YEAR FINISHES ON HIGH NOTE TO WHET OUR APPETITES FOR 2015

David Matthews hopes we will be celebrating in the coming year

Sale v Leicester was the last live game of 2014 which I had the pleasure of watching, a real cracker to bring hope for 2015. A record crowd of over 11,000 attended, the largest since Sale departed from their Stockport headquarters to the new AJBell Stadium. It afforded a sharp contrast with the venue chosen two weeks before on my ‘Presidential Tour,’ Eagle (Warrington) where it was possible to count all 17 spectators, including the substitutes, along the touchline and this was a ‘top of the table clash’ against Pendle! Poles apart, but still a game of rugby union, we were well received and I wonder what the aspirations right across the board are for the next twelve months.

As BT’s Rugby Tonight rounded it all up for the first half of the season in their last offering for the year, some time was devoted to the three recent sending offs for the use of the elbow. It was felt that the precedent set, quite correctly, for the Dylan Hartley incident in the Northampton v Leicester game guaranteed that the two players involved in the Boxing Day match between London Irish and London Welsh who together ‘exchanged elbows’ in an off the ball squabble, had no chance of avoiding red. The summing up was that any elbow contact with the face was bound to result in automatic dismissal and that perhaps we should have more sympathy for the referee in sorting all this out. In both cases the TMO, admittedly a luxury granted only to the elite sections of our game, was heavily involved and as it happened the gentleman who ‘persuaded’ the referee to have another look at the Hartley issue also featured in the big game at Twickenham between Harlequins and Northampton when he clarified that what could have easily been interpreted as a dangerous ‘tip’ tackle was in fact not malicious at all.

Meanwhile, away from the television cameras, it is business as usual. Whilst I still believe that the problems of the scrummage seem to have been written off at the highest levels, there are nothing like the same difficulties in the lower leagues. The pundits have suggested all kinds of ideas but might it not be that the players in the majority of games outside the top flight listen and take note? No amount of technology, looking at it from different angles or really madcap ideas put forward from some quarters can provide the solution to the collapse. The crooked put in remains a different matter altogether.

The breakdown is also still shrouded in mystery. Without a direct link to the referee, as in Ref Link at the Internationals, it’s anyone’s guess why the whistle has been blown. In order to avoid reaching a penalty count close to thirty the referee has to appreciate what the players are trying to do. Those high sounding words, taken from the ELRA Referee Training courses, MATERIALITY and CONTEXTUAL JUDGEMENT are more relevant than ever. In spectator parlance, “did that offence have any effect on the game?” If it didn’t, acknowledge it, inform the player(s) involved and get on with it – the most important message for 2015.

As we look forward to World Cup year, allow me to indulge myself with a happy little thought from 2014. You may remember that a piece appeared in several newspapers almost two years ago revealing that England Coach Stuart Lancaster played several games for Scotland Students. An accompanying photograph showed him in the team to play Italy in Ayr, with yours truly the referee; this has naturally found its way into my scrapbook and I have been looking for the opportunity to add his autograph. It arose at the dinner following the England v Australia game in November and I was delighted that he immediately knew who I was, vividly recalling the occasion. I was already one of his supporters but he has risen even higher in my esteem since this little meeting; after all we are talking about a game that took place twenty three years ago. If he can put it together with the England team to taste World Cup success then we really will have fulfilled a “hope for 2015.”