[Tackle] Game Management (?)

[Donk93953]

Trying to understand your game management techniques.

Two university sides in the states playing last night.
I watched one team be penalized for 10 high tackles....after the 4th, ref awarded a yellow card...continued on with 6 more high tackle penalties and awarded 3 more yellow cards...4 total in the match.
So when do you start pulling out the red?
After the 11th high tackle?

 

[Decorily]

You pull out the red after the first red card offence!

 

[Balones]

Trying to understand your game management techniques.

Two university sides in the states playing last night.
I watched one team be penalized for 10 high tackles....after the 4th, ref awarded a yellow card...continued on with 6 more high tackle penalties and awarded 3 more yellow cards...4 total in the match.
So when do you start pulling out the red?
After the 11th high tackle?

If a high tackle meets the red criteria then it can be awarded straight away.
If the same player commits two YC worthy high tackles then the second is upgraded to a Red.
If a player only commits a high tackle worthy of a YC then that is all he/she gets.
If everyone from both sides is committing high tackles repeatedly there comes a stage when it would not be safe to continue in my opinion so I would suggest to both teams that the game would be abandoned unless there is a very quick change in attitude and approach. One team committing ten would have got me to the stage of warning about abandoning the game for the safety of the opposition. Let the organising committee for that league deal with it if abandoned.
I would like to think that the threat to abandon the game and report the team would achieve the desired affect.

 

[Jarrod Burton]

Can't award a RC for persistent foul play from a team.

I'd find it hard to believe that 4 YC worthy tackles out of the 10 high didn't have one which tripped over into RC territory.

I'd start playing zero advantage after foul play and read the riot act after the second card. Each event should be taken on its merits, but given its a weeds game, the referee's judgement on a tackle is the only opinion that matters. Maybe that high tackle was a bit higher than the others and made direct contact to the head - RC? Maybe that wrap wasn't enough - RC? Maybe the force of that tackle was too high - RC?

Also, depending on the referee they may have been given feedback around too many cards or has the opinion that red cards ruin matches, we are only human and can make a series of errors of judgement which can be hard to identify and correct while under the physical and mental stress of a match.

Trying to understand your game management techniques.

Two university sides in the states playing last night.
I watched one team be penalized for 10 high tackles....after the 4th, ref awarded a yellow card...continued on with 6 more high tackle penalties and awarded 3 more yellow cards...4 total in the match.
So when do you start pulling out the red?
After the 11th high tackle?

 

[Ciaran Trainor]

I had 3 yellows for persistent high tackles for the same team on Saturday after issuing a warning.
They were all lazy seat belt type tackles with no force or danger but poor technique, no complaints from anyone.

 

[smeagol]

I had 3 yellows for persistent high tackles for the same team on Saturday after issuing a warning.
They were all lazy seat belt type tackles with no force or danger but poor technique, no complaints from anyone.

A few years ago, I had a game with 8 YCs (+/- 1) and a RC (double yellow). U19, nothing malicious, just a lack of getting low from a lot of inexperienced players I had to look up at to make eye contact with.

 

[Rich_NL]

Trying to understand your game management techniques.

Two university sides in the states playing last night.
I watched one team be penalized for 10 high tackles....after the 4th, ref awarded a yellow card...continued on with 6 more high tackle penalties and awarded 3 more yellow cards...4 total in the match.
So when do you start pulling out the red?
After the 11th high tackle?

I don't quite understand the question, in a way I can give a meaningful answer. Is it rhetorical and you're complaining about the ref?

I've never had a game like that, but I can think of contexts in which it might happen. I can also think of considerations the ref might have made or not made, that a more experienced ref would do differently.

 

[pedr]

In the 2015 laws, 10.3 (b) said that if different players on a team repeatedly commit the same offence, after a team warning and after one player has been sin-binned, "If a player of that same team then repeats the offence the referee sends off the guilty player(s)." Was that ever seriously applied? In any event, that sentence was deleted in 2016. (From the copies of previous versions of the laws here: http://rugbyfootballhistory.com/laws.htm#modern)

 

[tim White]

Watched a recent game with exactly this problem. I suggested to the ref he should specifically tell the players what they were doing wrong as they were clearly not understanding the laws in the same way (if they knew the laws at all). If they then insist on high tackling then that is their problem -not the refs.

 

[Donk93953]

I don't quite understand the question, in a way I can give a meaningful answer. Is it rhetorical and you're complaining about the ref?

I've never had a game like that, but I can think of contexts in which it might happen. I can also think of considerations the ref might have made or not made, that a more experienced ref would do differently.

It is neither rhetorical, nor a complaint about the ref.

The question is how would you handle such a match?

 

[Rich_NL]

Understood.

It would depend on what I judged the cause to be, honestly. Inability, misunderstanding of the laws, malice, etc... the offences are symptoms of something. Possibly call the team over at the second card and explain what they need to show me in the tackle, possibly escalate to a red, possibly abandon the match... there are many management tools!

Without being there though, I can't really say - it's like phoning a doctor and asking "I've got a stomach ache, what would you prescribe?"

 

[Volun-selected]

I guess there are 2 question in the OP - when would we decide too many YCs so go to RC, and overall game management.

As already stated we can only give a RC if the offense merits that. As long as the offenses are only YC under the framework, that’s all we can sanction with. The repeated team offense only mentions temporary suspension:

[LAWS]9.10 When different players of the same team repeatedly commit the same offence, the referee gives a general caution to the team and if they then repeat the offence, the referee temporarily suspends the guilty player(s)[/LAWS]
From a management view - as mentioned, pull them up, state what we consider as fair vs high tackle, remind them that a repeat YC is a RC, and make it clear that that we can suspend the match if the behavior continues.

I would expect that permanently losing a player and/or the threat to suspend the match should focus minds.

(Quick aside - I’m assuming the authority to stop the game is under section 5:
[LAWS] 5.10 The referee has the power to end or suspend the match at any time if the referee believes that it would be unsafe to continue.[/LAWS] Am I correct?)