Rugby: Respecting tradition

Alain Rolland is one of the IRB's top three referees but is retiring this month. Photo / Getty Images

Mocked for clinging to the past, the IRB deserve support for renewed efforts to preserve a vital part of rugby culture - referees.

The refs, a sacred and untouchable part of the game, are under siege and the IRB wants it to stop. Treating the match official with patience, respect and due reverence has been rugby's most endearing and enduring ethical practice. However indifferent and infuriating a referee's performance may have been, rugby's code dictates that captain and coach have to swallow their pride, accept their lot and tactfully say nothing.

That code showed definite signs of erosion last year. At times, rugby was worryingly like football. There weren't, thankfully, incidents of referees being crowded by remonstrating players, chased this way and that by incandescent transgressors determined to prove their innocence. But there were apoplectic coaches, venting in the aftermath and not maintaining a dignified silence.

It brought the game to a crossroads: should open and rational post-match discussion about a referee's performance be part of the professional fabric? Players and coaches are accountable, why not referees? Why not allow officials' performance to be a legitimate part of the analysis?

Valid questions in these transparent times but, rightly, the IRB has concluded that disaster lies down that path. Respectful and rational would soon give way to something darker and more base - that much was obvious last year.

There were pot shots - understandable and deserved - but pot shots nonetheless; how long before this culture of open defiance extends to the field? Sir Graham Henry called one official blind; England hooker Dylan Hartley suggested Wayne Barnes was a cheat and too often the subject of poor officiating was the dominant issue.

Perhaps, then, it was inevitable that in an unprecedented move ahead of the Six Nations, the IRB issued a statement warning players and coaches that public criticism of officials would not be tolerated.

"Rugby values its culture of respect for the opposition and match officials, which is at the very heart of the game," said chairman Bernard Lapasset. "But there has been a slow increase in the level and intensity of public criticism of match officials and their performances from coaches and players. Match officials, like players, do make mistakes, but it is important that we work with our unions to ensure that match official performance is discussed within the appropriate and established framework for feedback and appraisal that operates between coaches, match officials and the IRB."

Fair enough, but what price this silence? There needs to be a quid pro quo as - if coaches and players are going to hold themselves back - the IRB must do more to raise the performance level of its elite refereeing pool.

That, and find a few more up-and-comers; at the moment, the only three officials who consistently deliver quality performances are Craig Joubert, Nigel Owens and Alain Rolland, the last of whom will retire this month. The IRB have 11 elite referees but international coaches can be a little nervous when they find anyone other than those three in charge.

The IRB's pre-emptive plea for restraint could be seen as an admission of sorts that they accept there are problems with their chosen pool of referees. So too could the intensive three-day training camp in Dubai at the end of January. The IRB put their elite panel through extensive fitness testing designed with one objective - to help them make better, more accurate decisions.

"As with teams, we are building towards Rugby World Cup 2015 and the main performance objective for the group is to ensure clear and consistent refereeing," said IRB match official selection committee chairman John Jeffrey.

There were too many high-profile errors last year - specifically Romain Poite's wrongful red card shown to Bismarck du Plessis and Chris Pollock's handling of the first Lions test. Generally, however, there was lack of attention to detail from many referees and confusion about what areas they were focusing on. As Henry remarked in his outburst: "Just do the basics right and we have a good game of footy."

The basics, as he and most other coaches see them, are: the scrum, tackled ball and offside line. Allow fair contests in the first two and be vigilant with the third and the chances are high everyone goes home happy. If in doubt, go to the TMO: an impatient crowd can be appeased by the right decision, however long it takes.

That's it. No one wants to see a culture of abuse grow and blossom. But nor do players and coaches want to feel their fate is being determined by referees who aren't up to the job.