4eyesbetter
Referees in England
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2010
- Messages
- 1,320
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Shiny new forum. Let's have a post in it.
(Also, can we rename it "The Ruck Area" to annoy the other lot?)
Here's a problem I see a lot, especially at this time of year (or in junior games). You've got a boggy pitch and players of questionable ability; I'm already overlooking a host of presentation issues so that we can have a game instead of a whistle demonstration. The combination of wet, sticky ground and bad players means that the actual play-the-ball itself is going very slowly; either it's getting stuck in the mud or the tackled player isn't rolling or heeling it hard enough, or whatever. The net result is it's taking an age for the ball to get into the acting half's hands.
So now the first marker sees an opportunity to get in and disrupt things, and he's looking to break early, get round the tackled player, and scrag the half; and the play-the-ball is so slow and predictable that he can time it well enough for me not being able to sell pinging him for not square, because he patently is. This happens a couple of times and then the tackled player gets wise and starts casually edging sideways and forwards after putting the ball down to get in the marker's way.
How do I best manage this? The thing that's stopping me from just telling the tackled player to knock it off is that he's actually helping the game to flow better by obstructing the marker; but then of course the marker gets frustrated and starts complaining, and I don't have an easy comeback because he's right, and now there's a major management challenge...
(Also, can we rename it "The Ruck Area" to annoy the other lot?)
Here's a problem I see a lot, especially at this time of year (or in junior games). You've got a boggy pitch and players of questionable ability; I'm already overlooking a host of presentation issues so that we can have a game instead of a whistle demonstration. The combination of wet, sticky ground and bad players means that the actual play-the-ball itself is going very slowly; either it's getting stuck in the mud or the tackled player isn't rolling or heeling it hard enough, or whatever. The net result is it's taking an age for the ball to get into the acting half's hands.
So now the first marker sees an opportunity to get in and disrupt things, and he's looking to break early, get round the tackled player, and scrag the half; and the play-the-ball is so slow and predictable that he can time it well enough for me not being able to sell pinging him for not square, because he patently is. This happens a couple of times and then the tackled player gets wise and starts casually edging sideways and forwards after putting the ball down to get in the marker's way.
How do I best manage this? The thing that's stopping me from just telling the tackled player to knock it off is that he's actually helping the game to flow better by obstructing the marker; but then of course the marker gets frustrated and starts complaining, and I don't have an easy comeback because he's right, and now there's a major management challenge...
