Reffing, spoiling the game

Was Goosen, who played brilliantly to that point, really guilty of a yellow card offence? Surely there were several other examples of not releasing the tackled player. But that call determined the match.

Seemingly every time the ball hit the deck this week there was a turnover or a penalty. This fettish about a free contest on the ground is killing the game. If the attacking team can't count on retaining possession in the tackle, why not just hoof it up field?

The referees are now the main characters in rugby contests.......constantly intervening in the game. The long advantages also introduce a surreal atmosphere. The team offended against should have an immediate advantage or the penalty should be called.

What incredibly ugly rugby in all three South African games this weekend, brightened only by Aplon's try.

You took the words out of my mouth. If the NFL is the quarterback's game, then rugby union is the ref's game. All the games were very poor. The SH game is definitely regressing as a result of all this hogwash. The games up north are becoming far more entertaining and much more of a contest. I'll say it once and I'll say it again; you cannot and will not ever succeed in artificially manpulating the laws to create a specific style of rugby. It keeps backfiring every year yet the IRB press on!

How about Jonker's display?

So which decisions were wrong? He reffed according to the rules of the game. To me the only marginal call was the "slingshot" thing.

I stopped by and read a bit of the commentary on the lemming site. I don't know why you guys even respond to an anti WP posting....every response is just a pile on. Here's my recommendation.....have one guy post and then just put a power of 15 next to it.

Windpomp ou marius bonkers had a fairly good day with the whistle but all this shows is that he goes haywire when refeeing a Stormers versus bulle match. Then he so favours the bulle it becomes totally embarrassing to any honest bulle fan - a rare bread of course.

To me though he should have been even harder on the canes as they were infringing again and again.

Moz lemmings will be lemmings as we all should know. You could count the lemming braincells on one hand if needs be! Hahahahahahahahahahaha

No, I was just checking. I actually expected that there would bo no problem with Jonker's display. It was the only game, with a high penalty count, where the ref was fine and made no mistake. All the others games were blown out of proportion.

windpomp dont be peverse. Of course there were to many penalties in all the games but partly because it was the first game of the season and players need to settle down and get used to refs as welll.

I agree fully with Moz the refs play a huge part and can find any number of reasons to ping a side.

My comments re marius was that he was reasonable fair which is not the case when he refs a WP bulle match.

No no Beeno. Check again. Moz said that he only had one marginal call. The "slingshot" thing. In other words, all his other calls were correct. It was all the other refs in the other games in general who caused the "irritation".

As for the "slingshot" thing.............. I also found it peculiar during the game, but then I heard the term being used by Mark Lawrence during the Lions/Cheetahs game as well. I have not checked the laws yet, but I think that I have read somewhere that they are going to be checking up on that as well, this year. If I am not mistaken the eighth man also has to bind in the scrum before the engage. What they have started doing is for the no 8 to hang back and not really bind. Then, on the engage, they hit in like the forwards do, causing the "slingshot" effect to increase the power of the hit into the scrums. If that is correct, then Jonker has blwon it correctly, and he has had indeed had a faultless scoresheet according to Moz.

Well what d oyou think he got wrong. He did seem to apologise to the Stormers for blowing his whistle wand no tallowing advantage when Kosner scored? If an error it cost us a bonus point.

He probably did make a few mistakes but the point is he did not appear biased. I think from what the commentators said - I seem to recall Bobby Skinstadt validating Jonkers call re the slingshot issue.

If Jonkers always reffed to this standard I would not have a problem with him.

Jonker did not apologise for blowing his whistle too early. He apologised for having to blow it early. He clearly said that there was a dangerous situation. If there is a dangerous situation, where a player could or have been seriously injured, he has to blow the whistle immediately, i.e. not play any advantage. It was not an error, so it cost you nothing. I have not said that he was biased either. I just think that he missed a lot. There were times that he missed infringements by the Stormers. I can clearly recal one incident where he penalised the Hurricanes (within kicking range for the Stormers) for holding on, while Gio Aplon never released the tackler, and with two Stormers (one of them Duane Vermeulen, IIRC) going completely over the ruck. The tackler has to release the player first and then the tackled player has to release the ball.

Blob Stinkstert did not "validate" Jonker's call re the "slingshot" call (IIRC, the call was against the Stormers). His words were something to the effect of: "That is the slingshot rule, which I haven't checked up on but which is a dodgy rule IMO". In any case, this is the law in question:

Law 20.3 Binding in the Scrum

(f) Binding by all other players. All players in a scrum, other than front-row players, must
bind on a lock’s body with at least one arm prior to the scrum engagement. The locks must
bind with the props in front of them. No other player other than a prop may hold an
opponent.
Sanction: Penalty kick

In other words, the no 8 is not allowed to stand back with his hands on the backs of the locks only.

windpomp although Bobby may think the rule dodgy Jonkers applied it and Bobby did no tquestion the application from what I can recall.

Every ref misses a few things but bias is another thing entirely. All in all not a bad day by Jonkers. Heaven help us though if he refs a game we play against the bulle!!!

Moz may be able to check the tape re this iincident? (Kosner try).

And the Cheetahs make exactly the same point, by saying they have to change their game.....to avoid the penalties that now flow so quickly from protecting the ball, they will kick not run in their half. Talk about getting exactly the opposite result from the one you were seeking.

When will these dumbies learn, open rugby comes from continuity of ball, not a cat fight on the deck.....possession taken to ground should be given a 95% chance of success. You need the 5% and slowing of possession to suck in players, so there isn't a string of defenders like league.

That's the simultaneous equation you are solving.......possession and manpower allocation. A fair contest on the deck is not an important issue in itself.