CC Preparation Course
In preparation for the start of the Currie Cup on 6 August 2016, coaches and referees got together in Stellenbosch on Wednesday.
The most obvious aspect of the course was the good will and friendliness between coaches and referees – a desire to get things right and make this another great Currie Cup, despite attempts to water it down.
Present for the afternoon session was Alain Rolland, who in his playing day played scrumhalf for Ireland and then as a referee had a great career of 65 Tests, including three World Cups. In 2007 he refereed the World Cup Final in France. This year he became World Rugby's manager of referees in succession to Joël Jutge of France.
The meeting started, as such gatherings have done from time immemorial, with scrums. Balie Swart, Springbok prop and presently used by international bodies for teaching legal scrumming, ran the first part of the discussion, emphasising over and over the correct setting of the scrum for stability and the importance of scrumming within law. And within law referee reward a team that dominates, but it must be in law.
The coaches were dismayed that the bench was being limited to seven players in the Currie Cup whereas it had been eight in Super Rugby, Currie Cup qualifiers, Under-20 and Under-19 matches.
Each week Swart would talk to referees and coaches about the scrumming in their matches.
Then top referees Craig Joubert and Jaco Peyper led the discussion, using three important facets of play – quick ball at a tackle, scrum stability and space.
Under quick ball, they looked at the actions of the tackler and the tackle assist, the contest at the tackle and the player in a position of strength
In the matter of scrum stability, there was much discussion on 'fading on the hit' – a team tactic of going backwards in a scrum to encourage the referee to freekick or penalise their opponents.
Space was about offside and the help obtainable from assistant referees.
There was then discussion on the challenge in the air. For a fair challenge the players competing for the ball should have a realistic chance of catching the ball. Lifting their eyes to the ball was not enough to avoid a penalty if they upset an opponent jumping for the ball.
There was also discussion of the charge-down of a kick and the follow-through of the player charging the ball down into the kicker. The player charging the ball down has no right to play the kicker.
The maul inevitably attracted attention. The following points emerged:
a. The ripper must make contact to the player in possession of the ball (the jumper).
b. The ball must be moved back hand to hand. There must be no sliding backwards by the ripper or any other player behind him.
c. Arriving players must not join the maul ahead of the ball-carrier.
d. No player, of either side, is allowed to move up the maul by changing his binding, an action referred to as swimming or sliding.
In the matter of obstruction, two points were made:
a. whether the player who gets ahead of the ball-carrier had been in a position to take a pass;
b. who initiates the contact between attacker and defender.
There was discussion of the so-called grasscutter tackle – where a defender dived into a ball-carrier's lower legs with no attempt to grasp him.
There was also discussion on the contact between referees and teams. It was agreed that there was no need or benefit in the referee's visit to the changing rooms before matches.
It was made clear that the coaches' input was taken into account when it came to appointments and the composition of panels.
Just before lunch, Matthew Proudfoot, the assistant Springbok coach addressed the five South African referees who were leaving the next day for Brazil and the Olympic Games – Aimee Barrett, Ben Crouse, Craig Joubert, Rasta Rasivhenge and Marius van der Westhuizen. He emphasised the importance of the character of a referee in his decision-making, and then he presented them each with pennant and a tog bag.
He also made a presentation of a penalty to recognise each of the recent Tests refereed by Stuart Berry, Craig Joubert, Jaco Peyper, Rasta Rasivhenge, Marius van der Westhuizen and Jaco van Heerden.
The afternoon's discussion of the TMO's activities was led by Alain Rolland with the aid of video clips. In doing so much of the TMO process was clarified in relation to both the referee and the TMO himself
The discussion centred on try referrals to the TMO, foul play referrals and TMO interventions.
It was important for the TMO to get the broadcaster's assurance that all angles were shown. The last replay should be in real time.
For in-goal decisions of tries, the TMO would decide. For general play incidents and foul play the referee would decide.
those present at the course were the referees who will be refereeing the Currie Cup and coaches from Blue Bulls, Free State, Western Province, Eastern Province and Boland. Also there were the five referees going to Rio and the referees' support staff – Banks Yantolo, who is SARU's referee manager, Lettie Coetzee, who makes it all work, Eugene de Villiers and Deon van Blommestein.
