URC ref boss threatens ‘zero tolerance’ if ugly player trend continues to get ‘excessive’
Leinster's Caelan Doris speaks with match referee Eoghan Cross during the BKT United Rugby Championship and inset of Tappe Henning.
URC Head of Match Officials Tappe Henning says that referees will be clamping down on player backchat and has threatened a ‘zero tolerance policy’ if it does not improve.
Earlier this season, Connacht’s Bundee Aki was slapped with a four-match suspension for “verbal abuse and disrespect” towards match officials, but overall there has been a growing trend of players remonstrating with the referees over decisions or lack thereof.
However, Henning says that match officials will be clamping down on backchat from players during the URC play-offs while still being mindful of the stress that the players are under and the emotion that comes with matches.
Clamping down on player backchat
Still, the former international referee believes that the screaming and shouting at officials during the game is becoming too prominent in the game.
“It’s getting to the extent that it is excessive,” Henning told a URC round table.
“I have discussed it with colleagues of mine about what our approach should be. We do not want to go into zero tolerance, but if it does not improve from the match officials’ end, we will get to a point where we will apply a zero tolerance philosophy to that.”
That would be the worst-case scenario, according to the head of match officials, who explained that referees will keep the status quo by creating a good relationship with the captains and getting them to control their teammates.
“At the moment, the referee will try to manage it early in the game and request the captain to take control of his player and tell his player we do not need that advice in shouting,” he continued.
“Then we need to protect the relationship between captain and referee and that needs to be in a courteous manner as well and not excessively during a game and the referees are required to use good judgment when they believe it is excessive and then draw the line in the sand to what’s allowed.
“That will be one of our discussions that we will have with our group tonight to make sure that our play-offs remain a spectacle, and these are our top referees in our competition. They’ve been around for quite a while; all of them have a lot of experience in the game, and they will deal with it appropriately.”
Referees won’t overreact
Again, Henning says that he doesn’t want the officials to overreact and wants them to be mindful of the emotional element of the game.
“We do not want to overreact. We understand the reaction of players. We understand the disappointment of players verbalising their disappointment when they disagree with a decision,” he added.
“We do not really want to overreact, but if it gets to a point where the referee draws the line in the sand, we would expect players to then respect that. Then for the rest of that game, the referee will apply that standard set earlier of what’s acceptable and what is not.
“We’ve seen in games that even captains have been penalised for shouting at a referee and screaming at the referee for a decision. The law supports that; there’s a specific law in the law book – 9.7(c) which is actually a provision which says that a player may not do anything that will bring the match officials the impression or try to convince the match officials that the opposition has committed an infringement. We will try to handle it better than what we’ve done in the pool games previously.”
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While it will be an area of focus during the play-offs, the referee boss further explained that the officials won’t be seeking out opportunities to punish the players.
“We do not want to go and chase that because players are emotional on the pitch,” Henning said.
“They are very tense and they want to perform well and they are disappointed and disagree with some decisions. But we as match officials will need to draw that line; our approach will be to handle it better than what we’ve done in the games previously.”