wittme15e says...

Here here Brian! As a referee I try to put up the good fight. I even had a scrumhalf almost thank me for calling his feed because it had been so blatant. The game is about contesting possession and that should be ever referees focus after safety. Are both teams contesting possession? Is the contest fair? If all referees take the field with these two questions in mind the game is clear. The referees purpose is clear and one need not feel bad about calls deciding matches. I won't help teams that don't contest possession, i.e. call not straight at a lineout if the defense doesn't jump, but the scrum by its nature will always be contested, except for the unmentionable times, the law requires it. My best analogy for the scrum when talking to the uninitiated about its purpose is to compare it to a face-off in hockey, but the best hockey players win 65% where scrums are won 95% of the time by the team with the put in. The sad thing is that the lineout is a similar mechanism for restarting play. Hookers are trying for all they are worth to throw the ball in straight and they can't get a break sometimes. What scrumhalfs do is purposeful and it is cheating. How can refs really be fully credible until they enforce a basic, but fundamental law that is in place to ensure a fair contest for possession?

Posted 03:14 12th January 2010