How referees are watched
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes – Who will guard the guards. Ancient Roman Juvenal asked the question and he was not even thinking about rugby referees, but it is a question often asked in a rugby context – who is going to referee the referees?
You will hear people saying they are a law unto themselves. It’s time referees were accountable. Players get dropped but referees don’t. Caches lose their jobs but the same referees are there time after time.
The referees in question are mostly the top referees – the ones who appear on television, men at the top of their professions. Who keeps an eye on them?
1. Referees do not just pitch up haphazardly. They came through an exacting process of evaluation and testing. They have at their disposal lots of assistance – trained referee coaches, fitness trainers and people to look after their wellbeing. When they get to the top they are already skilled men and to stay at the top they will continue to hone their skills.
2. The top referees are carefully scrutinised in match after match – more than any of the people on the playing field in a match. There is at least one man who watches everything a referee does and listens to everything he says.
3. There are written reports after each match:
a. There is a comprehensive report on the referee’s performance, called a performance report or match review.
To see the form used for the performance report, CLICK HERE. This is the IRB-devised form in general use, not just in one country.
b. The managers of each of the teams sends in a written report.
c. The referee’s coach sends in a written report.
d. The referee himself sends in a written report of his match.
e. There is a DVD available to all involved of each match.
f. In addition to all of these there are structures to enable a coach to make direct contact with a referee.
4. For the top referee these reports and a DVD of each match are sent to the referee selectors of each national body and to the International Rugby Board for the use of those who choose referees for panels and who appoint referees to top matches.
The reports in a, b and c are sent to the referee. In the case of a. he is entitled to appeal against anything in the report that he does not agree with. The report is then audited. There are also random audits of reports. That means that those who guard the guards are also guarded.
It is an elaborate system of reporting.
We have now discussed what the referee watches and how the referees are watched. We shall also talk about what happens next when a referee has been watched.
