“BACK ON THE HORSE” – THE ONLY WAY TO RECOVER FROM A SETBACK

David Matthews goes back in time to recall the best method of ‘ getting over it’  

“Referee Matthews had got himself into a cul-de-sac, driven there by intemperate players who had not paid the slightest heed to warnings, lectures and ultimately, the order to the captains, Andy Robinson and Dean Ryan, to calm their troops. . . . Who was to blame? The players of course – the principle aggressors being the forwards. And why did the violence continue? Because neither captain had total control of himself, yet alone his players.”

That was one of the more benevolent, yet in a way, fairly accurate reports on a winner takes all match which I refereed between Bath and Wasps in March 1993. You may remember it. In layman’s parlance you could say that I had a “stinker,” a word which some correspondents only just stopped short of using in their description of events at the Recreation Ground that afternoon. In the round of Premiership games played on the last Saturday in March this season, an incident in the Northampton v Wasps encounter, which was handled very differently by various reporters, revived the memories of that torrid affair. This time it was the decision to send off Wasps’ Nathan Hughes for “inadvertently kneeing” George North as the winger went over for an early try that caused the controversy. The referee was the young, aspiring and highly rated Craig Maxwell-Keys who will have gone through the whole range of emotions at the time and long after the game ended.

As there is so much rugby to be played between now and early June (the domestic season will have definitely finished by then!), there is a good chance of more debatable issues coming up, but this one certainly took a fair share of column inches. There were suggestions that it was too difficult an appointment for an inexperienced referee, that a very senior assistant should have been on the line, that the TMO advised another look at the incident in real time as the slow motion replay distorted what happened and that George North’s turning of his head towards Hughes’ knee was an unfortunate cause of the collision. Two imponderables that only the referee himself had to come to terms with were: how much was the sending off influenced by North lying prostrate on the ground, and just how influential was the Northampton crowd as they bayed for a red card?

Whenever a serious injury follows foul play (not proved to be intentional in this case, even though it was reckless) I am sure that, in the time that elapses, the referee’s thought process includes taking note of the severity of the injury. The crowd factor is another matter and Northampton and Leicester are two of the worst grounds in the Aviva Premiership for intimidating the referee. Franklyn Gardens and Welford Road might be wonderfully atmospheric venues at which to officiate but the crowds make no secret of their desire to pressurise the referee. In that respect I have considerable sympathy for Craig Maxwell-Keys; he would have found himself in a totally different situation from any previous top games. In exemplary ‘coach speak,’ Jim Mallinder and Dai Young had conflicting views on the incident, both striving to appear diplomatic but at the same time leaving no doubt where their allegiances lay.

The other post match inquests, which a referee has to endure following a contentious issue or turbulent game, are largely conducted in his own mind. Like the golfer who has to banish a nightmare double bogey from his psyche to bounce back, the referee may turn it all over repeatedly. Some will glibly tell you that they never read the newspaper reports; maybe, but I, almost obsessively, collected the whole lot over twenty years.

There is nothing like ‘getting back on the horse’ quickly after a setback and the infamous Bath v Wasps meeting twenty two years ago preceded an opportunity to referee the UAU Final between Bristol University and Loughborough at Twickenham just four days later. “All this [Two splendid student teams, sporting and mental attitudes right] went some way towards consigning rugby union’s unhappy, sordid image to the rubbish tip yesterday in a cracking UAU Final.” The report concluded, “Few were more relieved than referee David Matthews. Yesterday he got the respect he deserved.” The ups and downs of rugby, but you never stop learning; Craig Maxwell-Keys will be able to enter the Northampton v Wasps controversy in his portfolio.