Refs miked up to the stadium PA.

[Prestwick]

In amongst all the ultra-low-speed police chases on the M4 in Wales and Irish chavs causing GBH on unsuspecting French midgets in Paris we missed that 40,000 popped into Wembley for some Club rugby on the weekend but sadly one feature asked for by apparently both Saracens and Worcester was denied to them: NFL style ref miked up to the stadium PA system to help casual fans know what was going on.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunio...s-Saracens.html

Apparently the idea was vetoed by the RFU on the request of Sky who said that the echo from the stadium PA would interrupt their ref mic for their TV viewers.

It does open an interesting idea: should refs openly explain to the crowd what their decision was and for what reasons? Why should we shell out £5 for a ref mic?

Of course, we shouldn't leave it on for the entire game but adopt the same system as the Americans have. The NFL refs have an "on/off" switch for their mics and they switch it on when they want to announce their decision.

Obviously, if Ireland are collapsing the scrum twenty times on their own line as they were last weekend, saying "errr...the fat guys in green fell over, again." might get a little boring and if you are reffing a game between France and England in Paris, what language do you use? This question is even more pertinent when you ref, say, Italy vs Georgia or France vs Argentina. Is it Italian or Georgian or English? Is it French, Spanish or English?

I still think its a great idea though.

 

[Bullitt]

Can never work if Paul O'Connell is playing. Unless the crowd are all over 18 and aren't easily offended by a big mouthed thug shouting profanities at sir over the tannoy for the full 80 minutes.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Prestwick @ Feb 16 2010, 04:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

if you are reffing a game between France and England in Paris, what language do you use?[/b]

Esperanto. Give that useless language some reason to exist.

The miking up of refs is inevitable long term. Rugby is just as confusing as American Football and having a ref explain a decision can make things easier for those who pay into the ground.

 

[Prestwick]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (snoopy snoopy dog dog @ Feb 16 2010, 04:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Prestwick @ Feb 16 2010, 04:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

if you are reffing a game between France and England in Paris, what language do you use?[/b]

Esperanto. Give that useless language some reason to exist.
[/b][/quote]

:lol: genius.

 

[RC]

I always know what the referees decisions are by looking at their hand gestures.
If the deaf can get by watching a rugby match, i'm sure the rest of us can cope without having some irishman with a french name yelling down his mic all the time.

 

[toup]

Could we also wire them up to a 'Who wants to be a millionaire'-style voting system? Why use the TMO when you could just "ask the audience"...

 

[Prestwick]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (RC @ Feb 16 2010, 04:47 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

I always know what the referees decisions are by looking at their hand gestures.
If the deaf can get by watching a rugby match, i'm sure the rest of us can cope without having some irishman with a french name yelling down his mic all the time.[/b]

Right I call BS on that right away because half the time these days the Ref forgets to show what he's penalising for, then remembers and frantically waves his arms about for a moment while he's spending five minutes coaching Steve Borthwick on how to pass properly. EDIT: In other cases, you could be looking away or chatting with a mate for a moment and miss what he was waving about. The guy switching on his mic and saying "ball knocked on, scrum, England put in" would solve all of those problems.

If the Navy can do without visual semaphore then so can we.

You ask any casual fan what most of the hand signals are and they'll look blankly at you and say "....hand signals?"

As I said, total BS. This is one of the reasons why Rugby struggles for new fans compared to football in places like the USA and the Far East because theres a load of fat gits in clubhouses from Cork all the way to Cambridge saying "well its perfectly okay for me so its okay for everyone else."

If they had their way we'd all still be standing on wooden un-covered terrraces drinking out of date Tetleys bitter watching a mud bath and marvelling at how skilled the guy rucking the eyeballs out of a guy on the floor is.

 

[iWin]

I like the NFL system. I've never watched a live game, but it doesn't seem to interrupt broadcast sound.
Switching on/off would mean that the ref can get on with the little bits of the game, but still let everyone know what the penalty was for etc.

 

[tommybear]

I enjoy listening to the ref. I spend most of my time at matches shouting, "I told you there were hands in the ruck...oh, he was offside..." everytime there's a penalty.