Pablo
Referees in England
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2004
- Messages
- 1,413
- Post Likes
- 112
- Current Referee grade:
- Level 6
My first league match of the season on Saturday was a fast, physical contest between two early-season favourites for promotion and gave rise to an ELV-related incident towards the end of the game (which incidentally, didn't affect the result).
Black get quick ball from a line-out on the right hand side of the field at red's 22 and run it. Stand off makes a half break to get the move going, and black work ball through hands and leftwards to 11 who dives full stretch for the corner to evade the cover tackle from red 14. Corner post goes over as ball is grounded in in-goal, but bodies between me and the touchline prevent me from seeing whether black 11's feet hit the ground before the ball did. On gut feel, I gave the try. (The TJ on that side of the ground was being provided by black, so would hardly have been objective)
Was asked about it by the nice old blazer (not a day under 70) who brought me my tea in the dressing room and explained the ELV to him. Moment of realisation dawned on him, and I was amused to get into the bar to find him holding forth to a little audience of other alickadoos about the law changes and why the ref was right.
Anyway, it very clearly illustrated how difficult this can make life for us refs down in the grass. It's all very well tinkering with the status of the corner posts if you have appointed TJs/ARs and a TMO for back-up, but for the ref who's out their on his own, this ELV has removed an important reference point. I was fortunate that it wasn't match-deciding in my game, but on another day this could be a real cause of controversy. I am not a fan!
A far better approach would have been to make the post touch instead of touch-in-goal, so that a team playing positive attacking rugby who brushes the post would only suffer a 5m opposition throw, instead of a 22m drop-out. The reference point for the referee could have been kept, but the impact on the attackers significantly reduced.
Black get quick ball from a line-out on the right hand side of the field at red's 22 and run it. Stand off makes a half break to get the move going, and black work ball through hands and leftwards to 11 who dives full stretch for the corner to evade the cover tackle from red 14. Corner post goes over as ball is grounded in in-goal, but bodies between me and the touchline prevent me from seeing whether black 11's feet hit the ground before the ball did. On gut feel, I gave the try. (The TJ on that side of the ground was being provided by black, so would hardly have been objective)
Was asked about it by the nice old blazer (not a day under 70) who brought me my tea in the dressing room and explained the ELV to him. Moment of realisation dawned on him, and I was amused to get into the bar to find him holding forth to a little audience of other alickadoos about the law changes and why the ref was right.
Anyway, it very clearly illustrated how difficult this can make life for us refs down in the grass. It's all very well tinkering with the status of the corner posts if you have appointed TJs/ARs and a TMO for back-up, but for the ref who's out their on his own, this ELV has removed an important reference point. I was fortunate that it wasn't match-deciding in my game, but on another day this could be a real cause of controversy. I am not a fan!
A far better approach would have been to make the post touch instead of touch-in-goal, so that a team playing positive attacking rugby who brushes the post would only suffer a 5m opposition throw, instead of a 22m drop-out. The reference point for the referee could have been kept, but the impact on the attackers significantly reduced.