VIDEO: Revealed - how law changes complicated referees' lives

The United Rugby Championship will enter its fourth season when the tournament gets underway this coming weekend.

Like the mid-year internationals and the Rugby Championship, it will also implement some of the most high-profile law changes introduced by World Rugby in July – like the infamous Dupont Law (offside in front of a kicker), eliminating the crocodile roll and removing the scrum option when a freekick is awarded.

The Irish Rugby Football Union High-Performance Referee Andrew Brace, however, felt the complex laws around set pieces caused him more of a headache than the World Rugby changes that came into effect.

Speaking about the ‘grey area’ around the ruck and the contest at the breakdown, the 36-year-old said the infamous ‘croc roll’ clean-out is an area of focus for match officials in the new URC season.

He spoke of the ‘small window of opportunity’ for a legal clean-out, which means late arrivals often revert to foul play.

“We have to be strong on safety there,” he told a pre-URC Round Table media briefing.

“You see more holding on penalties because of the World Rugby initiated law changes.

“It is maybe favouring the defensive side more,” he said, adding that it is not necessary to contribute to a more free-flowing spectacle.

South Africa’s Tappe Henning, Head of Match Officials for the URC, said they aim to ‘strike a good balance’ so that they do not referee the ‘contest’ out of the breakdown.

“We must allow the contest, because that is the essence of Rugby [Union] that makes it different from other sports – like Rugby League and Gridiron [American Football] where you can’t contest the ball.

“We will have errors, but we attempt to strike a good balance.”

(@king365ed sat in as Test referee Andrew Brace and URC Head of Match Officials Tappe Henning explained how recent law changes impacted the game….)

However, the biggest and most complex challenge for match officials is the set pieces.

Brace, who came under fire from the All Black camp when he refereed South Africa’s 31-27 Rugby Championship win over New Zealand last month, explained to @king365ed that set piece laws are extremely ‘complex’ to referee.

“In the line-out maul, there is just so much to look at,” Brace told @rugby365com, adding: “You can’t referee that by yourself.

“You need a strong team around you.

“You need a clear understanding with your team.

“The majority of the time I stand at the back of the line-out, so I referee the back and the AR [assistant referee] will ref the front.

“You don’t want four eyes looking at something and you miss something at the back.”

He added that the key for him is to get the set-up right, to make the ‘contest’ easier to referee.

“A couple of weeks back I was not strong on the set-up and that caused problems for me in the contest.

“If you don’t get the mark [set-up] right, then you blow the whistle and start overmanaging that area.

“The same applies to the scrum.

“It is much easier to referee post-set-up.

“It is so complex. Most of us [referees] never played in a scrum.”

He said he goes to the Irish provinces’ training sessions – Munster’ Leinster, Ulster and Connacht, even the Ireland national team.

The specialist coaches at those teams help him understand the scrums and line-out mauls.

“I had to go back to the start and get a scrum coach,” he said, adding: “Stevie Scott is very good with us at the URC.

“He has helped us what ‘pictures’ to look at, at the scrum and line-out maul.

“He helped us better understand [what is happening].

“I have been working with [Ireland scrum coach] John Fogarty and Jerry Flannery [current Springbok defence coach] when he was with Munster.

“I work with Paul O’Connell [Ireland forwards coach] a lot, because it is just so complex.

“You need a full team around you to be accurate in that area.”

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