Cody Kuxmann is a Referee at the London Society Of Rugby Football Union Referees, while studying International Relations at Richmond, The American International University in London. He lives in Richmond Upon Thames but hails from Green Bay, Wisconsin.
PARIS, FRANCE – Last weekend’s games produced some wonderful rugby: Wales vs Italy was a good game besides the score; Ireland vs Scotland was a cracking match that ran away eventually; France vs England was a battle of two halves that either side could have won. As for penalties, in France vs England we saw a yellow card. Should that have been the case??? In Dublin, there was the wonderful penalty on a try attempt by Ireland’s Tommy Bowe. Was it the correct?
ENGLAND at FRANCE: First thing, what a great game! Two teams that both needed a win, left nothing on the pitch. Was it ruined by the referee, though? Probably not. But for sure it was not bettered by the referee. Alain Rolland caused a stop/start game; at the scrums it was horribly controlled and he had more resets than he did scrums! Like I said a few weeks ago, this needs to be fixed! About the yellow card – it should have been given for the event. We had a knock-on at midfield that was deliberate, but did not prevent any major advancement. England had a few more men floating over to cover the “break.” So why was a yellow card given? It is really quite simple; England was on a team warning, as in they had given up to many penalties in the eyes of Rolland to just warrant a penalty. But Rolland’s performance was mediocre at best. He brought little to the game, other than a very stop-and-start form of rugby, that had yet to be seen at the tournament.
SCOTLAND at IRELAND: The game had one particularly interesting play; Ireland quickly kicked across field, and had the ball in goal where it was eventually struggled to be put down by Tommy Bowe. But Scotland’s Graeme Morrison wrapped him up in the process. I’ve watched it quite a few times and I still can’t come to the same conclusion that they have. I don’t see how either were required to release – they were both in an in-goal struggle and were attempting to place the ball and hold it up, respectively. Personally, think that the later occurred: Scotland was able to hold up the ball and it should have been a five-meter scrum. Other than the TMO decision, I thought that the referee crew had a wonderful game, and was able let the players play.
A quick look into next week: Only two teams that have a chance at winning the Six Nations title; Wales and England. Wales can win or tie and they will be title holders. England on the other hand, have to win by a lot… and have Wales lose. Meanwhile, Scotland and Italy will be playing for the coveted “Wooden Spoon!”
What are your thoughts? And stay tuned to the ref review next week, where we will wrap up the Six Nations as a whole!
P.s… Check out the newest video interviews with Mathew Turner of England (below), Matt Hawkins of Team USA and look for upcoming interviews with Wales’ Richie Pugh and the Eagles new 15’s coach, Mike Tolkin.
