:biggrin:

still a good idea, and probably well worth bringing up to date.

 

[didds]

It will become required reading.

It can only help - cracking idea. But...

how do you propose to enforce the "required reading".

I suspect that what will happen - at best! - is assuming the message gets out there in the first place to every player (including the ones that opnly play 4 times a year for the 3rd XV when they are DESPERATELY short) is that a very small % will read it. fewer will then remember/take anything in!

That then leaves the ref on the day to still create the epiphanies.

This isn't to say that it shouldn't happen - but unfortunately cracking idea that it IS, it is clearly a case of leading horses to water.

And of course - as you mention - it can only ever include stuff that has 100% agreement across the board/ref's society.

It should most certainly be made compulsory for every ref in a society to read it ;-)

didds

 

[didds]

> From the other way round, if they kick to us and it doesn’t go 10, don’t touch it.

Hmmm....

better off say8i9ng something like ... if we attempt to pl;ay the ball before it has gone 10m we are playing it live - there is no chan ce to win a scrum back or re-kick. If we wait for it to cross the 10m line and it takes an age but DOES get there they may be able to challenge for it REALLY easily.

didds

 

[OB..]

I don't think you want the script of a training session on the website. You just want bullet points.

 

[richie]

I ref friendly matches at a few schools for the last number of years so know the coaches on a friendly informal basis and often offer a basic on pitch laws breakdown and how to get the best out of a ref., so naturally they politely declined������,
You can't win.....

My own club , same story......

 

[Phil E]

Why don't you just get them to read the laws of the game?
Everything you are highlighting is covered in there.

 

[TheBFG]

yeah just after they've completed the cryptic crossword, we're talking rugby players here, plain English gives them some chance of getting it right :wink:

 

[Blackberry]

Why don't you just get them to read the laws of the game?
Everything you are highlighting is covered in there.

Reading the laws covers the 2% they don't know....and the 98% they do. My way is just to teach them what they don't know, in a language they understand.

 

[Dickie E]

Love the whole concept.

One I would add is:

if the kick off goes directly into in goal you can dot it down, without delay, and get the scrum back on halfway. Surprisingly few players are aware

 

[Drift]

Love the whole concept.

One I would add is:

if the kick off goes directly into in goal you can dot it down, without delay, and get the scrum back on halfway. Surprisingly few players are aware

I didn't know that until some time in the last 18 months and I was ARing for another person. Ball went into in-goal and was dotted down straight away and we went back for the scrum. I asked about it after the game and learnt that law.

 

[Dickie E]

I didn't know that until some time in the last 18 months and I was ARing for another person. Ball went into in-goal and was dotted down straight away and we went back for the scrum. I asked about it after the game and learnt that law.

Drift, is this something worth taking to committee to see if valuable in Vic?

Maybe VRU could apend to 2015 Game Management Guidelines?

 

[menace]

I didn't know that until some time in the last 18 months and I was ARing for another person. Ball went into in-goal and was dotted down straight away and we went back for the scrum. I asked about it after the game and learnt that law.

I'm a bit shocked about that Drift, considering your playing and refereeing level? I thought just rugby league players had no idea about that one (that's usually one sign that I have leagies on the park as they feel they have to run it out...that, and the incessant shoulder charging!)

 

[Drift]

I'm a bit shocked about that Drift, considering your playing and refereeing level? I thought just rugby league players had no idea about that one (that's usually one sign that I have leagies on the park as they feel they have to run it out...that, and the incessant shoulder charging!)

It's one of those things that I think I learnt when beginning and forgot about because I had never seen it happen.

- - - Updated - - -

Drift, is this something worth taking to committee to see if valuable in Vic?

Maybe VRU could apend to 2015 Game Management Guidelines?

You are assuming that the wider community, outside of the referees, read the GMGs in Vic.

 

[Dickie E]

During the season there have been some critical / game changing events where we or our opponents have made basic screw ups by not knowing the laws. I kept a list of these events and if you read on, I will tell you how to deal with them. This will give you a significant advantage in future games, both in defence and attack. Read on….

Anyone game to add these 2:

1. when & why ball is/is not in touch, and
2. who gets the feed after the unsuccessful end to a maul.

 

[Dickie E]

Incidentally, if we catch the ball from a penalty kick, free kick, drop goal attempt, 22 metre drop out, and we are in our 22, we can call a mark as if its from a normal kick.

FTFY in red

 

[crammond1964]

we always try and get a few refs to training sessions to explain THEIR version of events ; sadly as we know we do not sing from same hymn sheets as refs !
After a while we regonise the ref and are aware of his laws . ; however constant whistling may get you noticed and promoted but if alert you can shout about letting a player up or throwing in a quick line out .

 

[Decorily]

Anyone game to add these 2:

1. when & why ball is/is not in touch, and
2. who gets the feed after the unsuccessful end to a maul.

1. Good luck trying to explain that to players.....referees even!!

2. Don't forget to add the ....except after catching an opponents kick (other than after a kick off/restart/22)

Even to explain when the maul is actually formed would enlighten some players.