Whistleblowers' interpretation of laws still the X factor

RUGBY:With consensus to conform on key laws from coaches, JOHN O'SULLIVANsays the best the players can hope for is a consistency in interpretation

IT IS the wish of national team managements, players and supporters alike that the 2011 Six Nations Championship will be celebrated for the quality of the rugby and not ancillary matters. An important conduit to realising that ambition is the referee.

To this end IRB referee manager Paddy O’Brien assembled the coaches and in some cases forwards’ coaches of the competing nations to a recent symposium in London to try to establish a unilateral accord and understanding of how several key laws will be interpreted during the tournament.

The priority appears to be the scrum. Armed with statistics that currently 60 per cent of the scrums collapse between tier one nations, 40 per cent required resetting and that the time taken to complete a scrum has risen from 41 to 53 seconds, O’Brien asked for a commitment from the coaches to tackle an issue that is tarnishing the spectacle.

He found a consensus to conform as he explained: “The meeting was extremely constructive and highly productive.

“All found it beneficial and it was encouraging to see universal agreement from the coaches about the need to continue to penalise the clear and the obvious in the five key areas of law and in particular the need to address the scrum issues that are currently experienced at elite level.

“We are encouraged that teams recognise there is a collective responsibility to ensure that the high number of collapses and resets is reduced.

“The coaches expressed their full support for referees to employ a zero-tolerance policy towards engagement offences and have given a commitment that their teams will endeavour to be compliant in producing a stable, steady scrum by binding correctly.

“The scrum is an integral facet of the game and by working together we can target the issues while ensuring that player welfare continues to be the most important consideration.”

It will be interesting to note of O’Brien’s optimism is borne out in the Six Nations.

The referees have been mandated to crack down on illegal frontrow binding with a collective emphasis on ensuring the tighthead prop binds on the body of the loosehead prop and not the arm and the loosehead prop adopts the correct body position and binds on the body of the opposition tighthead.

That’s all fine and dandy in theory but there’s no way that everyone will adhere and once again the focus will be on an individual referee’s interpretation and how if differs from one official to another.

It’s the game’s X-factor, the official arriving at a conclusion and deciding on which player is the transgressor.

The euphemism is that players are “seeking an edge”, the reality that they will do whatever is required to get an advantage.

Subterfuge is fine until a player gets caught but more often than not they have little comeback if they allow the official to interpret a complex engagement where everyone is looking to cheat.

There won’t be uniformity from official to official despite the best intentions.

Teams do comprehensive research into the referees who officiate their games so the players will be well versed in how Messrs Romain Poite, Dave Pearson, Nigel Owens, Jonathan Kaplan and Bryce Lawrence – the five men who will be in charge of Ireland’s Six Nations matches – right down to the individual cadence of the crouch, touch, pause, engage sequence.

Frenchman Poite’s first senior Test match was the corresponding fixture between Ireland and Italy at Croke Park last year. He will perhaps be better known for brandishing a yellow card to Munster captain Paul O’Connell for an offence at a ruck in a Heineken Cup match against the Northampton Saints with the phrase “this is my game not yours”.

Refereeing is not an exact science given the nature of the laws and the sport and the best the players can hope for is a consistency in interpretation.

To this end though they’ll have to curb or camouflage a natural instinct to play both sides of the line. It’s set to be an instructive seven weeks.

Italy v Ireland Stadio Flaminio

Romain Poite (France)

Age: 35.

First Test: Ireland v Italy, Croke Park, 2010.

Did You Know: He listed his refereeing highlight as "all Test matches and the game between Munster and the All Blacks at Thomond Park in 2008".

Ireland v England Aviva stadium

Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand)

Age: 40

First Test: South Africa v Australia, Bloemfontein 2008

Did You Know: The Bay of Plenty native followed in his father Keith’s footsteps by becoming an international referee.

Ireland v France, Aviva Stadium

Dave Pearson (England)

Age: 44

First Test: Argentina v Japan, Tucaman, 2005

Did You Know: He became only the second official behind Chris White to referee 150 Aviva Premiership games in England last month.

Wales v Ireland Millennium stadium

Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)

Age: 44

First Test: Namibia v Zimbabwe, Harare 1996

Did You Know: He holds South African refereeing records for most Rugby World Cup appearances (3: 1999, 2003, 2007) and most World Cup games (9); most Super 14 games (75, including 3 finals and 4 semi-finals); and most Currie Cup matches (133, including five finals and four semi-finals).

Scotland v Ireland Murrayfield

Nigel Owens (Wales)

Age: 38

First Test: Ireland v Japan, Osaka, 2005.

Did You Know: He announced he was gay in an interview with the Wales on Sunday newspaper in 2007 having previously battled with depression that saw him consider suicide.