14/15 - sympathy/antipathy
Waratah concerns
All referees are used to prematch efforts at garnering sympathy for one side or the other. Mostly they listen without yawning.
One tactic is the thank-heavens-it's-you one.
You arrive before the match and there is the coach with a big smile. His conversation goes something like this.
"Boy, are we glad to see you. You should have seen some of the palookas we've had this year. I told my boys that this week they don't have to worry. We know we'll get a square deal.
"All we ask is consistency. Some of these other fellows are just not consistent. I'm not saying they cheat, but they are just not consistent. But my boys tell me that you really are consistent. They know exactly where they stand with you.
"We're not asking for favours – just consistency. What's good for them is good for us too, and vice versa."
Virtue is a good one, too.
"You won't have any trouble with my boys. They know the laws of the game. We pride ourselves on that, and I don't allow any talking on the field. Only the captain talks.
"Is it OK if he asks you anything if he doesn't understand – just him?
"Good. You'll get on well with him. There really won't be any problems from my boys."
That leads to vice as well – the other side's vices.
"I can't guarantee what that other lot will be like. Last time we played them we have seven boys crocked. Three of the boys had to have stitches afterwards. It was a war zone out there.
"I watched them play the other day. Boy, but they kill the ball – diving over and over. And the referees let them, get away with it – the other referees, that is.
"And watch their tighthead. He doesn't bind properly – bores in and pulls down and pushes up.
"And they've got that flank everyone rates as a great fetcher. He's a great fetcher all right – because he's off-side all the time. All the time. He steals metres at scrums by breaking off early and then he goes in from line-outs.
"And he's always off his feet."
Hard luck stories are also used.
"Hell, we've been having a terrible time lately. We started the season brilliantly then the flyhalf snapped his Achilles – playing squash of all things. Not even a rugby injury. And he'd been so promising. Then last week out best lock had his nose broken when he got stamped on.
"Both wings have hamstring problems. They're with the physio now. I just hope they can play.
"The fullback has concussion. He actually wanted to play but I'm doing everything by the book. I'm not taking a chance – not with concussion.
"You're not going to believe what happened to the scrumhalf. He was on his way to church last Sunday morning – early in the morning, when a drunk coming home from a party crashed into him. His knees are stuffed. I don't know when he'll play again. Maybe never. Anyway he's here today. Good team man.
"The captain's wife has upped and left him, taken their baby daughter with her. Says he's got to make a choice between her and rugby. It's not easy for young blokes nowadays the way women have all the say."
Stressing the importance could put pressure on the human being down to referee the match.
"It's just not a game any more. It's much, much more than that. Careers are on the line here. Jobs are on the line. My job's on the line."
Then there is the Waratah tactic – turning statistics into pressure.
"You know – not that it means anything – but we've never won a game with you as the referee. I know it's just a matter of coincidence but it does become a bit of a bogey. The boys haven't a problem with you really and I'm sure once we break the duck the whole thing will vanish."
The Waratahs had Jonathan Kaplan for their semi-final match against the Hurricanes – a top referee, spoken of as one of the top two in the world. They produced the statistic that he had refereed them 15 times and they had won only once. They had all sorts of stats to go with it – what their general average was in Super matches, something over 50% and what their average was with Kaplan – something over 6%. And there were other stats to go with it.
After they had lost the semi-final, the stats were trotted out again. Nobody went so far as to say that Kaplan cheated/robbed them but one wondered at the purpose of the echoing statistics.
The Bulls had a different approach. Their stat with Stuart Dickinson is exactly the same, according to the Bulls but inaccurately if the truth be known,- one win in 15 matches. (In fact the Bulls, who have not been one of the big winners in Super rugby, won four ouit of 12 with Dickinson as referee, though one should not spoil a story with facts!) Beforehand they said they had no problem with Dickinson and in fact welcomed his refereeing, and afterwards they left the stat at Jade Stadium where they were well beaten.
The referee does in fact not win matches or cost people matches. Players win or lose matches. If Kaplan and Dickinson were responsible for losing that string of matches they must be superhuman. In particular there was the 96-19 match between the Crusaders and the Waratahs. It would have taken a refereeing miracle to produce such a score.
But all that aside. Perhaps we should just recall the words of Tom Canterbury, the USA basketball player: "The trouble with referees is that they just don't care which side wins."
One wonders what the expectations are from all the sympathy and statistics – that the referee will produce a victory? – because everybody else at the game – the players, coaches, selectors, spectators – all want a team to win. It must seem to them odd that a referee would not care which side wins, however rarely, or loses, however frequently.
By Paul Dobson
