Rugby Players’ Association meeting with referee administrator to combat diving

[Every Time Ref]

Full article in the Telegraph here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ru...h-referee-administrator-to-combat-diving.html

Presumably this only covers English domestic rugby, all the same it's a good precedent. For me the word "urgent" in the ***le is key - we've seen in football what happens if you don't tackle it early, it has now become something which is too entrenched to change, or at least to change easily. I like that rugby seems to be keen to nip it in the bud as soon as possible.

I am also very impressed that this seems to be coming from the players themselves, and the acknowledgement that it is both their problem and their responsibility to change it:

“We are trying to be proactive,†Day said. “We want to say to him, the *players want to speak to the referees, we want to know what is going on, we want to know how you are going to change how you are going to referee the game and we want to have a discussion about it.â€

Day conceded that there was also an onus on players to stamp out play-acting via peer-group pressure. “In the majority of the cases I would say it is policed by the players but with the game becoming more and more professional, players will always look for that little edge.

“What we don’t what in one of these big European games next weekend is a player to go down clutching his face, and a player to be sent off only for the replay to show he was play-acting. That’s when rugby’s reputation goes out the window. It certainly wasn’t something that was happening when I started playing.â€

In my opinion, yellow cards (backed up by video refereeing as much as possible) is the way to go, combined with retrospective punishment. I feel it's very important that players who do manage to con a ref on the pitch should still be punished.

Thoughts?

 

[ratsapprentice]

Yellow cards and bans - very long ones if they do it twice.

2-4 weeks for first time offenders, depending on severity.

6+ months for a second offense.

 

[psychic duck]

The citing commission ought to be citing players like Huget after the match for a 1 week ban. They have been hard on trying to stamp out unsportsmanlike behaviour to refs such as Dylan Hartley and Elliot Daly swearing at them, should be similar line of action for play acting antics as well.

 

[smartcooky]

In my opinion, yellow cards (backed up by video refereeing as much as possible) is the way to go, combined with retrospective punishment. I feel it's very important that players who do manage to con a ref on the pitch should still be punished.

Thoughts?

Yellow cards and bans - very long ones if they do it twice.

2-4 weeks for first time offenders, depending on severity.

6+ months for a second offense.

There is a technical problem with this. The Regulations currently do not allow a player to be suspended if the offence is only deemed to be a yellow card offence. Only red card offences can attract suspensions. When a citing commissioner cites a player who has been yellow carded, what he is effectively saying is that, in his opinion, the referee got it wrong, and the player should have been red carded. The judiciary then decides if the citing commissioner is right or wrong.

So, either players who take a dive must be red-carded under law 10.4 (m)

[TEXTAREA]Law 10.4 (m) Acts contrary to good sportsmanship. A player must not do anything that is against the spirit of good sportsmanship in the playing enclosure.
Sanction: Penalty kick[/TEXTAREA]

and then punished under Regulation 17 Appendix A

or WR is going to have to change the regulations to allow players who commit offences under 10.4 (m) to only be yellow carded and still suspended. Currently, if a player is yellow carded then subsequently cited and found guilty, then depending in the circumstances. that can go down as an error on the referee's record for not red carding him in the first place.

Perhaps WR can follow up on the white card system used in the SH a few years back, where a player could be yellow carded and placed "on report" to be dealt with by the judiciary.

Personally, if I saw a player do that in a game I was refereeing then, provided I was 100% sure that he took a dive, I would have red carded him, and been prepared to justify that at the judiciary hearing afterwards. IMO, bringing the game into disrepute is a RC offence (who remembers the Ashton/Tulilagi hairpulling incident - Ashton got 4 weeks)

NOTE: In the Appendix 1 chart above, some observant readers might have noticed the bottom entry about "hair pulling" That entry was not in Regulation 17 at the time Ashton was charged; it was added in 2013 as a result. Ashton was charged under 10.4 (m) "Any other acts (not previously referred to) which are contrary to good sportsmanship"