REVISED

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 34, 3 May 1927, Page 14

REVISED

RUGBY REFEREES HANDBOOK IS BROUGHT UP-TO-DATE BY RECENT | CONFERENCE

SOME IMPORTANT DECISIONS By Rev. W. B. Scott, Dunedin.) The Rugby curtain has arisen on the 1927 season and once again the fields of play have come into view. For several months the Saturday afternoon air will be punctured with the shouts of barrackers who like the leather hunting they do not have to share. The Rugby fan will once again exercise his right to criticise the referee and all his doings. Much of that criticism is only hot air, some of it is due to the fact that certain pot-hunters have lost their half-crown and must blame somebody, but most of it is a result of ignorance of the laws that govern the game.

This season the common garden variety critic must place his gentle hand over his unruly mouth. If he is foolish enough to venture his pocketmoney on the chances of the game and lose it, then he must be as philosophic as Wilkins Micawber, because the Hand Book, which has always been a terror for its size, has been revised and reconstructed with drastic effect and quite a number of amendments have been introduced. The first time that the new regulations are applied there is likely to be some surprise among both players and spectators. It is satisfactory to note that there will be no further revision for at least three years. RULES CONSOLIDATED The N.Z. Hand Book as it now appears is based upon the English book, which has been re-written and revised. There is no doubt that we shall soon realise that a substantial effort has been made to consolidate the rules so that each phase of the game is complete in itself. A young referee in the past, who thought he understood the meaning of some rule, was bo'th surprised and enlightened when his attention was drawn to an important qualification of that rule in another part of the book. Referees will be intensely thankful for the simplification and improvement promised in the new book; but even so there are still possibilities of divergent opinions of administration. Take the scrummage as an illustration. In the course of my wanderings up and down the Dominion I have discovered unions where it was a custom for one side to put the ball in the scrum during one spell and the other side operating the ball during the second session. In another district the referee put the ball into the scrum on every occasion, while the general custom has been for the nonoffending side to do the trick. The new rule reads: “In all cases . . . the referee shall award to the team which is not responsible for the stoppage in the game the right of putting the ball into the scrummage. In case of doubt the referee shall award such right to the team which is territorially on the defensive.” In explanation of the working of that law there are no less than 17 paragraphs. From these we learn for the first time that a ball is not fairly in the scrum until it has been put in straight, has touched the ground and has passed both feet of a player of each team. In another paragraph emphasis is laid upon the importance of putting the ball into the scrum with the greatest precision at all times. There must be no passing of the ball from one player to another, and any delay in placing the ball in the scrum must be regarded as a waste of time. Any right that the referee possessed of doing the job is evidently taken away. DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY Under the new conditions, if carried out to the letter, there is going to be considerable annoyance to players and spectators alike on account of the tremendous amount of whistle that will be necessary for this season at any rate. There is one solution to be found in the direction of the referee putting in the ball on every occasion. I understand that one union has done this for a number of years and intends to carry on. Another Referees’ Association declared in favour of this reform and requested its union, for permission but that union, desiring to cause as little friction as possible, has decided to ask the N.Z.R.U. to grant the right. So we see that already the question is arising: What is it to be, the book, the whole book, and nothing but the book, or is the Dominion to become a law unto itself ? There is a new regulation that no player can leave the field at half-time without permission of the referee. Information has come that the N.Z.R.U. does not intend to enforce this law. Now*, my masters, where are we!

If one law is placed in the discard, cannot the big union give the lesser unions permission for referees to put the ball into the scrum and so save endless trouble to themselves and ensure the brightening up of the game? Personally, I hope the N.Z.R.U. will turn the Nelsonian eye to the instruction about who is to put in the ball and give permission to the unions with regard to referees being allowed to place the ball in the scrum. While dealing with the scrummage I would like to draw attention to the following instruction: “A player who moves either foot beyond the front line of his forwards before the ball is fairly in a scrummage shall be treated as wilfully preventing.” Where is this imaginary line to be drawn? That has now been made clear and will be welcomed by everyone whose duty : t has been to solve the problem. Where the shoulders of the players meet as they pack the scrum is now to be regarded as constituting the line over which the player’s boot may not pass. PLAYING BALL ON GROUND There is a ruling adopted from the English law which states: “It is not interference if a player who has rolled off the ball plays it with his foot.” Previously this action has been penalised for playing the ball while on the ground. While remembering this law, another one must not be forgotten, viz.: “No player lying on the ground shall interfere with the ball whilst it is in a scrummage.” Other matters in connection with the scrum upon which different interpretations have been given must be noted because they are of a distinct advantage to the game. The ball cannot be knocked or kicked out of the side of a scrum. If this happens the player is to be penalised for “wilfully preventing the ball being put fairly in.” This is as it should be. Again and again one has seen the ball come out of the side of the scrum into the hands of the wing-forward, who immediately passed it to the half-back, and no whistle was blown. Very often the ball goes right through the scrum. In Dunedin that was allowed on the ground that both sides had an equal chance of hooking it on its way through. This state of things must now be altered and the ball must be put in again unless it has

been thrown through deliberately, in which case the culprit must be penalised. Now all these regulations about the scrummage have one object and that is that both sides shall have an equal chance of hooking the ball. It seems to me that this most desirable end can be best achieved by the referee putting the ball into the scrum on every occasion. Front rankers are allowed to follow the ball into the scrum with the outside foot, but if the foot is advanced over the imaginary line in the movement of following the ball, then such player is liable to be penalised. THE ADVANTAGE RULE For some years it had been my custom to apply the advantage rule to all phases of the game. Two years ago when I arrived in Dunedin reaction in this matter, especially on the line-out, came as a surprise, and at the referees’ meeting I was taken to task. The reasonableness of my action was admitted, but attention was drawn to the fact that it was a contravention of the rules. A definite pronouncement at a later date from the N.Z.R.U. ruled my Northern brethren and myself out of court, thus proving the truth of Otago’s contention. In the new book certain exceptions to the advantage rule are mentioned and these exceptions are accompanied with an imperative “must.” For the future the advantage rule does not apply to the “kick-off,” a “drop-out,” the throw-in from touch penalty and free-kicks and penaltykicks from behind the goal line. Other reforms and alterations will be dealt with in another article, but in closing I want to advise the young referee to endeavour to get out of his mind all previous regulations and make himself conversant with the new Hand Book, as if it were the only book ever published. It has been my custom, and still is, after 21 years of active service with the whistle, to imagine a difficulty arising on the field of play. In my mind, I follow all the movements of the game in order to discover just how I would act when a particular crisis arises. By this means—and often I have followed it out when lying awake in the still watches of the night—one gets an intimate knowledge of the law book with the result that when a breach occurs the application of the law is almost automatic.