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'I have my philosophies': Referee Ben O'Keeffe reveals how he previews games
By Ned Lester
International referee Ben O'Keeffe made a guest appearance on the Aotearoa Rugby Pod this week to tackle some of the big talking points around refereeing decisions and their impact on the game.
Panelist and ex-Blues Hooker James Parsons talked about his days as captain of North harbour and how he and the teams' analyst would prepare for the specific referee they had for their next game, looking at "where does he penalise, what is he penalised for, ok he's really high around defensive penalties".
He asked O'Keeffe if he also analyses his own penalty statistics.
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There is nothing particularly significant about Ireland in this regard compared to other Tier 1 nations. To look at 'strategy' for illegal play its best to see what teams push boundaries with new laws. SA have milked two tries at ruck block downs. The strategy is to charge the first few before the ball is out at about 4 seconds but pull out and put up hands in reigned apology. The referees usually allow the scum half to clear without awarding a penalty in this scenario. The problem with that being that the scrumhalf is now taking over 5 seconds through no fault of his own. Having achieved a few slow balls > 5s , the SA forward can now pick a scrum to charge dead on 5s. Now if the scrum half waits, he will concede a penalty, as we saw against Scotland. With the new rule in place, any early charge should result in an immediate penalty.
SA also got an offside block against England which was pivotal again after a couple of 'apologetic' offside aborted charges forcing England to clear slowly.
Go to commentsYep, you're not the sharpest tool in the shed are you?
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