Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: brian green on March 22, 2015, 12:02:25 PM
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Compared with the furore that has broken around the heads of the referees at Man City and Huddersfield the atrocious refereeing performance at VP yesterday has gone completely unnoticed. It raises not only the most obvious point about how the likes of Swarbrick (remember him?) get to be top flight referees in the first place and what can be done to lessen the impact on teams of refereeing blunders, it raises at least two other questions, firstly what useful purpose is being served by the whole crew of officials who are now part of the game? Secondly as it applies to our treatment yesterday a referee can cock up persistently in small ways and get away with it because the small mistakes were only the death by a thousand cuts to the team on the receiving end of it, not a calamitous one off cock up like the Tesco bags suffered.
Whatever the resistance by the FA to change to their status quo, technology like the 30 second recall in the NFL has to be introduced, in my opinion.
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I know people have a moan about refs and always have done but genuinely the quality of reffing in the last few years has turned to complete shite in the Premiership. It comes to something when a league misses refs like Graham Poll who gave out 3 yellow cards to one player in a game once.
Take the West Brom cup game for example. The ref and his assistants were having a very good game. But two contentious decisions (I actually agreed with the W.B sending off to be honest) and it undoes it all. Certainly the decision on Grealish was ludicrous. Both yellows were IMO. The first yellow for example was Jack's first challenge, a little cynical but it was his first since coming on. Should have been a quiet word from the ref to say "next one is a yellow." After all Yacob had made 2-3 rough challenges before his first yellow.
And yesterday was ludicrous. They got the rub of the decisions. They almost also scored from an offside position too.
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The ref wasn't just poor yesterday. If he'd been poor Swansea would've suffered some bad decisions too. Instead it genuinely seemed like he had money on Swansea. I was only surprised he didn't award them a pen or send one of ours off at some point.
Absolute shambles.
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He did seem staggeringly incompetent yesterday.
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The ref wasn't just poor yesterday. If he'd been poor Swansea would've suffered some bad decisions too. Instead it genuinely seemed like he had money on Swansea. I was only surprised he didn't award them a pen or send one of ours off at some point.
Absolute shambles.
Granted their winner didn't come off one of those decisions (thankfully) but it's just piss poor. Reffing like this can cost teams points and ultimately their place in this league. Conceivably bad reffing decisions could end a club. The financial hit is too much to take for some clubs. Look at Portsmouth. They're just about still clutching to existence.
We've implemented goal line tech now. We need to do more and there needs to be a consistency between refs. More clarity and a better understanding of the rules of the game. In too many aspects there appear to be shades of gray.
They do say these things even themselves out. But we've suffered at the hands of a shit ref more than we've benefited this season.
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The ref was piss poor yesterday. Some of the fouls he gave were just nonsense.
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My own, highly subjective opinion is that much of the unfairness comes from referees because they consider, or are more correctly encouraged by the FA to consider that they have virtually unlimited discretion. I moaned not long ago about the ref who put his whistle to his lips to blow for full time but when Brad Guzan bundled a clean catch and our goal was severely threatened he allowed play to continue until we had eliminated the danger. Once discretion comes into it, the mind set of each individual referee will dictate the implementation of the rules of the game. Yesterday in the thick of that referee pulling us up for the most marginal of transgressions he was allowing Swansea players to walk yards and yards down the touchline for throws and one "throw" near the end of the game was straight out of the basketball passing manual. Somebody somewhere has told officials that stealing yards and correct throw technique is no longer important. These things do not happen by accident, they creep in through the open back door of discretion. The ref yesterday made an oscar winning performance with his spray cannister but time and time again Swansea took free kicks from miles away from the supposed offences. The ugly bastard children of referees discretion are the vices of diving, "taking one for the team" and game management (aka time wasting).
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We were discussing his awfulness in the pub afterwards and how curious it was to be so critical of a referee's performance when there had been no controversial decisions or cards issued. I found myself glancing in his direction any time there was any physical contact on the pitch such was his officiousness. I looked him up on the Internet and was surprised to learn he's 29 so can't help but think he should be honing his craft in a lower division.
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We saw (and suffered from) the discretion point when a certain Vidic stayed on the pitch after being last man and giving away a penalty. I remember hearing some ref saying they always considered the match and how their decisions may affect it - this gives them far too much subjective power over the narrative of a match.
I am always careful about saying a ref is biased as I think they are usually just crap. The guy yesterday seemed hell-bent on giving Swansea fouls at any opportunity - but for the life of me I cannot understand why he would do that? What goes through his mind?
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The ref wasn't just poor yesterday. If he'd been poor Swansea would've suffered some bad decisions too. Instead it genuinely seemed like he had money on Swansea. I was only surprised he didn't award them a pen or send one of ours off at some point.
Absolute shambles.
Granted their winner didn't come off one of those decisions (thankfully) but it's just piss poor. Reffing like this can cost teams points and ultimately their place in this league. Conceivably bad reffing decisions could end a club. The financial hit is too much to take for some clubs. Look at Portsmouth. They're just about still clutching to existence.
We've implemented goal line tech now. We need to do more and there needs to be a consistency between refs. More clarity and a better understanding of the rules of the game. In too many aspects there appear to be shades of gray.
They do say these things even themselves out. But we've suffered at the hands of a shit ref more than we've benefited this season.
The goal came from the ref's inconsistency. Earlier in the 2nd half blew for a Villa Foul when Delph was breaking forward from midfield but when the Swansea player was fouled on the halfway line he went to blow but waved play on and the winger ran free and crossed for the goal.
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The ref wasn't just poor yesterday. If he'd been poor Swansea would've suffered some bad decisions too. Instead it genuinely seemed like he had money on Swansea. I was only surprised he didn't award them a pen or send one of ours off at some point.
Absolute shambles.
Granted their winner didn't come off one of those decisions (thankfully) but it's just piss poor. Reffing like this can cost teams points and ultimately their place in this league. Conceivably bad reffing decisions could end a club. The financial hit is too much to take for some clubs. Look at Portsmouth. They're just about still clutching to existence.
We've implemented goal line tech now. We need to do more and there needs to be a consistency between refs. More clarity and a better understanding of the rules of the game. In too many aspects there appear to be shades of gray.
They do say these things even themselves out. But we've suffered at the hands of a shit ref more than we've benefited this season.
The goal came from the ref's inconsistency. Earlier in the 2nd half blew for a Villa Foul when Delph was breaking forward from midfield but when the Swansea player was fouled on the halfway line he went to blow but waved play on and the winger ran free and crossed for the goal.
Ah, I'd not noticed that.
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The ref wasn't just poor yesterday. If he'd been poor Swansea would've suffered some bad decisions too. Instead it genuinely seemed like he had money on Swansea. I was only surprised he didn't award them a pen or send one of ours off at some point.
Absolute shambles.
Before the game, someone on here mentioned that this ref had previous history with Swansea; and I speculated that he might redress that in our game.
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Interesting fact about ref/linesmen...did you know the ref is assessed on decisions made or missed. But the linesmen and those behind the goal line are only assessed on decisions made (apart from offside of course). Hence why the linesmen or assistants rarely get involved in fouls unless asked by the ref, if they don't make any decisions on fouls then they can't be negatively assessed.
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In between posting on here I am watching Juventus play Genoa. There was a clear example of referee discretion bending the rules just a moment ago. Juve got a penalty. Several of the Genoa players had encroached into the box before the kick. The keeper guessed correctly and palmed Tevez's shot out straight back at him but because the Genoa defender was already in the box by four or five yards he kicked the rebound off Tevez's toe and cleared the ball. There really should be a move towards zero tolerance of rule breaking but there will not be because the concept of discretion underpins the FA's ethos that referees must be protected from censure at all times because the undermining of the refs undermines the FA. If ever there was an organization which needs overhaul it is the FA and their corrupt spawn FIFA and UEFA.
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My own, highly subjective opinion is that much of the unfairness comes from referees because they consider, or are more correctly encouraged by the FA to consider that they have virtually unlimited discretion. I moaned not long ago about the ref who put his whistle to his lips to blow for full time but when Brad Guzan bundled a clean catch and our goal was severely threatened he allowed play to continue until we had eliminated the danger. Once discretion comes into it, the mind set of each individual referee will dictate the implementation of the rules of the game. Yesterday in the thick of that referee pulling us up for the most marginal of transgressions he was allowing Swansea players to walk yards and yards down the touchline for throws and one "throw" near the end of the game was straight out of the basketball passing manual. Somebody somewhere has told officials that stealing yards and correct throw technique is no longer important. These things do not happen by accident, they creep in through the open back door of discretion. The ref yesterday made an oscar winning performance with his spray cannister but time and time again Swansea took free kicks from miles away from the supposed offences. The ugly bastard children of referees discretion are the vices of diving, "taking one for the team" and game management (aka time wasting).
The space allowed for referee's discretion is the space that the larger teams can use to attempt to influence the referee's decision.
Halsey was on the radio a few weeks back, he was rattling on about how you have to manage players differently and was advocating pre-judging decisions based on his knowledge of players. He said "for example, I know that Cesc Fabregas doesn't dive" which almost had me foaming at the mouth, and to his credit Stewart Robson who was on the show took him to task about it. I heard Poll say similar in the past, and you see it all the time in their display, buddying up with the stars and shitting all over teams and players that don't matter as much.
The standard in this league is piss poor and the system is corrupt. Oh for the likes of David Ellary, who clearly didn't give a shit who he upset, maybe because his livelihood didn't depend on it.
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complete ****** , but then most of them are,
he made uriah rene look competent.
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Interesting fact about ref/linesmen...did you know the ref is assessed on decisions made or missed. But the linesmen and those behind the goal line are only assessed on decisions made (apart from offside of course). Hence why the linesmen or assistants rarely get involved in fouls unless asked by the ref, if they don't make any decisions on fouls then they can't be negatively assessed.
That's a ridiculous situation, they should be assisting the referee at all times. I imagine they are all qualified to be referees at this level and if not they should be.
Yacob's sending off against us highlights this as the linesman was standing right by the incident and must have seen what happened better. They are mic'd up I think? It should be compulsory for the ref to consult with the nearest or both assistants before making a big decisions like a sending off.
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WBA have a player sent off - the wrong one. So, they play the rest of the game with 10 men, which is what would have happened even had the right player gone off. Now they will appeal the red card and it will correctly be rescinded - but the player who should have been sent off will not face a ban! Where's the fairness in that? And why is Pulis making such a fuss about it? Can't he see that his team has benefited?
As for the referee at VP yesterday - words fail me.
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WBA have a player sent off - the wrong one. So, they play the rest of the game with 10 men, which is what would have happened even had the right player gone off. Now they will appeal the red card and it will correctly be rescinded - but the player who should have been sent off will not face a ban! Where's the fairness in that? And why is Pulis making such a fuss about it? Can't he see that his team has benefited?
As for the referee at VP yesterday - words fail me.
At least West Brom won't have a suspension against QPR.
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WBA have a player sent off - the wrong one. So, they play the rest of the game with 10 men, which is what would have happened even had the right player gone off. Now they will appeal the red card and it will correctly be rescinded - but the player who should have been sent off will not face a ban! Where's the fairness in that? And why is Pulis making such a fuss about it? Can't he see that his team has benefited?
As for the referee at VP yesterday - words fail me.
At least West Brom won't have a suspension against QPR.
Good point!
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The ref wasn't just poor yesterday. If he'd been poor Swansea would've suffered some bad decisions too. Instead it genuinely seemed like he had money on Swansea. I was only surprised he didn't award them a pen or send one of ours off at some point.
Absolute shambles.
I made a similar point on the match thread about the inconsistency of the ref. He let a lot go for Swansea
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A yellow card is a farce. Doesn't a professional footballer get fined by the FA the same as a 14 year old? The only fair way is to take a player off the pitch for ten minutes.
If a player is wrongly booked - it's only ten mins. Goalkeeper time wasting in the last ten mins. currently he takes a booking for the team. Send him off 10 mins and they need a new keeper. If they have made three subs they are fucked.
Stop the cheats. John Terry, Steve G, questioning every decision.... shut up or 10 mins in the bin....
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A yellow card is a farce. Doesn't a professional footballer get fined by the FA the same as a 14 year old? The only fair way is to take a player off the pitch for ten minutes.
If a player is wrongly booked - it's only ten mins. Goalkeeper time wasting in the last ten mins. currently he takes a booking for the team. Send him off 10 mins and they need a new keeper. If they have made three subs they are fucked.
Stop the cheats. John Terry, Steve G, questioning every decision.... shut up or 10 mins in the bin....
There was a suggestion along these lines from Platini last year.
Given how adept teams are these days at defending with 10 men for 50-60 minutes, I think a 10-15 minute sin bin could just as easily work in favour of the "punished" team.
Imagine how much better someone like Gerrard, who's normally struggling to keep up in a high tempo game by 60-65 minutes these days, would look if he was forced to take a 10 minute breather at 50-55 minutes.
The only advantage might be it would make teams more wary of the cynical fouls that could result in another yellow and risk going down to 9 for a period.
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In defence of referees, they are under enourmous pressure not just to get their judgement right on tackles and offside decisions but they are subjected to harrassment by players all day, players trying to get other players sent off, players behaving like prima donnas throwing themselves down, managers moaning all day to the reserve ref. Yes the guy had a bad day on Saturday but no decision he made lost us the game the truth is Swansea scored and we didn't.
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I think there should be a red flag challenge in each half for the manager like NFL head coach have the power to challenge the referee, but if they get it right they keep their time out, but if they get it wrong they will lose their time out.
Perhaps losing a substitute should be punishment if the manager get it wrong.
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The ref was piss poor yesterday. Some of the fouls he gave were just nonsense.
He was.
He was one of the generic two types of ref I have come to know and hate.
Type 1: almost as yesterday but not quite...don't give any big decisions about big things (avoiding any controversy/"bad" reputation) but blow up for almost anything that involves physical contact...this includes making a massive fuss about players taking free-kicks from the wrong place, having an inappropriate haircut or farting on the pitch. This f**ks the game up and turns a potential exciting spectacle into a drab stop-go-stop-go series of things where not much happens...
Type 2: Dowd, Clattenburg etc...keep everything under control until something "big" happens then go completely over the top by sending off Hull's latest South American full-back for scratching his nuts or telling John Terry - in no uncertain terms - that if he hacks Benteke/Milner/Hull full back to death he will have no alternative but to take him off his Christmas card list.
Yesterday's bloke was a poor version of type 1 who seemed to have had a bet on Swansea winning.
One thing's for certain: we always get shit refs!
:D
UTV!
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The Albion sending off will be transferred to the correct player. This shouldn't happen though because it shows me that the F.A. will back the referee instead of giving him a bollocking for screwing up. Our referee yesterday was behind the play all the time. It was also like he was asking for it to be a non contact sport with some of the stupid fouls, let the game flow for goodness sake!!
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The Albion sending off will be transferred to the correct player.
How can it be transferred to Dawson when Brown's mistaken Sunderland sending off wasn't transferred to O'Shea - they got away with it completely!
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The Albion sending off will be transferred to the correct player.
How can it be transferred to Dawson when Brown's mistaken Sunderland sending off wasn't transferred to O'Shea - they got away with it completely!
Because in the Brown/O'Shea situation, if the foul had been given against the correct player it would not have been a red card offence (well, at least that's what I read in the aftermath).
ie the player that committed the foul was not the last man.
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On the Witton train to New St the Swansea fans were gloating in very animated Welsh tones about the bias in their favour shown by the referee. The only time I ever went in the directors' box for a game at VP there were at least ten FA suits evaluating the officials. That is who the young, wet behind the ears refs are trying to impress. Look at me I am not being influenced by the crowd. Forget the fact that the crowd may be right, I am tough. No you are not you are showboating to get noticed.
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I should add that I can live with a ref who makes a gigantic ricket that costs us a game. That is spur of the moment instant decision making. That referee on Saturday showed sustained and unremitting bias to one team over another. That there was not a single incident which caused our defeat was more by luck than judgement on his part. Mistakes are inevitable, lack of fairness is not.
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I try not to get too bent out of shape about referees. Everyone can make an error. Although the ref Saturday was hopeless.
What really grinds my gears though is how some make no pretence of being impartial any more.
I won't turn this into another rugby v football debate but the contrast is astonishing. Regardless of how well known a player you may be, in rugby the ref will refer to you by your number at all times.
Very different from watching a fat flump like Dowd waddling about the pitch and calling out to "Stevie" and "Wazza".
It is that over familiarity that makes it hard for them to counter suggestions of players being refereed differently depending on how famous they are.
There should be a much greater sense of professional detachment.
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I try not to get too bent out of shape about referees. Everyone can make an error. Although the ref Saturday was hopeless.
What really grinds my gears though is how some make no pretence of being impartial any more.
I won't turn this into another rugby v football debate but the contrast is astonishing. Regardless of how well known a player you may be, in rugby the ref will refer to you by your number at all times.
Very different from watching a fat flump like Dowd waddling about the pitch and calling out to "Stevie" and "Wazza".
It is that over familiarity that makes it hard for them to counter suggestions of players being refereed differently depending on how famous they are.
There should be a much greater sense of professional detachment.
The refs should address the players by their numbers, and the players should address him as ref or referee.
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The other thing which rugby referees do is invariably refer to sides by their colours "blue put in" "white free kick" and so forth. However there are rugby referees who do play the big mates game albeit collectively by addressing players as "you guys" and "sorry fellas". Barnes is particularly precious.
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I try not to get too bent out of shape about referees. Everyone can make an error. Although the ref Saturday was hopeless.
What really grinds my gears though is how some make no pretence of being impartial any more.
I won't turn this into another rugby v football debate but the contrast is astonishing. Regardless of how well known a player you may be, in rugby the ref will refer to you by your number at all times.
Very different from watching a fat flump like Dowd waddling about the pitch and calling out to "Stevie" and "Wazza".
It is that over familiarity that makes it hard for them to counter suggestions of players being refereed differently depending on how famous they are.
There should be a much greater sense of professional detachment.
The refs should address the players by their numbers, and the players should address him as ref or referee.
I'll never forgive Halsey for that Thierry Henry free kick, when he all but stood in the wall to help him.
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The other thing which rugby referees do is invariably refer to sides by their colours "blue put in" "white free kick" and so forth. However there are rugby referees who do play the big mates game albeit collectively by addressing players as "you guys" and "sorry fellas". Barnes is particularly precious.
The ref who yellow-carded an England played on Saturday sent him from the pitch with words along the lines of "Sorry James, off you go"
It was the first rugby I've watched in years, so have no idea if that's indicative of it as a whole though.
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The other thing which rugby referees do is invariably refer to sides by their colours "blue put in" "white free kick" and so forth. However there are rugby referees who do play the big mates game albeit collectively by addressing players as "you guys" and "sorry fellas". Barnes is particularly precious.
The ref who yellow-carded an England played on Saturday sent him from the pitch with words along the lines of "Sorry James, off you go"
It was the first rugby I've watched in years, so have no idea if that's indicative of it as a whole though.
"See you in the showers for drinking our own piss and a game of soggy biscuit, eh what."
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Funny thing Riss, as I contemplated what I had written about giving a ref the benefit of the doubt over a monumental ricket and thought I should have added "except Mark Halsey aiding and abetting Thierry Henry". That was a ricket too far.
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The other thing which rugby referees do is invariably refer to sides by their colours "blue put in" "white free kick" and so forth. However there are rugby referees who do play the big mates game albeit collectively by addressing players as "you guys" and "sorry fellas". Barnes is particularly precious.
The ref who yellow-carded an England played on Saturday sent him from the pitch with words along the lines of "Sorry James, off you go"
It was the first rugby I've watched in years, so have no idea if that's indicative of it as a whole though.
Nigel Owens was on 5 Live last night talking about video technology / refs microphones and how they could be used in football. I thought he was excellent - spoke with common sense and intelligence (much more than Claridge, Savage et al) and very pointedly said that rugby has no basis whatsoever to take the moral high ground v football (rugby has more natural breaks in play so video technology is easier to implement, rugby is more complex than football so microphones important in explaining decisions to the crowd etc ...). The former footballers were very much against mikes, which I found strange.
I did hear him refer to Chris Robshaw by name on Saturday though - "go away Christopher" which was far funnier than it sounds.
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The other thing which rugby referees do is invariably refer to sides by their colours "blue put in" "white free kick" and so forth. However there are rugby referees who do play the big mates game albeit collectively by addressing players as "you guys" and "sorry fellas". Barnes is particularly precious.
The ref who yellow-carded an England played on Saturday sent him from the pitch with words along the lines of "Sorry James, off you go"
It was the first rugby I've watched in years, so have no idea if that's indicative of it as a whole though.
Nigel Owens was on 5 Live last night talking about video technology / refs microphones and how they could be used in football. I thought he was excellent - spoke with common sense and intelligence (much more than Claridge, Savage et al) and very pointedly said that rugby has no basis whatsoever to take the moral high ground v football (rugby has more natural breaks in play so video technology is easier to implement, rugby is more complex than football so microphones important in explaining decisions to the crowd etc ...). The former footballers were very much against mikes, which I found strange.
I did hear him refer to Chris Robshaw by name on Saturday though - "go away Christopher" which was far funnier than it sounds.
if we can lip read pretty much what half a dozen Man U players surrounding a ref and bellowing into his ear about the injustice of an incorrectly awarded throw in I think miked up refs might not be such a good idea. Or, might be an excellent idea.
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The other thing which rugby referees do is invariably refer to sides by their colours "blue put in" "white free kick" and so forth. However there are rugby referees who do play the big mates game albeit collectively by addressing players as "you guys" and "sorry fellas". Barnes is particularly precious.
The ref who yellow-carded an England played on Saturday sent him from the pitch with words along the lines of "Sorry James, off you go"
It was the first rugby I've watched in years, so have no idea if that's indicative of it as a whole though.
Nigel Owens was on 5 Live last night talking about video technology / refs microphones and how they could be used in football. I thought he was excellent - spoke with common sense and intelligence (much more than Claridge, Savage et al) and very pointedly said that rugby has no basis whatsoever to take the moral high ground v football (rugby has more natural breaks in play so video technology is easier to implement, rugby is more complex than football so microphones important in explaining decisions to the crowd etc ...). The former footballers were very much against mikes, which I found strange.
I did hear him refer to Chris Robshaw by name on Saturday though - "go away Christopher" which was far funnier than it sounds.
if we can lip read pretty much what half a dozen Man U players surrounding a ref and bellowing into his ear about the injustice of an incorrectly awarded throw in I think miked up refs might not be such a good idea. Or, might be an excellent idea.
remember when David Elleray was mic'd up for a first division game ( Millwall v Arsenal - I think) without the players' knowledge. I hate the big-headed former Harrow schoolmaster but he was getting dogs' abuse from the players. Adams was shouting " you fackin cheat" at him at one point. So bad it was quite funny
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Robshaw wants to be careful Stuart Lancaster does not say "go away Christopher". His captaincy skills are not in the Bill Beaumont/Martin Johnson class.
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Ref's are there to keep the game going and not be the centre of attention, some seem to forget this
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Some one mentioned it earlier about throw ins, this is something that really gets my goat and always has done. You press a team back into the corner, they get a throw and they are advancing half the length of their half before they take it. Now with the spray why not give one to the assistant, he marks where he believes the ball went out and that's where it is taken from, simple solution to a annoying issue in my view.
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There are some good ideas on this thread. Far too sensible for the authorities though.
Who'd want to be referee these days? Every decision is scrutinised, dissected, and slowed down and sometimes people still argue about them. It's not a great position to have.
I agree about the lack of respect shown and the way some of them buddy up to the players but in the other hand, it's better to have dialogue and explanations.
Every team feels the ref is shit and against them, it's just that it happens to be true with us.
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The other thing which rugby referees do is invariably refer to sides by their colours "blue put in" "white free kick" and so forth. However there are rugby referees who do play the big mates game albeit collectively by addressing players as "you guys" and "sorry fellas". Barnes is particularly precious.
The ref who yellow-carded an England played on Saturday sent him from the pitch with words along the lines of "Sorry James, off you go"
It was the first rugby I've watched in years, so have no idea if that's indicative of it as a whole though.
Nigel Owens was on 5 Live last night talking about video technology / refs microphones and how they could be used in football. I thought he was excellent - spoke with common sense and intelligence (much more than Claridge, Savage et al) and very pointedly said that rugby has no basis whatsoever to take the moral high ground v football (rugby has more natural breaks in play so video technology is easier to implement, rugby is more complex than football so microphones important in explaining decisions to the crowd etc ...). The former footballers were very much against mikes, which I found strange.
I did hear him refer to Chris Robshaw by name on Saturday though - "go away Christopher" which was far funnier than it sounds.
if we can lip read pretty much what half a dozen Man U players surrounding a ref and bellowing into his ear about the injustice of an incorrectly awarded throw in I think miked up refs might not be such a good idea. Or, might be an excellent idea.
remember when David Elleray was mic'd up for a first division game ( Millwall v Arsenal - I think) without the players' knowledge. I hate the big-headed former Harrow schoolmaster but he was getting dogs' abuse from the players. Adams was shouting " you fackin cheat" at him at one point. So bad it was quite funny
Just found it out - made me laugh how he speaks to them as if they've just been caught skipping lessons or something..
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It's not only the UK that referees are crap. The one in El Clasico was also terrible with what he let Real particularly get away with.