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**Ever since I qualified as a professional rugby referee over 20 years ago I have kept up with the rules each year just out of interest sake and staying in touch with the game.**






One would think in this day and age of professional sport there would be no confusion with regard to the rules of the sport you have chosen as a profession. We see this time and time again where sportsmen and women along with the officials do not know the rules like they should.

If you consider a professional rugby player earns between $75K and $150K per season and a referee earns around $160K per season you would like to imagine they know the rules. There are too many instances where we see players and officials second guessing and not 100% sure of what to do next. The problem I have as soon as you make it your career path then you need to be the best you can due to the payment you are receiving for that knowledge.

Over this last weekend I was dismayed and shocked with the players and officials in the Investec Cup match between the Stade Francais vs Stormers match. The referee was Luke Pearce who is regarded as a top official who has been involved at the highest level officiating World Cup matches.

Towards the end of the match two yellow cards were dished out to the French team and both were around scrummaging infringements resulting in two front row forwards being sent off. The French team did not have a tight head prop to replace the sent off player so it now become uncontested scrums. This basically means players are not allowed to push and whoever puts the ball into the scrum is guaranteed they will get it back.

The law clearly states once a team is forced into uncontested scrums they are penalized by losing one player if it is due to a yellow card. An injury is different and is not the same case and they can just replace the injured player with another player.

Stade Francais were down to 13 players and then should have lost another player due to the rules stipulating this yet the referee mentioned this and never counted the players on the field. The two touchline officials plus the television match official never picked this up and they should also take the blame. The players of the opposition being the Stormers should have refused to play until there was only 12 players left on the pitch, but they clearly did not know the rules either.

Luke Pearce discussed the rulings with his assistant officials yet they still botched this up. He was paid more than $2.5K for this match and is regarded as a top official of the sport. The consequences of this mistake could have been costly due to the team bowing out of the competition losing much needed earnings and this involves millions of dollars. There are no excuses and everyone involved in the sport should be ashamed as they need to do better.

The advantage a team gets from this ruling is so huge it is game changing and here is why. Even though the scrums are uncontested both the teams have to have 8 players involved which would leave the one team with 4 backline players versus the 7 of the opponents. Rugby is all about creating overlaps and open spaces and having 3 extra players in the back line should guarantee scoring opportunities every time.

The Stormers management should also take the blame for not stopping the game before it started after the sending's off which tells you they did not know the rulings either. Eventually the situation was rectified, but another 5 minutes had already been lost by then. The French team knew the rules because they took advantage of others being not sure and nearly saved the game which they eventually lost 20-24. The Stormers if they had been up to speed on the rulings should have won this game by 20 points or more.

How an official or the players who are involved earning a decent salary do not  now the rules is mind blowing. Surely each week during the video match assessment sessions which are normally done no Monday mornings they have an official to run through the previous match highlighting certain rulings explaining to the players why they were penalised. Maybe I am assuming too much here which is obviously the case and why the players will never learn the rules of the game like they should.

The details is what counts turning a professional sports team into a winning team leaving no stone unturned. We see this in football with the VAR and why there is confusion because the players are second guessing being not quite sure and why they act like they do. Professional sports still has a long way to go before they have a clear understanding of the game they play.

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