Matthew Burke

With the recent pedantic display of refereeing, it pains me to say that the World Cup could turn into a game of whistle-blowing, ruining the experience for the spectators and more importantly the players.

Some of the technical refereeing that has been on display has eliminated any “feel” for the game.

Right now, the blokes in the middle are trying to put on their best show to be chosen to get a gig in England in 2015. But who is judging their performance so they get to secure a position as a top whistle-blower?

smh

There is someone in the grandstand holding a clipboard assessing the referees’ performances to give feedback on their 80 minutes.

Ironically, the man in the middle for the Wallabies-Springboks game in Perth already had a formal complaint made about previous games that he adjudicated, when the Australians had less than favourable outcomes.

So do you just give up on getting a good result or work to manage the situation so he feels comfortable out there? Because they too get affected by the grandeur of the games.

The referees are nervous. While players judge themselves on their own performances, and we too have a say by critiquing them, the men with the whistle also don’t escape criticism.

They are usually the first to cop the wrath of a furious coach if things don’t fall their way.

Last weekend, the chat at the coffee shop was about the poor decision-making made by the bloke in the middle.

Most of the chat was about how the referee didn’t let the game flow. There didn’t seem to be any understanding of how the game was progressing. Mind you, the game of rugby is so technical that sometimes those technicalities limit the continuity.

What is missing these days is the self-refereeing. By that, I mean that sometimes the referee used to say “sort it out yourself”. Those were the days when you could use your feet to give an invitation for a player to move out of the way.

You only had to do that once, and it had a great effect. Referees now put up with constant bickering from players because of the fact that a yellow card would be produced if, heaven forbid, you became the judge and jury.

To give you an example of how out of touch I thought the referees were sometimes, you have only to look at three situations from the weekend’s games.

There was the howler in the New Zealand game when the Pumas charged down a kick and called a knock-on. In the background you can see the whistle to the mouth in a flash, before he could even have a look at the incident.

Then there was the tackle on James Slipper in the Springboks test, where Vermeulen cut him in half. That hit was just outstanding, yet the referee’s comments were that the defender rode up on the tackle and made contact with the head. What?

The first person that should’ve congratulated Vermeulen should’ve been the referee, then Slipper, then the crowd. Not a penalty… poor call.

And finally, Bryan Habana, who was given a yellow card when Adam Ashley-Cooper fell awkwardly at the back end of the tackle.

The assistant referee even said “cool your jets, let’s have a look at it”. But it’s all about getting KPIs with the bloke with the clipboard. Ticking the boxes to say yes, every law was adhered to.

I understand you have to play by the rules, but the referees should not only be judged on their technical ability, but rather on how the game unfolds.

When the referee is being tedious, it limits the amount of play in the game. They need to get a sense of how the game is progressing.

Take the breakdown, for instance. When players flop over the ball but have no real impact on proceedings, there is no need to blow the whistle.

Everyone is left deflated because the momentum of the game is destroyed. When you don’t have momentum, it’s very difficult to get yourself back in the game. The hardest part in those stop-start games is trying to falsify momentum.

When there is all this whistle-blowing, the game only hurts itself due to the limited time the ball is actually in play.

So if these referees are on trial for next year’s World Cup, I would hate to see that tournament thwarted by penalties and technicalities because referees need to tick the boxes and accrue stats.

The old story still rings true: A good ref is never noticed.