R
Red Munster
Guest
I would like to get your advice on the art of positioning.
As a starter, I was watching Alain Rolland refereeing the Leicester v Stade Francais game on Friday nite and his positioning wasn't all that it might have been.
On one occasion, Stade were on the Leicester line, a ruck had formed and Rolland was on the fringe of the ruck, practically obscuring the defending players vision and possibility of covering. The Stade player picked up the ball and ran (intelligently!) towards the side where the ref was. He touched down at the ref's feet and was awarded the try. The defending players could not have stopped him as Rolland was physically in the way and was probably obscuring their vision too. I don't know if I have explained this properly but if you saw the game, you may remember the incident. Also, it might have been Leicester attacking rather than Stade!
On another occasion, at a lineout, the ball was thrown to the back of the lineout. In fact, I think it went over the 15 metre mark. When the player caught the ball from his own hooker's throw, he was a good 2 or 3 metres on his side of the lineout, but the ref didn't signal anything. It should have been a crooked throw in, but where the ref was standing, he couldn't see whether it was or not. This also begs the question as to why the touch judge didn't communicate with him.
There was another maul that collapsed over the line in the Munster v Bourgoin match that Tony Spreadbury gave as a 5 metre scrum to the attacking team - Munster. He said the ball was held up. From his viewpoint, he couldn't see the ball as it was on the far side of the ruck but he didn't run around the ruck to get a better view. Anthony Foley's reaction at the referee's decision suggested that he wasn't too pleased with it.
As a starter, I was watching Alain Rolland refereeing the Leicester v Stade Francais game on Friday nite and his positioning wasn't all that it might have been.
On one occasion, Stade were on the Leicester line, a ruck had formed and Rolland was on the fringe of the ruck, practically obscuring the defending players vision and possibility of covering. The Stade player picked up the ball and ran (intelligently!) towards the side where the ref was. He touched down at the ref's feet and was awarded the try. The defending players could not have stopped him as Rolland was physically in the way and was probably obscuring their vision too. I don't know if I have explained this properly but if you saw the game, you may remember the incident. Also, it might have been Leicester attacking rather than Stade!
On another occasion, at a lineout, the ball was thrown to the back of the lineout. In fact, I think it went over the 15 metre mark. When the player caught the ball from his own hooker's throw, he was a good 2 or 3 metres on his side of the lineout, but the ref didn't signal anything. It should have been a crooked throw in, but where the ref was standing, he couldn't see whether it was or not. This also begs the question as to why the touch judge didn't communicate with him.
There was another maul that collapsed over the line in the Munster v Bourgoin match that Tony Spreadbury gave as a 5 metre scrum to the attacking team - Munster. He said the ball was held up. From his viewpoint, he couldn't see the ball as it was on the far side of the ruck but he didn't run around the ruck to get a better view. Anthony Foley's reaction at the referee's decision suggested that he wasn't too pleased with it.
