Shirts

[RugbyFish]

In one of the sevens matches I refereed on the weekend, teams were showing up in blue and blue. One blue was a shade darker but there was no other difference between shirts, shorts or socks. Needless to say we were running late, short of refs and the teams said they'd tried to find other shirts but didn't.

Because there was no other good option and I knew it was unlikely to be a close-fought match, I went ahead with the match.

It went fine, team slightly-darker-blue won by 5 tries (I had expected more) and I told teams not to complain about my line-out and ruck calls (needless to say there were no touch judges).

Another referee told me I shouldn't have gone ahead with the game in case there was an incident. What do you think?

 

[Davet]

in case there was an incident

What sort of "incident"?

It's only a game. You may well get some offside calls wrong, but frankly that's not really important in the grand scheme of things - especially in what seems to be a fun tournement.

If he means that someone threw a punch, then I don't see a similarity in the shirt colour as a significant factor. Sure it can make things easier, but as normal- you simply fasten a beady eye on the offender and and register what he looks like - and he'll still (hopefully) have a number. You should be able to tell one Blue 7 from the other.

But to cancel the game because it may throw up problem like that seems drastic.

The traditional solution is to get one of them to turn their shirts inside out - which may well lead to a different shade.

 

[RugbyFish]

What sort of "incident"?

Not sure - I couldn't think of one where it made a big diference either.

The traditional solution is to get one of them to turn their shirts inside out - which may well lead to a different shade.

Of course! I had heard about this but forgot. I think everyone was quite tired. The only suggestion that came up was tape but we'd tried that before with red/red and it didn't help a lot and seemed like a bit of a waste.

 

[Phil E]

Another referee told me I shouldn't have gone ahead with the game in case there was an incident. What do you think?

We are there to facilitate a game of rugby, not to look for ways of preventing one!

 

[andyscott]

I was refereeing quite a decent 7s tournament, 1 player from one side had a different colour shirt on, different to home team and different to opposition. Spoke to the captains before the game, quite clearly, he has a different shirt on, you ok with that, yes was the reply.

Needless to say said player, open scrappy play, "interception" length of the field try awarded One player effing and blinding at me about his shirt colour, YC for gobbling off, possibly could have been a red. Captain over, denied I had said it before the game Anyway played on.

7s is about fun and enjoyment for all (even more than 15s) players should remember that.