Blue/Red 2nd XV 65 (27) Multicoloured 2nd XV 0 (0)
First league game of my London career. My new local club, and a heady 4 mile trip to the ground. Looks like my days of 1.5 hour trips to games are over for a while!
B/R top of the league and unbeaten, M/C mid table. There was really only one side who was going to win this. First try went over 4 minutes in, and scores came at regular intervals during the match. Couple of incidents it would be good to get some opinions.
Had a referee coach come along to this match, and he was really excellent, gave me some really useful pointers on my game, especially around positioning, mostly at ruck and mauls, and also the usual exhortation - get fitter, fatty! (Though of course he was much more diplomatic about it than that...)
2 incidents of note.
First one, forward pass by B/R about 7m out from M/C's try line on a sweeping move, that was pretty much guaranteed a try, as it was a 3 on 1 move. Blew the whistle for the scrum, by which point the B/R winger was almost over the line, and the M/C defender swung a leg in a blatent attempt to trip. He missed, and so I reversed the scrum to M/C to a penalty to B/R. I told the winger in no uncertain terms that had he connected he would have played no further part in the game, but declined to YC him, as I felt a penalty 5m out and a bollocking was punishment enough. What would you have done?
2nd incident. 1/2 way through the 2nd half. M/C Loosehead was getting taken apart (legally) by the very competent B/R TH. He was getting quite aggravated, and it finally boiled over with some very minor handbags after a ruck. I called both captains over to give them the 'calm it down' chat, and the M/C LH decided to get my attention by slapping me quite hard on the back. I had a bit of a quandry then. Striking a referee, however it happens, is a straight red, right? I've given a couple of reds in my short career, and I knew they were red cards as soon as the incident happened. This one didn't feel like that, and the tone of the game just didn't warrant it. So I called the player over along with his captain, gave him a right going over, and YC'd him. I gave him another bollocking and told him to never, ever touch a referee during a game. He was good as gold after he came back on. Would you have RC'd him?
So aside from that not a bad game. Disallowed 3 tries, a driving maul where I could see that there was a defending hand underneath it, one where there was a kick through and the guy knocked it forward rather than getting it down, which I and one at the end when I was knackered and couldn't keep up with a big break and couldn't see whether the driving maul that formed got the ball down. I was particularly ashamed about missing the last one as the ref coach told me the guy got it down, I was just too far away to see it.
Still, next weekend off to help my dad fell a tree in his back garden, and back to it the week after!
Chris
First league game of my London career. My new local club, and a heady 4 mile trip to the ground. Looks like my days of 1.5 hour trips to games are over for a while!
B/R top of the league and unbeaten, M/C mid table. There was really only one side who was going to win this. First try went over 4 minutes in, and scores came at regular intervals during the match. Couple of incidents it would be good to get some opinions.
Had a referee coach come along to this match, and he was really excellent, gave me some really useful pointers on my game, especially around positioning, mostly at ruck and mauls, and also the usual exhortation - get fitter, fatty! (Though of course he was much more diplomatic about it than that...)
2 incidents of note.
First one, forward pass by B/R about 7m out from M/C's try line on a sweeping move, that was pretty much guaranteed a try, as it was a 3 on 1 move. Blew the whistle for the scrum, by which point the B/R winger was almost over the line, and the M/C defender swung a leg in a blatent attempt to trip. He missed, and so I reversed the scrum to M/C to a penalty to B/R. I told the winger in no uncertain terms that had he connected he would have played no further part in the game, but declined to YC him, as I felt a penalty 5m out and a bollocking was punishment enough. What would you have done?
2nd incident. 1/2 way through the 2nd half. M/C Loosehead was getting taken apart (legally) by the very competent B/R TH. He was getting quite aggravated, and it finally boiled over with some very minor handbags after a ruck. I called both captains over to give them the 'calm it down' chat, and the M/C LH decided to get my attention by slapping me quite hard on the back. I had a bit of a quandry then. Striking a referee, however it happens, is a straight red, right? I've given a couple of reds in my short career, and I knew they were red cards as soon as the incident happened. This one didn't feel like that, and the tone of the game just didn't warrant it. So I called the player over along with his captain, gave him a right going over, and YC'd him. I gave him another bollocking and told him to never, ever touch a referee during a game. He was good as gold after he came back on. Would you have RC'd him?
So aside from that not a bad game. Disallowed 3 tries, a driving maul where I could see that there was a defending hand underneath it, one where there was a kick through and the guy knocked it forward rather than getting it down, which I and one at the end when I was knackered and couldn't keep up with a big break and couldn't see whether the driving maul that formed got the ball down. I was particularly ashamed about missing the last one as the ref coach told me the guy got it down, I was just too far away to see it.
Still, next weekend off to help my dad fell a tree in his back garden, and back to it the week after!
Chris
