I brought this article back for discussion after the first week of warm up games. Did the refereeing change your minds? Give us your opinions. I know we did not see all the games but from reports you can form a good idea how the Referees are blowing this year.

Rugby has undergone a major philosophical shift during the off-season with Sanzar’s referees driving changes in conjunction with the competition’s coaches.

Today’s preseason Super 14 match between the Hurricanes and Blues at Mangatainoka will be the first live test in New Zealand of new initiatives designed to restore the advantage to the attacking side and clean up the set piece.

New Sanzar referee’s manager Lyndon Bray has given The Dominion Post an exclusive insight into the first truly unified attempt between Sanzar’s players, coaches and officials to create a more free-flowing spectacle.

The key agreement is at the tackle where the tackler will no longer have unbridled rights to attack the ball, something players like McCaw have turned into a fine art.

“We’ve agreed philosophically to change what the tackler can and can’t do,” Bray said. “He is doing too much. We’ve allowed, in the evolution of the game, to let him remain in contact with the ball and ball carrier after he leaves his feet and he stays on the ball and jumps up and rips it away.

“It looks great in the one-on-one scenario, but it’s actually against the law. It creates in the game a repetitive scenario where the ball carrier ends up with no rights because he can’t do anything with the ball.

“The tackler inevitability gets the penalty which philosophically goes against what we are trying to achieve. We’ve agreed the tackler must release everything when he goes to ground and not hold on as he gets to his feet.”

The upshot will be more time for the tackled player to either pop the ball away to a support player or to place it back away from his body.

Players not making a clean release after the tackle and getting fully to their feet before going for the ball will be penalised.

Bray said the change was not just window dressing and was part of a unified approach to improve the game as a spectacle that is expected to be introduced in Europe for the Six Nations or the Heineken Cup.

The seeds of change were planted during a meeting last year between the referees and three coaches representing the Super 14 teams – Todd Blackadder (Crusaders), Rassie Erasmus (Bulls) and David Nucifora (Brumbies).

Ad Feedback

“We came up collectively with the fact that we had to create a greater ownership for changes in behaviour and essentially that was around the technique used at the tackle and at scrum time,” Bray said. “We agreed that if we carried on doing the workshops we had in the past and came up with decisions on the run that the onus always came back to the guy in the middle with the whistle.

“We decided that wasn’t going to cut the mustard for 2010. We said we had to listen to the criticism of where our game is at and we have to produce a cleaner and more attractive spectacle.

“If our reason for existence is to have one of the best competitions in world rugby then we have to recreate time and space on the field and recreate the attack with confidence that we used to have in Super 14 … it means more control from the ball carrier and more control for the attacking team.”

The other major change is at scrum time where poor technique and illegal tactics have become a blight on the game. Three national scrum coaches – Mike Cron (NZ), Pat Noriega (AUS) and Balie Swart (SA) – will now monitor their respective country’s five franchises.

“If the Hurricanes scrum for example have poor technique or use a poor tactical technique in week one to disrupt the scrum we will be going in privately and saying you have a problem and we will use Mike Cron to deliver the message, which gives it teeth,” Bray said.

“We will expect a change of behaviour from them. If they don’t deal with it then we have the right and permission from teams to go public.”

The same consequences will apply to referees who are deemed to have got their interpretation wrong.

Changing Tack

Lyndon Bray will front a united Sanzar team of referees to monitor performance and interpretation during the Super 14 Coaches and players have agreed to a change of philosophy around the policing of the tackle and scrum.

The aim is to produce cleaner ball for attacking teams.

The tackler will no longer have unlimited rights to go for the ball.

The tackler must release the tackled player completely and get to their feet before they can go for the ball.

Scrum techniques will be monitored by a Sanzar panel of scrum coaches, Mike Cron (NZ), Pat Noriega (AUS) and Balie Swart (SA).

Offenders will get a remedial lesson from their country’s scrum coach.

Repeat offenders will be exposed publicly.