Revamp of the Video Ref

By Daniel Andruczyk

So I was thinking about the latest referee controversies and how things may be solved. So I have one possible idea, and am curious to see what people think and if they can find any holes in it. But first some round ups of results from around the world, where of course the Challenge Cup takes pride of place.

Challenge Cup

Last weekend saw the final of the Challenge Cup played between Warrington and Leeds. In front of over 85,000 Rugby League fans the “Wire” ran out 30-6 victors over the Rhinos and managed to defend their title. The question is no asked can Warrington win the double and how will Leeds bounce back after the defeat?

National Rugby League

Though after 25 rounds the top 8 is almost sealed in the NRL, the 8th spot is still up for grabs between 3 teams as is a place in the top 4. Penrith, Gold Coast, Sydney City and the Warriors are still after a spot in the 4 while Canberra, Brisbane and South Sydney are fighting for the crucial 8th spot. Round 25 results were New Zealand 36-4 Brisbane, Souths 24-16 Parramatta, Cronulla upset the Gold Coast 30-16, St George/Illawarra confirmed their Minor Premiership with a 26-18 win over Newcastle, Canberra beat North Queensland 48-8, Wests beat Melbourne 26-14, Sydney city beat Manly 30-14 and Penrith beat Canterbury 24-18. The table after 25 rounds looks:

Be-mobile Cup

In Papua New Guinea, round 16 was completed with Port Moresby 24-18 beating Mt Hagen, Mendi 7-6 Kundiawa, Capital City beating Enga 28-18, Goroka beat Lae 38-10 and the Gurias had a bye. The Table by my calculations (remember I don’t have results for all rounds as yet) is:

Japan

The last game, and effectively the final was played in the Japanese competition between the Tokyo XIII Warriors and the Japan ANZAC’s. The latter won the match 22-18 to take out what was all up a very competitive series. Word is that next year there will be a couple more teams joining them which are purely Rugby League teams.

New Zealand

In New Zealand the Auckland championships had their Grand Final with Mount Albert losing to Otahuh 18-24. Also the first games of the Provincial championships were played with Wellington beating Waicoa Bay 22-8, South Island beating Heartland 26-6 and Northern had the Bye. The Auckland v Counties Manuka match is to be played on the 8th of September. The table currently is:

Norway

Some news form Norway. A new Rugby League Club has been established in Tromso, the Tromso Polar Bears. This is a town right up in the north of the country and now boasts to be the Northern most Rugby League club in the world. You can follow them on facebook at this link http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=150401294979780&ref=ts .

Jamaican Tour and Floodlit 9s

This month the Jamaicans had a two week tour of the UK, with an International against the GB Community Lions and then the Flood lit 9’s All up it was a successful tour, being competitive against the Lions losing 50-22 and also having a win during the Carnegie Floodlit 9s tournament against Hull FC.

Wigan won the annual Carnegie Floodlit 9s tournament to secure their second major piece of silverware this year. Results for the CF9s are:

Pool A – Wigan 12-6 Jamaica, Wigan 16-14 Hull FC, Jamaica 22-12 Hull FC – Wigan(4), Jamaica (2), Hull FC (0)

Pool B – Warrington 22-0 Halifax, Warrington 22-4 St Helens, Halifax 12-16 St helens – Warrington(4), St Helens (2), Halifax (0)

Pool C – Castleford 28-4 Scotland, Scotland 4-12 Bradford, Castleford 4-20 Bradford – Bradford (4), Castleford (2), Scotland (0)

Pool D – Leeds 28-10 Wales, Wales 8-14 Wakefield, Leeds 12018 Wakefield – Wakefield (4), Leeds (2), Wales (0)

Semi Finals – Wigan 16-12 Warrington, Bradford 26-22 Wakefield

Final – Wigan 20-16 Bradford

Other International news

The Australian and New Zealand defence forces stationed in East Timor had a Rugby League match to raise money for local organisations. Over $1800 was raised in what is hoped to be an annual match. The Kiwis were narrow winners against their fellow ANZACs 24-20.

Also it has been confirmed that the last European Shield East matches between the Ukraine and Latvia will be played on the 18th of September in Kiev, Ukraine.

Video Referee

So recently in the NRL and ESL there has been referee and video referee controversy. I think its pretty obvious that the standard of refereeing has to improve particularly with the technology. How a “try” like Mark Gasniers a couple of weeks ago can be awarded is beyond me. But there has also been criticism, for a while now, that A. The referees are going too often to the Video ref when there is no need, and B. the video referee is taking too long to make a decision when even blind Freddy could see what it is. So it got me thinking, having the video ref is a good thing, when it works it works spectacularly. But should we introduce a rule like in tennis, where a defending team has the ability to call upon the referee rather than the referee on the ground?

OK, so how would this work? I propose each team, as a defending team has three chances to go to a video referee through the game if they feel a try should not be allowed. If they are correct, they retain the use of that video option, if not then they lose it going down to two and so on if they have poor judgement. They have this in tennis where players can challenge a decision twice per set and if they get it right retain the use of the challenge, cricket also has something similar in Twenty20 I think.

But the normal referee, however, would not be allowed to go to the video referee. If a video referee cant make a decision then he would go to ‘Ref’s Call’ and depending on his decision if yay or ney then the team would retain or lose their turn. This would hopefully force the referees on the ground not to get lazy and be willing to make the tough calls, any mistakes early on may get shown up but I think in the long run it should improve the standard of refereeing. Remember that if both teams use up their calls early on then for the rest of the game its all up to the normal referee to make decision.

Second, how about bringing in a time limit for the video referee in the NRL, like the ESL has. In the ESL the video referee has only 2 minutes to make a decision. Why don’t we bring that into the NRL so that we don’t waste so much time. If after the 2 minutes a decision isn’t made, then it automatically goes back to the ‘Refs Call’ on the ground.

So I am interested to see what people think of this proposal, or if you have any other ones.

Daniel Andruczyk’s email: daniel@rugbyleagueinternationalscores.com