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'Has to be done': The refereeing change Nigel Owens wants to see
By Liam Heagney
Centurion Test referee Nigel Owens has elaborated on his midweek social media post where he claimed he was glad he was retired. The ex-Welsh official had taken umbrage over the disciplinary hearing decision to rescind the red card brandished last weekend to Bristol’s Josh Caulfield for an Invested Champions Cup rucking incident against Connacht’s Finlay Bealham.
Commenting on the decision reached by the committee consisting of Paul Thomas (Wales, chair), Marcello D’Orey (Portugal) and Stefan Terblanche (South Africa), Owens wrote: “How can they say this is foul play but not a red card?
“If it’s not foul play and complete accident then play on. If it’s reckless and foul play then it has to be RC. For what it’s worth, it’s a RC for me as it’s not a natural action of rucking and reckless. Glad I retired.”
Owens has now revisited his remarks, using his weekly weekend walesonline.co.uk column to double down on his thoughts regarding the overturned Caulfield red card.
He also criticised the yellow card given to Exeter’s Dafydd Jenkins in his team’s loss at Bayonne, stating: “Honestly, I’m not sure what he could have done any different… I just can't see how this one reaches the foul play threshold, let alone a yellow card.”
Given his level of puzzlement in trying to understand these two major talking points from last weekend and his general confusion with officiating over the last while, Owens has now called on the authorities to streamline its process so that more consistent decisions can be reached.
“You have got to look at the whole process, not just refereeing sanctions, which are mostly correct, but the judiciary and citing process that follows,” he claimed in his online column. “At the moment, it’s spoiling the game because people just don’t know what decisions are going to be given.
“The issue I believe is that there are simply too many people involved in these decisions… You have the referees, assistant referees, TMO, referee coach, referee performance reviewer and referee manager, while you have several other people involved in the judiciary process too.
“For me, particularly at the professional end of the game, it all needs to be streamlined. Of course, it shouldn’t be the case that there becomes a dictatorship making these decisions, but that streamlining needs to happen sooner rather than later for consistency reasons.
“More people involved means more inconsistency – and it’s that inconsistency that’s spoiling our game. Something has to be done.”
- Click here to read the entire Nigel Owens walesonline.co.uk column
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Latest Comments
Some interesting stats that just proved what my first impression of NZ’s drive to speed up Rugby Union would amount to - fine margins here and there to cut a few seconds off the game and nothing else. To do more there would have to be wholesale changes to the game like doing away with scrums, lineouts and bringing back the ELV’s to have free kicks instead of penalties. Very little chance of it happening but, in the end, Ruby Union would be a 15-man version of Rugby League. There are reasons why Rugby Union is globally more popular that Rugby League and what NZ are also not considering is the unintended consequences of what they want to achieve. This will end up turning Rugby Union into a low value product that will not be acceptable to the paying public. If people really wanted a sped-up version of rugby, then why is Rugby Union globally way more popular than Rugby League? Rugby lovers all over the world are also not stupid and have seen through what NZ are trying to achieve here, selfishly to bring back their glory days of dominance over every other nation and compete with Rugby League that is dominant in Australasia. NH countries just don’t have the cattle, or the fantastic weather needed to play like NZ SR franchises do so good luck to whoever has to try and convince the NH to accept going back to the days of NZ dominance and agreeing to wreck the game in the process. I have serious doubts on the validity of the TV stats presented by GP. All they did was expand the broadcasting base by putting it on free to air, not even any indication of arresting the continued drop in viewership. Match day attendance goes hand in hand with broadcast ratings so if there was an increase in the one you should expect to see it with the other. However, the drop in match day attendance is very evident to the casual highlights package viewer. The only club who looks to be getting solid attendance is the Drua. I am calling it now that NZ’s quest to speed up the game will fail and so will the vote on the 20-minute red card.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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