A bloody reffing rant

At the beginning of every season the call goes out from the rugby public for refs to blow according to the laws. Strictly according to the laws, I might add.

Then the games begin, and refs blow for so called miniscule infringements and the call changes to, refs must help keep the game flowing. Or a ref makes a mistake and its “refs must be consistent, and make the same calls for both teams”. The last one is my favourite as commentators/coaches and fans are basically urging a referee to deliberately make incorrect calls for the sake of “symmetry”.

My understanding, and the premise for the argument I’m proposing is; referees are there to blow the game according to the rules and only the rules. The rules are there to make sure the game is played fairly and in the correct spirit. In the modern day the rules also serve to make the game more of a spectacle for fans in the stands and crucially for the moneymen, at home. The referee’s job is not to make that particular match that he is blowing a spectacle. It is not for him to “even out” his mistakes. It is simply to say “here are the sanctioned rules, both sets of players, coaches, commentators and fans should be familiar with them and anything that contravenes them will be penalised”.

People like to rebuff such with the “in the heat of the action” argument. But if we are to expect players to not cheat in the “heat of the moment” and for coaches and captains to respect the ref regardless of the situation and the call, then we should expect and allow referees the space to do the same. The idea of infractions ranging from miniscule to serious is too subjective to leave up to interpretation.

That’s why the rules of the game keep increasing in number and detail. A call is “reasonable” at the time it happens but when a team loses, it is dissected for the entire week to come on rugby shows ad message boards. You never see a rugby show on TV matching up referring errors against each other to find a “evening out” score. Mistakes are treated individually and only added up to blame the referee. So why must he try even them up during a game?

Some say it’s part of the charm of the game, until their team loses a tight contest and they are scrounging around for excuses/scapegoats. If a referee makes a mistake, this should not mean that the other side is due a “free hit” or that the rules have changed and the call is what the players must play to. The ref should by all rights continue to blow as if nothing happened.

Anything else makes a mockery of the rules and the game itself. THAT is true meaning of consistency. If it is that they must apologise to the captains/coaches etc then so be it, but that will be less confusing for all involved rather than treating a judgement error as some kind of precedent. It’s not.

Blow to the rules. At all costs or be damned.