Refs / Video refs.

[gpartin]

At the moment I'm pretty much a fulltime dad (except for 12 hours a week at work), which goes a long way to explaining why I've got plenty of time on my hands to write some stupidly long posts.

One of the benefits is that I've been able to watch plenty of cricket which has the equivalent of a video referee for if the umpire isn't sure whether a wicket should be given or not. In addition to this, the teams are given a couple of 'reviews' so they can ask for the video to be looked at if they disagree with a decision. On a number of occasions it has proved very useful and the umpire's call has been overturned, it's not only Rugby refs that make mistakes!!

Given the fact that at televised rugby matches we regularly see players begging the ref to go to the VR, and that there have been occasions where the refs have wrongly awarded tries without using the screen, wouldn't it be a good idea to introduce a similar kind of system? I think if both teams get two reviews they could possibly be used for more than just try decisions. As it really annoys fans when a player is put on report and subsequently banned with no benefit to the opposition, a captain would be able to ask for an incident to be reviewed there and then, with any action taken as necessary. Rather than having players like Jon whingebag Wilkin moaning at the ref they would either risk wasting a review, which could potentially be precious, or just put up and shut up. When the difference between a ball steal and a knock on can be so difficult to judge yet can change the outcome of a game, I think that where the technology is available we should give the players the chance to challenge these calls. Obviously it would get daft if referees started using the screen for every single thing they're not sure about so I'd keep it so they can only use the screen to rule on whether a try should be given or not.

[Mike]

Hmm, this is tricky. I would say its not a bad idea but 2 reviews is too much. One maybe ok. In the nfl (a different game admittedly) the coaches call the reviews. But they get long breaks to decide. One review per match by the captain may be ok, but I'm not that convinced.

In the specific case of a ball steal/knock on decision - I reckon the real problem here is that the ref has to make a judgement call that is often uncertain, but the outcome of that guess is heavily biased towards the attacking side. Its a penalty for a ball steal and a scrum for a knock on. I really think the refs have too much influence on matches on these judgment calls that most of the time they can't really see. Often crucial tries are the result of a 50-50 ball stripping penalty. I would suggest rather than a review (which most of the time would be inconclusive anyway) they should change the rules so that a ball steal is a scrum to the attack and a knock on a scrum to the defence. Add to that a "deliberate" ball steal which is still a penalty and that should reduce the refs influence in the outcome matches significnatly. The same rules are available for a forward pass I believe, where the ref can award a penalty for a "deliberate" forward pass.