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'I feel it does slow down the game': Super Rugby Aotearoa star hits out at captain's referral law

By Sam Smith
(Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)

Crusaders halfback Bryn Hall has called into question the new captain’s referral law adaptation that has been implemented in Super Rugby Aotearoa this season.

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The captain’s referral, one of two new law innovations introduced to the New Zealand version of Super Rugby this year, allows team captains to challenge the referee’s decisions on certain plays at various stages throughout the match.

Throughout the first 75 minutes of each match, a captain can use their referral regarding a decision, or non-decision, relating to an infringement in the build-up to a try or foul play. In the final five minutes of a match, the challenge can be activated for any decision.

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Teams are given one captain’s referral, and if their challenge is successful, they keep that referral and can use it again later in the match, but if their challenge is unsuccessful, their referral is lost for the remainder of the match.

The new innovation has been used with mixed results throughout the season, but Hall has spoken out about the impact the captain’s referral system has on the pace of the game due to the additional stoppages it brings with it.

“I feel it does slow down the game a little bit, I reckon,” the 29-year-old said to ex-Blues hooker James Parsons about how Chiefs co-captain has used the captain’s referral system effectively this season while speaking on the Aotearoa Rugby Pod.

“The referrals are great, but there’s just so many things that happen, and fair play, they’re [Weber’s] great calls, but there’s so many things that are penalised [that you’d say], ‘Oh, that’s probably happened three or four times in the last 20 minutes’.

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“It’s kind of just slowing down the game. [Crusaders captain] Scott Barrett brought up a pretty good point around there of there’s enough [stoppages] in games.”

When asked by Aotearoa Rugby Pod host Ross Karl whether he would get rid of the captain’s referral system entirely, Hall said he was undecided on the matter as he sees some benefits of the system.

However, the Maori All Blacks representative wondered if teams should be allowed to have more than one captain’s referral throughout the match.

“It’s tough,” he said. “I’m 50/50 on it, because they actually are penalties. I don’t know, just a change around how many times you can use it, maybe?”

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While he didn’t share Hall’s scepticism around the law innovation, Karl said it was “weird” that a captain’s referral can only be activated for specific instances for the majority of the match but can then used for anything at the latter stages of the game.

“I don’t understand why it’s a different rule at the end of the game to what it is in the whole game,” he said.

“I think that creates a weird system. You have to have the same rules for an entire rugby game, not different rules for the end of it. That makes no sense to me.

“If something happens in the first minute, why is it any different to anything that happens in the 79th minute?”

There have been no indications as of yet as to whether the captain’s referral system will remain in place when the new professional competition involving the 10 New Zealand and Australian Super Rugby teams, Moana Pasifika and the Fijian Drua kicks off next year.

Hall and the Crusaders, meanwhile, will enjoy a bye this week before they host the Chiefs in the Super Rugby Aotearoa final at Orangetheory Stadium in Christchurch next Saturday.

Listen to the latest episode of the Aotearoa Rugby Pod:

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Jon 7 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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Adrian 12 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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