LONDON, ENGLAND – For those of you that have been completely in a box for the past weekend, there have been a few major events to happen this weekend. The first to happen was a rugby league referee got taken off his video referee assignment, due to a major mistake. The second – and the biggest – was the red card in the Aviva Premiership final… the first in it’s history.
If you don’t follow rugby league, a video ref can review anything leading up to a try being scored. In the Hull FC v Hull KR Derby, the scores were level at 16 all. The ball was kicked down-field and the team followed up and caught a lucky bounce leading to a score. On video review, the player that scored was never onside. This is clear and is a completely clear cut call. It cost a team the game and was regarded by the losing coach as the single worst decision in the past ten years of the UK’s Super League.
The referee latter admitted the mistake and then was removed from his TMO duties for the rest of the weekend.
The second thing that happened this weekend was that a referee got called “… a F*****g Cheat.” This was about a minute after talking to the player about dissent. The video of the indecent is below:
(Please Note: strong language is used in the video)
https://youtu.be/e5XTdOQV-D8
In the case of this card, Wayne Barnes is right on the money. In no case should a referee be called anything even close to that. It should be pointed out that Dylan Hartley’s defense is that he was saying to his opposing player. However, the panel did not see it this way; they have came down with an 11-week ban for the act that questioned the referee’s integrity. This will put him out of the Lion’s tour.
Now, this brings up the much bigger point. We’re left with the problem of how accountable a referee can be and the issue of whether we are putting too much pressure on the ref. Recently I came across an article on this exact subject. It’s a great read.
How do you feel about refereeing? Would you do it in these ever-loosening circumstances?
