Nigel Owens' 'contructive criticism' for Six Nations referees
Former international referee Nigel Owens has told William Hill that the scrums in the Six Nations have not been the best, and although this is a player problem, better accuracy and stronger decision-making from referees is needed to help deal with the issue heading into this weekend’s final round of fixtures.
“The scrum is an area of the game that needs to be refereed stronger,” said Owens. “But in all fairness to the referees, it’s an area of the game that the players need to do better at as well. It only becomes a refereeing problem when they don’t deal with the issues. It’s a piece of constructive criticism as I think the overall level of refereeing in the Six Nations has been very good, the referees can be happy with their performances overall. But that would be my constructive criticism – accuracy and actual decision-making in scrums needs to be improved.
“It hasn’t been refereed strong enough and is taking too much time to set up especially after a reset. We haven’t seen any game where the scrum has been an important area of attack or shown clear dominance by a team. We saw that with England against Ireland, although I thought a couple of those decisions should have gone Ireland’s way. I think refereeing of the scrum needs to be worked on, but players need to bring a better attitude to it as well.”
England saw Charlie Ewels sent off in just the second minute following a head-to-head collision during their defeat against Ireland last week. Owens is adamant it was the right call and says players must improve their tackling technique to avoid similar incidents of dangerous play in the future.
“It was 100 per cent the correct decision,” Owens said. “There are some questioning it – I’ve seen some comments from some clowns on social media saying, ‘if you don’t like contact sport go and play tiddlywinks’. This is player safety, this is a player’s livelihood, his health, and ability to live a full and healthy life. And people are making tackles like this and getting them wrong. There’s no malicious intent in it, he’s not a dirty player and didn’t do that to harm the player. But you have to lower your tackle and get a better technique as you know what the consequences are.
“Most of the discussions around it have been that red cards spoil the game. You need to forget this. What you should be saying is, ‘this is a nailed-on red card, players really need to be changing their behaviour’.
“I think as coaches and players, if you knew you were going to be playing a game for 79 minutes with 14 men, you’re going to want to get this message across to your players much more to not to let this happen. Whereas if you knew you were only going to be playing 20 minutes with 14 men, because for the next 60 minutes you know you’ll be back up to the full 15 (if they introduced the 20-minute red card), then maybe you won’t be pressing that message home as much.
“Referees need to stand strong, and like they did on Saturday, they need to deal with this type of action, and players need to improve their behaviour. The red card didn’t spoil the game, this was a great game of rugby. You could argue, would it have been such a great game without the red card? Would England have upped their intensity like they did with 15 men? Nobody knows.”
Heading into the final round of Six Nations fixtures this weekend, Owens believes England will need to rattle France early doors if they are to prevent them from securing the Grand Slam in Paris.
“If England can go to Paris and get amongst them, silence the crowd, take the lead, will France be able to cope with the pressure on that hugely talented but young, inexperienced side?” he said. “That is where England can go to Paris and can beat them, but they’ll need to play for 80 minutes like that. What we’ve seen with England not being able to do at the moment, is not being able to score the tries, so they’ll need to get a couple of tries on the board to get the points to beat France.
“When you look at Six Nations history, when a team wins a Grand Slam, there’s always one game where they just scraped through and that was France’s on Friday night against Wales. On Saturday I don’t think that will happen again, but England can rattle them. And if they do, that will be the way to beat the French. But it will be a very different French side in Paris.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Except for the injured Zach Gallagher this would be Saders best forward pack for the season. Blackadder needs to stay at 7, for all of Christies tackling he is not dominant and offers very little else. McNicholfullback is maybe a good option, Fihaki not really upto it, there was a reason Burke played there last year. Maybe Havilli to 2nd five McLeod to wing. Need a strong winger on 1 side to compliment Reece
1 Go to commentsTo me TJ is clearly the best 9 in the competition right now but he's also a proven player off the bench, there's few playmaking players who can come off the bench as calm and settled as he is, Beauden can, TJ can and I doubt any of the scrumhalves in contention can, if they want to experiment with new 9s I want him on the bench ready to step in if they crumble under the pressure. The Boks put their best front row on the bench, I'd like to see us take a similar approach, the Hurricanes have been doing similar things with players like Kirifi.
33 Go to commentsROG has better chance to win a WC if he starts training and make himself eligible as a player. He won’t make the Ireland squad but I reckon he may get close with Namibia (needs to improve his Afrikaans) or Portugal. Both sides had 1000:1 odds to win the RWC in 2023 which is an improvement on ROG’s odds of winning a RWC as a coach. Unlike Top 14 teams, national teams can’t go shopping and buy the best players - you work with the available talent pool and turn them into world beaters.
2 Go to commentsthat backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
33 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
49 Go to commentsNot too bad. Questions at 6, lock and HB for me. The ABs will be a lot stronger once Jordan and Roigard return. Also, work needs to be made to secure Frizzell back for next season and maybe also Mo’unga; they’re just wasting time playing in japan
33 Go to commentsOn the title, i wonder for many of those people it is a case something like a belief in working smarter, not harder?
1 Go to commentsForget Sotutu. One of those whose top level is Super Rugby. Id take a punt on Wallace Sititi Finau ahead of Glass body Blackadder.
33 Go to commentsI’m a pensioner so I've been around a bit. My opinion of SBW is he is an elite athlete and a great New Zealander and roll model. He has been to the top and knows what he's talking about. To all the negative comments regarding SBW the typical New Zealand way, cut that tall poppy down.
17 Go to commentsI'm not listening to a guy moralise over others when this is the guy who walked out mid season on Canterbury RLFC when he had a contract with them, what a hypocrite. Those praising him are a joke.
17 Go to commentsI’d put Finau at 6 instead of Blackadder but that’s the only change I’d make. Can’t wait to see who Razor picks.
33 Go to commentsTamati Williams, Codie Taylor, and Same Cane? Not sure about Hoskins Sotutu at test level. Wasn’t that impressive last season. Need a balance between experience and talent/youth.
33 Go to commentsInteresting insight. Fantastic athlete, and a genuine human being.
17 Go to commentsThey played at night in Suva last weekend and it’s an afternoon game forecast for 19 degrees in Canberra this weekend. Heat change is a non issue.
1 Go to commentsWishing Rosie a speedy recovery
1 Go to commentsObscene that SA haven’t been knocking
1 Go to commentsChances of Blackadder being injured seem too high to give him serious consideration. ABs loosie combination finally looked good with 2 committed to tackling and clearing rucks in the centre and Ardie roaming. Hoskins/Ardie together would force one of them into where they don’t excel and don’t get to use their talent, or require a change in tactics. If we continue to evolve last years systems I would take Papali’i and Finau at 6 and 7 (conceding that Blackadder will be injured) and Ardie at 8.
33 Go to commentsArdie’s preferred position 7? Where do they get these writers from? I've no idea where he's playing in Japan, but the previous two seasons he wore the 7 jersey exactly twice.
17 Go to commentsNot good to hear Ulster described as “financially troubled”. Did not think it was getting to that level. I would hope the Irish system of spreading players of talent away from Leinster would kick in now. Better to have a Leinster fringe player with Ulster or Connacht, then getting only a few games a season in Dublin. 10, for example, would seem to be a case for spreading the talent. I would not be at all adverse to a SA man coming in as head coach/DR. Ludeke is worth trying. Certainly got a long and impressive coaching career at this level…..149 games in SR, then Japan, 30 years experience. And Ulster’s ledger of successful SA coaches and players is on the positive side. Is talk of Ruan Pienaar interested in coming back as a coach…..could be a good combination with Ludeke. And Pienaar and family would have no settling in to do, one would judge. He loved life in Ulster when there, by all reports.
1 Go to commentsSome thoughts to consider here, Sam. Thanks
2 Go to comments