Referee JP Doyle reportedly made redundant by cost-cutting RFU
Quarantined Wayne Barnes hasn’t been the only high profile referee absent from duty for the opening two restart rounds of the Gallagher Premiership – JP Doyle has also been nowhere to be seen.
However, while Barnes has been marked absent due to UK government guidelines insisting that people who fly in from Spain must self-isolate for 14 days (Barnes flew out on holiday earlier this month when there were no UK quarantine restrictions regarding Spain), it has been reported that Doyle’s absence from the officiating roster for rounds 14 and 15 of the league is down to redundancy.
The UK Times are reporting that the 41-year-old Irishman, who has been refereeing in the Premiership since 2006 and been a full-time RFU employee since 2010, has been let go after the latest tranche of financial cuts at English rugby HQ affected the referees’ department.
Amid claims that the RFU face losses of up to £107million and that 139 jobs across the organisation must go, the 10-strong full-time panel of referees were told their jobs were also on the line.
Doyle was reportedly told last week that he was being made redundant and his name hasn’t featured for any of the duties in the restart Premiership games.
One hundred and seven million pounds.https://t.co/sFpD4X2kIC
— JK (@KJoanne28) August 20, 2020
It was last June when the Dubliner entertainingly guested on The Lockdown, the RugbyPass pandemic interview series. Having refereed Premiership finals, Six Nations games and at the 2015 World Cup, he revealed how much the demands on fitness has increased during his time working as a full-time official.
“The game is now so quick,” he said. “When I started in the Premiership in 2009, I guess I covered about four-and-a-half kilometres in a game. Now there are games where I have broken the 10km barrier. I’ve only done that one or two times but you can cover 10kms in a game. The stoppages are now longer in a game but the ball in play is higher so you get less plays in a game.
“Maybe there used to be 150 plays in a game but now people knock it on less, there is better continuity, so maybe there are 80 plays in a game but the ball in play has gone up. So you can easily have five or six 20, 30 phase (plays) in a game.
“The way players move nowadays, they do a lot of dropping back, stay in pods, stay in position. They actually don’t run that much more than they used to. But if you move the ball across the pitch like at Gloucester or even an England – look at how much England use the kick pass, for example – you have to cover that distance so it might be just running across the pitch, not up and down it, but you can cover very big distances.”
"We have all be watching the old games and the scrum has been changed and it doesn’t really seem to be better"
– Dai Young outlines concerns to @chrisjonespress about union's troubled scrum following Premiership no and slow ball frustrations ???https://t.co/p6p7Em7oPt
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 19, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
Interesting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
2 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
2 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
2 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
37 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
2 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
1 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
5 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
33 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to comments