Steve Hansen
It has been successfully trialled in South Africa and now All Black coach Steve Hansen wants the Varsity Cup initiative to be used worldwide.
Hansen, at the weekend, renewed his call for a challenge system to be bought into the game and it comes on the back of some contentious officiating in their 24-21 win over England.
Steve Hansen said one example of where a challenge could be used, was when his own team got away with a blatant infringement earlier in the year.
“Israel Dagg throwing a forward pass against South Africa and Richie McCaw scoring,” the New Zealand mentor told a media scrum after his team’s win at Twickenham.
Hansen also nominated the apparent forward pass which led to France’s try, when they beat the All Blacks in the 2007 World Cup quarterfinal as a an example of what could be achieved.
“Everybody in the stadium who had a view saw that.
“To me, that’s a clear and obvious case for a coach to say: ‘OK, I want to challenge that try.’
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“There’s been too many occasions that have been missed.”
This challenge / review system was first introduced in the inaugural Varsity Cup competition in 2008 – a tournament that has since leant itself to several other law innovations to be trialled.
These include two referees (used this year), kick-receive laws (a free kick if you mark the ball outside your 22-metre area) and points values (conversions were worth three points and penalties worth just two, the last two years).
The most obvious and high-profile white-card incident came in the 2008 (inaugural) Final between the universities of Stellenbosch and Cape Town.
Stellenbosch score a ‘try’ inside the final quarter, when scrumhalf Willem Koch streaked through. However, UCT challenged the try with a white card and the TMO, Shaun Veldsman, ruled that the Maties had not retreated 10 metres from an earlier kick and the try was disallowed.
There is at least one Varsity Cup innovation currently being widely used at international level – allowing referees to make their own video reviews (off big screens in stadiums), with Television Match Official decisions (with in-goal television screens), being introduced among the tournament’s many refereeing experiments.
Hansen at the weekend voiced the benefits of introducing the white-card system, saying he and other leading lights in New Zealand had collaborated three years ago to devise a challenge system that was more in keeping with the spirit of rugby.
“I think it would be a great idea, but the [IRB’s] wheels have turned slowly,” he said.
“I don’t know where it is at this stage, it’s with the IRB.”
Nigel Owens’ decision to sin-bin Dane Coles was one of several questionable ones made by the Welsh referee.
Hansen doesn’t believe it would slow the game significantly and believes in big Tests it is better to get a key decision right rather than rush it.
He wants a challenge law introduced next year, but can’t see it happening.
“They [IRB] don’t seem to want to bring anything in until after World Cups, which is a shame.”