The Power Of The Referee

The mighty 4th XV had a tough challenge on wednesday- but perhaps not in a conventional way. Playing Wilsons 1st XV, while somnambulant, the Whitgift outift proved a far more skilled and organised team than their yellow counterparts. The game however highlighted the growing discrepencies in refereeing- especially the laws of the breakdown. Seeing as we had a Whitgift referee, to even the game up he decided to be particularly biased at the breakdown to Wilsons. While this perhaps didn't have any ramifications (other than forcing Will Griffiths to actually counterruck rather than jackal) it proved to me the importance of understanding the referee in rugby. National coaches such as Eddie Jones often allude to 'playing the referee'. The real problem is no referee views the breakdown laws (when a tackler should release, when the ball-carrier should release and when an illegal act is committed purely to slow down the ball) the same. While over exaggerated, the Whitgift referee ended up giving Wilsons many penalties and thus alot of ball, allowing them to score 17 points- a flattering total for a distinctly average team.

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