Standard of refereeing : Tue Jun 23, 2009 1:19 pm  

Now I have had chance to calm down. It could just as easily have been the other way round but we fans constantly and quite rightly complain about certain referees but they are all we have. At half time I commented to my friend that one of the reasons I did not buy a season ticket was that I can sometimes think i would rather stay at home than watch an inept clown spoil an excellent game of rugby. I am sure there are many who feel the same. Widnes deserved to win on Sunday as they took their chances and good luck to them in the final. Just hope whichever whistleblower gets the final if he is clueless he upsets both sets of fans.
The continued poor quality of refereeing may well make supporters keep their hand in their pocket and go and watch a game of cricket with a pint in their hand.

: Tue Jun 23, 2009 2:13 pm  

I think it comes down to consistancy

Such as play the ball - Never called as nearly every play the ball is wrong

10. The play-the-ball shall operate as follows.

Release tackled player immediately
(a) The tackled player shall be immediately released
and shall not be touched until the ball is in play.
Regain feet
(b) The tackled player shall without delay regain his
feet where he was tackled, lift the ball clear of the
ground, face his opponent’s goal line and drop or
place the ball on the ground in front of his
foremost foot.
Player marking
(c) One opponent may take up the position
immediately opposite the tackled player.
(d) The tackled player may not play the ball before
the players effecting the tackle have had time to
clear the ruck.
Play with foot
(e) When the ball touches the ground it must be
heeled (i.e. backwards) by the tackled player. The
ball must not be kicked or heeled by the player
marking him.
The ball is in play when it has been played
backward.
Acting halfback
(f) A player of each team, to be known as the acting
halfback, may stand immediately and directly
behind his own player taking part in the play-theball
and must remain in this position, until the
play-the-ball movement is complete.

Moving tackled - Never ever called. There is always an example of this every game

2. (a) Where opponents do not make a tackle effective in the
player quickest possible manner but attempt to push, pull or
carry the player in possession, it is permissible for
colleagues of the tackled player to lend their weight in
order to avoid losing ground. Immediately this happens
the referee should call “Held”.
2. (b) Where the tackled player is held in an upright position,
the ball shall not be played before the referee indicates
that the tackle has been effected.

No undue interference

A Touch Judge must not unduly interfere with the Referee’s
control of the game by reporting incidents which have
obviously been seen by the Referee.

Changing decision
9. The Referee judges on matters of fact and shall not
subsequently alter those judgments. He may cancel
any decision made if prior foul play of which he had
no knowledge is reported to him by a Touch Judge.

After listing just a few rules from the International Law Book for the game of rugby league, how many of these rules do you see not being enforced throughout a game. I could go on listing them, but it would be easier to list the ones they tend to get right. I know it's swings and roundabouts, you get some and not others but this seems to be a weekly occurance these days. The rules are in black and white. Apply them as they are written and then we might move off referrees for a change

: Tue Jun 23, 2009 2:22 pm  

Perhaps its all too complicated!

Re: Standard of refereeing : Tue Jun 23, 2009 2:22 pm  

chinaman wrote:

Now I have had chance to calm down. It could just as easily have been the other way round but we fans constantly and quite rightly complain about certain referees but they are all we have. At half time I commented to my friend that one of the reasons I did not buy a season ticket was that I can sometimes think i would rather stay at home than watch an inept clown spoil an excellent game of rugby. I am sure there are many who feel the same. Widnes deserved to win on Sunday as they took their chances and good luck to them in the final. Just hope whichever whistleblower gets the final if he is clueless he upsets both sets of fans.
The continued poor quality of refereeing may well make supporters keep their hand in their pocket and go and watch a game of cricket with a pint in their hand.

I agree mate, and i have been many widnes matches and thought he against my team.But if your well better and thrash a team you let it go.It is when it a tight game like the other day.Anyway thanx for the good luck and hope meet you in the grand final.Hopefully we are turning the corner now as we have been woeful this year.

: Tue Jun 23, 2009 2:24 pm  

I cannot think of any ref's in our league wou you could say are good.

You get a different perspective watching games at home on tv when you can hear them chatting with the players, for example Hick's comes across ok as he has a laugh with the players, but he still comes up with some dodgy rulings.

Childs, Halloran, Leahy & Laughton are dire.

Merrick can have the odd decent game, but no consistancy.

Hewer is poor whether live or watching on TV

: Tue Jun 23, 2009 2:25 pm  

Put-in or Feeding the Scrum
6. (a) The ball shall be put into the scrum from the
Referee’s side by holding it in a horizontal
position with a point in each hand and rolling it
along the ground into the tunnel formed by the
opposing front row forwards. (not second rows legs)
(b) The ball shall not be put in before the scrum has
been correctly formed.
(c) There shall be no undue delay in putting the ball
into the scrum.
(d) The player putting the ball in shall not hesitate or
dummy and after putting it in he shall immediately
retire behind his own pack of forwards.

Other players
7. The scrum half of the team not having the put-in shall
retire immediately behind his last row of forwards.
All other players outside the scrum, other than the
scrum half putting the ball in, shall retire five metres
or more behind the last row of forwards of their
respective teams in the scrum and shall remain so
until the ball has emerged correctly from the scrum.

So he should be no where near the back of his opposition scrum

In all fairness i don't know why we bother having scrums these days because they're a farce. Plus how many times does the ref stop play on a scrum and make them do it wrong again. It's a joke.

: Tue Jun 23, 2009 2:28 pm  

I was suprised to see Griffin (no relation) of the Giants is up before the RFL for a grapple tackle.

Good god, presumably he must have nearly screwed the players head off as you see them happen all the time but nothing is done about it.

Koe Love's whole tackling technique (unless he's already caught them with a swinging arm) is to grab them round the throat! Nothing was done about this on Sunday (just an example, im not bothered about who beat who)

Re: Standard of refereeing : Tue Jun 23, 2009 2:30 pm  

Soldierboy wrote:

I agree mate, and i have been many widnes matches and thought he against my team.But if your well better and thrash a team you let it go.It is when it a tight game like the other day.Anyway thanx for the good luck and hope meet you in the grand final.Hopefully we are turning the corner now as we have been woeful this year.

I am sorry Soldierboy, but you are not strickly correct there. We have been to games where we have well beaten the opposition and discussed the poor standard of the refereeing.

Poor refereeing does not always result in loosing a game, but there are some poor inconsistant refereeing displays, both in our league and in Superleague. I do go to some Superleague games and I watch ALL that are on SKY and the interpretation is different week on week.

: Tue Jun 23, 2009 4:45 pm  

It's the scrum that annoys me. Contest it or don't bother. However, I've seen penalties given for contesting the scrum. It's a joke and either scrapping or enforcing.

: Tue Jun 23, 2009 5:02 pm  

griffax wrote:

Koe Love's whole tackling technique (unless he's already caught them with a swinging arm) is to grab them round the throat! Nothing was done about this on Sunday

(just an example, im not bothered about who beat who)