However for the last three matches the sole intention of the opposition has been to spoil, frustrate and try and bring the game down into a dog fight. I don't blame the opposition, that is the tactic which they obviously believe gives them a chance to get something out of their game against Caldy. 

However I do blame the officials. If they punished obvious transgressions fairly the team playing such tactics would need to wise up quickly or be left with only 10 players on the pitch after conceding numerous penalty tries. When the opposition pack is being driven backwards at a rate of knots and then a metre from the line the maul suddenly collapses, or when an unprotected player is illegally smashed out of the way at a ruck the officials do not seem to understand that is part of a pattern of play. Left unpunished this negative and often illegal pattern of play is reinforced and continues. It is just wrong.

In the last three games Caldy has initially tried to play an attractive brand of rugby but to combat the over robust and negative plans adopted by the opposition sides they have had to switch to forward dominance alone to keep their run going. 

Many may say so what, but the downside of all of this is a mounting injury list caused by such illegal tactics and growing disillusionment from supporters with the very turgid match day spectacle. 

I do not decry the opposition (other than when their tactics descend into obvious foul or illegal play), they need to employ whatever legal tactics they think can win them the game.

However I very strongly believe that it is the job of the officials to properly punish transgressions to let the game flow and reward positive play. In the last three games this has not happened, enterprising rugby has been stymied and negative rugby rewarded. Yesterday Huddersfield had two yellow cards and one penalty try against them. At best they should have had double that against them. Huddersfield are a great club and a very decent and likeable bunch of people but they should have been punished properly yesterday ............in my view the poor standard of officiating was largely responsible for a poor game of rugby that would have turned off any aspiring young players amongst the crowd. 

Next week against Tynedale, whatever the outcome, I hope we see a proper game of rugby with enterprise and endeavour to the fore and negative and illegal tactics punished by the officials. The sooner we get back to playing rugby the better.

The second piece of humour was recounted to me by another Rolling Mauler, Bee Bumble.

In his words

Went for a pee yesterday........stood in a queue behind a large chap from Huddersfield. Cold as it was and with more layers on than a mille feuille, I muttered something about having to go looking for it.

"Dont I know it"  said the chap from Huddersfield....."I had to offer mine a bloody boiled sweet"

Your right about the general level of officiating, but the good news yesterday Huddersfield are a very friendly and humorous bunch before, during and after the game - also for anyone holding their stock, this cold snap has seen a much needed surge in the sale of Taverners' Fruits 👏👏👏

Apologies BeeBumble, I misunderstood what "Monstrous Member" mean't

Personally I know I couldn't, so let those willing to have go get on with it good or bad.

 

I'm afraid that's the way it goes sometimes.

I don't think any official comes with an agenda, or I'd certainly like to think they don't 

So lets embrace what we have and try and make it work for everyone !

The thrust of my point was that referees should be encouraged to reward enterprise and good play and be firmer on negative and illegal play. 

I knew that by putting this post out there I may be criticised (and I was quite eloquently and fairly in a private message from a knowledgeable rugby man) and to be honest I wasn't wingeing about unfair treatment against Caldy as a side they can look after themselves. It was just frustration at what I saw as very negative rugby being rewarded because of inaction by officialdom.

I may be unfair and I am happy to take onbaord other pints of view. 

 

 

Spot on !!!

Puli

What about the crooked putins, hookers feet in field of play at lines out, forward passes, at al levels!!!!

Laws should be applied by refs and accepted by players. If a scrum has gone down yet again and the ball is playable, play it not reset the scrum. I will leave it at that for the time being

You must have been standing near me on the touch line and heard my cries of anguish the frequent times these things happen, the law makers tried to correct the “feeding” at scrums when changing where the SH should stand when putting the ball in ....... has it helped ? ... has it hell 😡 Yet they can see not straight at line outs easily. 

My biggest moan is players going off their feet at rucks and frequent disregard of the being behind the back foot law .... but I’ve had my day 😢 

My point in this thread wasn't to single out individuals but rather to comment on what I saw was maybe a pattern which could be down to the briefing or the instructions that the officials receive.

I will apologise for lumping in Caldy's game against Wharfedale which wasn't fair of me as I wasn't at that game and I shouldn't have commented on hearsay.

The general impression that I got from a few people who watched the Caldy v Huddersfiled match was that early firm action from the referee would have contributed to it being a better game. I can understand the natural inclination not to be heavy handed (and I may have also been as lenient if I was the man in the middle) but sometimes it does just encourage further negativity and frustrations build up.

Am I correct in believing the officials are paid at this level?

I am hopeful that Saturday's game for Caldy against Tynedale at Corbridge will be a feat of attacking play by both sides.....and if Caldy are being bested by Tynedale they can always just stick it up their jumper 

 

Haha didn't think for a moment you would but as mentioned previously to all those who think they can do better well get out there and have a go.

The first 2 were in a U15 game and the second a Ladies game

The only issue I have with refs are when they can't keep up with the play and so miss things by sheer dint of not being close enough. I know from speaking to one a week ago, he had just reffed a triangular U18 girls fixture of 3 30 min games and had run 2k in each according to his GPS watch so I dread to think what a L3 or 4 ref does in an 80min game

I agree Sid. Referees are not sacrosant, I have no problem with objective criticism as long as it is not impugning the individual's integrity or attacking in a malevolent or mischievious way.

My understanding is that referees are paid at level 4 and above so they should expect people to comment/criticise/opine/applaud how they officiate games.......i

 

Yep.........and its too easy to criticise those who have stepped up to do the job.

Also remember no ref no game pretty simple really. 

 

Refs are routinely assessed by their governing body and clubs / coaches are encouraged to offer feedback. Of course they will make mistakes but surely they deserve our support overall ???

 

As for getting paid..........its a pittance compared to that received by many players at level 4 !!!

 

 

 

Sure some referees are better than others - my pet hate is allowing scrums to be reset time and time again (but not sure even then that's the referees fault) but still grateful that they turn up!

With regards to 'learn and improve' - all games at Nat1 and Nat2 are recorded by the home team and loaded onto the RFU 'Elitehub' so that all clubs can view/download all games. All the recordings are supposed to include the ref mike soundtrack.

In addition, the Elitehub games are available to the RFU match officials - so refs, assessors etc can download and review performance.  (I know this happens because I've had assessors ask for copies of the video for a Monday morning review.)  I don't know how much of it happens and how effective it is though.

I was at Saturdays game. The officiating was poor, not helped by the fact that at 1 stage the linesman's mic quite clearly wasn't working whilst attempting to communicate with the ref. The game as you say was a pretty turgid affair. However I don't believe this was down to the referee. Far more to blame were the Caldy half-backs who in spite of having a huge amount of possession at their disposal, were pretty poor in their game management. That this was a problem was obviously recognised by the Caldy Coaches who substituted their 9 off at half-time and replaced him with their left-wing. Caldy are a very fine side who will I am sure win Nat 2 North this season and could quite possibly go undefeated in so doing. However they cant expect teams to merely roll over and concede every week. Huddersfield came with a game plan and it took Caldy a good 60 minutes to work out how to really effectively combat it. That they took so long to do it was not the fault of the referee.

I remain convinced the better officials will always make time to interact with club coaches and even occasionally some spectators (bigEd, Sid et al....)

Just to clarify a few points....

Its not referees who seek to cheat the laws, its the players.  Referees have to make a snap decision on the game impact.

Referees should always be making value judgments of what is happening around them, and whether or not he/she needs to intervene.  Sometimes its better to let things flow to speed up the game and have a word at the next opportune moment.

The better referees will travel home on their own and certainly reflect on what went well and what didnt.  Almost certainly they will make a phone call or two to others to discuss their game.

They will watch the game back, do a full review of every decision and non decision, and then with their coach (if they have one) discuss it all, often by the end of Monday night.

The reality is this year the coaches and assessors are less in number  than they have ever been, due to certain financial management decisions.  It is therefore even more important that the feedback from clubs goes to the Referees Department, so will then make decisions for fixtures based on this.

Personally i think age if not an issue, some of our best referees are young and keen.  The better ones will always appreciate a good dialogue about the game, provided that many of the spectators remember they are always going to have a 'biased eye'!  Let me give you a brief example.  I watched a young, very good referee yesterday.  He had a strong game!  Spectator next to me said the referee was having a shocker.  I said or why is that.  The response, he has no idea what he was doing!! I simply responded give me an example, he gave me three or four, I explained each decision (which I might add were actually correct) and suggested he enrol on a referee course so that he might know the games laws moving forward.

This is not the case of all spectators, but maybe just maybe gives an insight into a referees challenge?

Hope this helps.  I must confess I have always enjoyed the banter and interaction with coaches and spectators and find them informative :) 

To be honest that seems somewhat crazy to me and I would b every happy if someone more knowledgeable than me could explain.

Tynedale played rugby against Caldy and in fact probably played a lot more rugby than Caldy. I applaud their endeavour, there was nothing negative about the day either on the pitch or off it. The hospitality for players and the Caldy officials was top class. 

If Tynedale had been at full strength up front it would have been ann even better contest but this was not as one sided as the score may suggest and was still a very competitive match. Tynedale had another 3 or 4 chances to score particularly in the first half, but they just didn't have enough power to get over line.

Cady had 7 chances to score and took each of them clinically.

Possession stats would probably be 60/40 to Tynedale in the first half and probably 60/40 to Caldy in the second half. The clear Man of the Match was Adam Aigbokhae. He was immense. Tyendale had some very good players as well and they stuck at it for the full 80 minutes and never stopped playing rugby. I loved my day at Tynedale and I look forward to returning often.

O i thought from your high up position you would naturally  look down upon any performance 

I do think Sir/Maam should be respected as a starting point personally, afterall they are brave enough to 'have a go' with the whistle.  BUT I also agree performance needs to merit that respect also 

It was alway a pleasure to interact with the 'whosoever', occasionally i would even learn a thing or three

 

 

So pleased to hear that the Referee and Assistants at the game you attended "generally performed well" under your critical eye. 

Ever thought of volunteering as a Referees Assessor ??? It would involve a bit of training, but I'm sure a person of your calibre and understanding of the game would breeze through it.

 

 

 

Thank you.

I note that you have nothing constructive to say with regard to the incident I described. I am struggling to understand the ref's interpretation here and I thought someone as educated as yourself may be able to help.

  

I agree that it would involve a lot of training to become an Assessor but, I am sure that someone with an 'eye' that is 'observational' rather than 'critical' would prove a better candidate than someone who 'blindly' believes that 'sir' is always correct.

 

I would say that it varies, a lot depends on how the scrum is retreating, as the moment a player retreating goes to the ground then it becomes a “danger” situation with the possibility of injury to players collapsing on and over each other, so yes a penalty may be justified. If however the retreating scrum is still solid with no one standing up then to me there is no need for a penalty at that moment, but just a signal for playing advantage from the ref.

Elijah Cadman where are you ? 

 

Or Clive Norling

Front rows down and ball at 8 play away (provided it appears safe)

Retreating scrum staying square normally managed and a flanker slips of bind, pen.

Retreating scrum splintering, pen

Retreating scrum 5m out at speed, PT plus YC

These are the four scenarios I would be looking for.  Is humanly possible the referee will seek to get the ball away without penalising.  BUT dominant scrums still have to be legal and if they lift the front row up in the air of his / her feet they may well get pinged for dangerous play.

But of course just because I say it doesnt make it right :) 

Any crooked put ins to the scrum ?????. Loads of res set scrums when the ball is playable????

Silly me that is the norm.

Sorry but the management of games at ALL levels does not comply with the Laws ? rules of the game.

He showed a Yellow to Caldy's Ollie Hearn after the hooker infringed in the red zone he perhaps could have shown another Yellow to Caldy a few minutes later....but I am being picky.

It was a terrific game of rugby and James O' Brien played his part by letting the game flow.