KEY POINTS:
- Do you have confidence in the referees at the World Cup?
The twenty-first team at the World Cup is the referees who often come under as much scrutiny and pressure as the players.
Blowing the whistle in front of 80,000 people, with millions more watching on TV is a stressful
job.
Added to that is the media hype, back-chat on the field and the odd person coming up after the game to give their opinion of your performance.
Knowing the rules manual inside-out and being able to run non-stop for 80 minutes is part of the job but high performance referee coach Colin Hawke said more and more emphasis is being put on how referees deal with the mental pressures of the game.
Hawke said the 20 top referees in New Zealand undergo psychological testing to identify personality traits and work with Australian sports psychologist Dr Ilan Kogus.
"If you create an awareness with your athletes about who they are, what drives them, what their beliefs are, that will tell them where they're going with their behaviours.
"Then what you can do, if they buy into that, is modify that, particularly if you've got a guy who is aggressive, talking on the field in a way that is not appropriate. That might be because part of his behaviour is that way," Hawke said.
He said changing behaviour is difficult but it has to be dealt with.
Hawke said part of preparing for the game is imagining scenarios that could happen.
"I used to do this when I was refereeing. I used to ask myself what am I going to do if, in the fifth minute, a guy kicks someone in the head? You're going to send him off, but there's a process you have to go through," Hawke said.
He said referees read the papers and are affected by what is said.
"But the good ones get on with the task at hand. If it's Ritchie McCaw or Lawrence Dallaglio you look at the process, not the person," Hawke said.
Paul Honiss is refereeing three pool games at the Rugby World Cup, and depending on his form and how well the All Blacks do, he could be refereeing more.
He said coaches' comments in the media don't get to referees and sometimes stop infringements happening on the field because of the increase in scrutiny.
"Let's go back a couple of years, they might be saying: Bill Young is a cheat at scrum time for the Wallabies. I've done my homework and I know damn well that nine times out of 10 it's a 50/50 split.
"Bill Young does do certain things but so does the tight-head he's scrummaging against."
Honiss said a lot of mind games are played out in the media.
He said he breaks his refereeing preparation into team analysis, physical training and getting "in the zone".
That's all out of the road by Thursday, leaving Friday before the game to whack a golf ball, have a coffee with his wife or do the odd job in the garden.
"Hopefully there won't be any catastrophes during the game so if there are you can deal with them in a comfortable, calm manner," Honiss said.
Hawke said that during the game certain players will talk-back but referees know they can't get involved in lengthy discussions or debates.
The crowd noise can't be heard until, Honiss says, you blow-up a penalty against the home team when the sound level goes over the top.
After the game, referees, like players, warm-down physically and mentally.
"Usually the tank is spent. Quite often the next day you would be ratty and scratchy. It's like a come-down," Hawke said.
After taking a break, referees fill out written reports on their performance, looking at their technical calls. Their performance is then peer reviewed.
Hawke said he has had one or two people who will have a go at the referee after the game.
"But it's not what happens, it's how you handle it. If you're going to go in and give a verbal spray, we certainly don't encourage them to get into too much dialogue with people.
"But most of the time - I speak for myself - but if you've made a mistake, you'll fess up but it depends on the quality of the question and the person," Hawke said.
Honiss said referees do make mistakes but they have to be learned from and then "parked".
He said after-game functions are invites only and are "controlled environments".
Referees don't hit the town after the game because they have to watch their diet and are well-respected in New Zealand, Honiss said.
But he said the incident in South Africa when Springbok fan Pieter van Zyl ran on to the field and tackled Irish referee David McHugh shook the refereeing world.
He said Paddy O'Brien, who was refereeing the next test match, had armed body guards.
"I've never seen anything like it before and hopefully will never see anything like it again," Honiss said.
