Month one done...

Just like that we’re into October, and the weather to suit.

I should start with an apology – an earlier post may have given the impression of a slight annoyance with the public school players I have refereed. For balance, a game last week, one sided that it was, was absolutely charming in that the players (boys) were very close to being a model of good behaviour and good sportsmanship. I’ll never hear another word against public school rugby ever again.

It turns out now, that I am actually grateful for the school games, as I have managed the first month of the season with just a single adult game. I should have had four adult games but 3 of them were cancelled and all 3 were cancelled on the Friday afternoon or evening.

All for the same reason and that is one of the two sides on each occasion failed to raise a team, all of them third teams. Coincidentally the game I did have this week was cancelled earlier in the week and then reinstated. In the event one team brought just 14 players, were completely out matched by their oppo and finished the game with just 11 players – all injuries - and a little help from their opponents.

This is all extremely frustrating for us refs. More though, it is very worrying for anyone with a love of the game, as almost every club I speak to I find there are similar issues with playing numbers. Two clubs in my area have disbanded this season, and one level 5 club has gone from 4 sides on a Saturday to just 2.

Of course there a myriad of reasons behind these struggles but I cannot help but think that there seems to be some disconnect between the RFU and the grass-roots game. By grass-roots, I am referring not just to my level of games but right up to the National Leagues, as I am aware of some issues there too.

I’ll leave any commentary around the Championship and the obvious and well-publicised challenges they have to one side for now.

I have heard many people bemoan the DLV (Domestic Law Variations) which of course is short-hand for the new tackle height laws. Many that I have spoken to tell me that players have just stopped playing because they don’t like it. My own experience is that I have spoken to nobody who has taken this action and quite honestly, nobody that knows anyone who has, apart from “what they have heard”. Make of that what you will.

What I will note though, with one month of both refereeing and spectating done (from Level 4 to Level 10) is that I am seeing a lot less “old style” high tackles. In fact in game I have officiated, there has been just one.

I have also seen refs largely ignoring the new DLV and playing as if nothing was different from last season. I understand how this may be easier, particularly at the lower levels, but it is not easier when you are the ref for the following weeks game, and they all bemoan the lack of coinsistency.

So on Saturday just gone I had no game and was lucky enough to watch a very entertaining level 4 game. It was a very physical game, and there was not a single penalty in the first half for a DLV-style high tackle. There was a penalty for a swinging arm to the neck, in which advantage was played, and very quickly lost, but that’s really another matter.

The second half was rather different. There had been some boisterous comment from the side lines as to the tackle heights being allowed and it is quite possible that the team of three plus the advisor had a tête-à-tête at half time, and re-adjusted their thinking.

Now this may appear to have been a good thing, but the consequence of this was that the coaching staff and subs, and hangers on (of which there are many at level 4!) started to become very agitated, as their tackles, legal in the first half were now being sanctioned.

This was one issue, but having eaves dropped on discussion between some spectators and

several of the more excitable subs and coach, there was a stated belief that ‘below the

sternum’ meant below the top of the sternum.

I had never considered this before, but they pointed out that the sternum went up to the bottom of the neck – or the top of the rib cage, and anything under here was ok. Which would explain the first half tackles.

This is Level 4 rugby. National 2. What hope the rest of us if this is happening here.