Sinckler-Dickson incident was three refereeing conundrums rolled into one
As every PE teacher knows, refereeing your own team is the job from hell. If they perform well and win, in the eyes of their opponents (and especially their one-eyed touchline ‘experts’) the whistler is a sixteenth player.
Since most of us are intuitively honest, this fear tends to promote inverse behaviour with every 50-50 decision going against the referee’s own team, who in turn come to dread him being in charge.
For a bloke who is ensuring 30 lads get a game it is the definition of a ‘no-win’ situation – damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Premiership referee and former Harlequins scrum-half Karl Dickson had a taste of this experience on Saturday – and to his credit dealt with it very well.
While taking charge of the top flight’s most significant game of the season to date, when champions Exeter and their main rivals Bristol put our full-strength sides at Sandy Park, Dickson came eyeball-to-eyeball with his former Stoop teammate Kyle Sinkler.
The Lions tight head, who is seemingly never short of an opinion, was picked up by the pitch microphone to harangue Dickson with: “are you f****** serious” when their view of a ‘no-arms’ tackle failed to converge.
Really poor form by Kyle Sinckler screaming “Are you Fu**ing serious” at referee Karl Dickson. They are ex teammates but it should have been a yellow card. We berate footballers for similar so we don’t want this in rugby and should respect the ref! pic.twitter.com/m4zWaIwIGV
— Andy Goode (@AndyGoode10) January 9, 2021
A TMO intervention subsequently proved Sinckler correct, but nonetheless he got a stern ticking off from Dickson, and was fortunate that his outburst did not cause the penalty to be reversed or earn him a yellow card. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in wondering how they got on as teammates and whether they spoke about it afterwards…
As Dickson’s refereeing progresses the need to manage contemporaries (and thus avoid the PE teacher moment) will become a thing of the past, since his time with the whistle will outlast their playing careers. Who knows, in time he may even take charge of a Harlequins game – or is that a step too far?
His familiarity with the current crop of Premiership talent also brought another talking point through his consistent use of players’ Christian names.
This seems something of a cause celebre for a number of our sport’s top pundits who believe it overly familiar and representative of someone with a cringeworthy desperation to be the players’ mate.
Of course, the quickest way to get someone’s attention is to use their name. Hence “Ben… stay onside” is more effective than “stay onside.”
In addition, when under pressure and looking directly at a player’s face, a name often comes one thought process quicker than a number. ‘That’s Ben Earl, I need to warn him to stay onside, now is he wearing six or seven?’ The moment is gone and the game stops for a penalty.
That said, unless the referee is confident all 46 players are identifiable by name this is an approach fraught with danger especially when language and cultural barriers intervene. Both sides must both receive and be seen to receive equal treatment from the referee – so if you don’t know (say) all 23 Italian players then Owen Farrell has to be ‘white 10.’
The rapid promotion to IRB refereeing status of former top-flight players such as Dickson seems on one level to make plenty of sense, and is something cricket – with fewer physical demands – has done for years.
After all, big game temperament is already proven as is game understanding which greatly assists with positioning.
Learning the laws is the simplest part of being a referee; knowing how to apply them and how to manage 46 highly competitive athletes all seeking to gain a tiny edge by whatever means available is a much bigger challenge.
'We all heard that Kyle Sinckler' ?#BRIvsEXEhttps://t.co/dyvVBD9vHi
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 9, 2021
Management can be taught, but does not come naturally to everyone. This is where match officials who reach the top via a traditional time-served route – perhaps arriving in the Premiership with several hundred games under their belt – have an advantage over very recent former players.
Since rugby has gone professional, mobility and running fitness is also high on any aspiring top flight referee’s skills list. It is no co-incidence that most of the sport’s top officials are former backs – or ‘career referees’ who began in their teens with the physique of a middle-distance runner.
Since scrum halves routinely top most clubs’ bleep testing charts while frontrowers lag several levels behind, this seems to place another big tick in Dickson’s career advancement box, but there are two sides to this coin.
As he blew penalty after penalty then issued a pair of yellow cards to uncompliant Bristol and Exeter front rowers, it would have been interesting to see how former Gloucester prop Nick Wood, now also a referee, but presumably one whose fitness test results reflect his former status as piano shifter rather than a pianist, would have handled the same situation.
Comments on RugbyPass
Thanks for the write up. Great to see the Rebs winning, I am a little interested in how they will go against the remaining kiwi teams, I think they’ve only played Hurricanes and Highlanders but how great to see these players performing!! I also see Parling has a job beyond June 30! A good move by RA? Also how do you fix the Rebels previously scratchy defence?
81 Go to commentsbe smart - go black
13 Go to commentsNext week the Crusaders hopefully have Scott Barrett back. Will be great to have the captain back. Hopefully he will be the All Black captain as well.
12 Go to commentsExciting place to be for the young fella. I expected he was French Polynesian when I saw him included in the France 6N squad (after seeing him in NZs), and therefor be strong grounds we might loose him to rugby down here. Good, in that he is good enough to warrant such a profile, and from a journalism’s fan interaction aspect, to finally get a back ground story on the fella. Hope he has settled into NZ OK and that at least one rugby country will fit with him to help his development, which, if so, he should surely continue for a few years, and then that he can experience France to it’s fullest with a bit more maturity and less reliance on family than you would have at his current age. A good 3 or 4 years before he would be ready for International duty if he wanted to wait. Of course he already sounds good enough to accept a call up, and to cap himself, in the more immediate future (he’d have to be very very good in the case of the ABs), and he’ll get a great taste of that being with the Canes who have a bunch who are just a few years further into their career and looking likely Internationals themselves.
13 Go to commentsI remember towards the end of the original broadcasting deal for Super rugby with Newscorp that there was talk about the competition expanding to improve negotiations for more money - more content, more cash. Professional rugby was still in its infancy then and I held an opposing view that if Super rugby was a truly valuable competition then it should attract more broadcasters to bid for the rights, thereby increasing the value without needing to add more teams and games. Unfortunately since the game turned professional, the tension between club, talent and country has only grown further. I would argue we’re already at a point in time where the present is the future. The only international competitions that matter are 6N, RC and RWC. The inter-hemisphere tours are only developmental for those competitions. The games that increasingly matter more to fans, sponsors and broadcasters are between the clubs. Particularly for European fans, there are multiple competitions to follow your teams fortunes every week. SA is not Europe but competes in a single continental competition, so the travel component will always be an impediment. It was worse in the bloated days of Super rugby when teams traversed between four continents - Africa, America, Asia and Australia. The percentage of players who represent their country is less than 5% of the professional player base, so the sense of sacrifice isn’t as strong a motivation for the rest who are more focused on playing professional rugby and earning as much from their body as they can. Rugby like cricket created the conundrum it’s constantly fighting a losing battle with.
3 Go to commentsOh wow… “But as La Rochelle proved in winning in Cape Town this season, a cross-continental away assignment need not spell the end of days.” La Rochelle actually proved quite the opposite. After traveling to Cape town and back they (back-to-back and current champs) got mercilessly thumped the next week. If travel is not the reason, why else would a full-strength powerhouse like La Rochelle get dumped on their @r$e$ one week later?
26 Go to commentsYou know he can land a winning conversion after the full time siren is up. (Even if it takes two attempts.)
5 Go to commentsA very insightful article from Jake. I would love to know how South African’s feel about their move to Europe. Do you prefer playing in Europe or want to go back to Super Rugby?
3 Go to commentspure fire
1 Go to commentsA very well thought out summary of all the relevant complications…agree with your ”refer the Cricket Test versus 20/20 comparison”. More also definitely doesn't necessarily mean better!
3 Go to commentsMust be something when you are only 19 y.o and both NZ and France want you. Btw he wasn’t the only new caledonian in french U20 as Robin Couly also lived in Noumea until 17. Hope he’s successful wherever he chooses to play.
13 Go to comments“Several key players in the Stade Rochelais squad are in their thirties” South Africans are going to hate the implications of that comment!
5 Go to commentsI know Leinster did a job on La Roche but shortly after HT Leinster were 30-13 ahead of them and at a similar time Toulouse were trailing Exeter. At 60 mins Leinster were 27 ahead but after 67 mins Toulouse were only 19 ahead before Exeter collapsed. That’s heavier scoring by Leinster against the Champions. I think people are looking at Toulouses total a little too much. I also think Northhampton are in with a real chance, albeit I’d put Leinster as favourites. If Leinster make the final I expect them to win by more than ten and with control.
5 Go to commentsHey Nick, your match analysis is decent but the top and tail not so much, a bit more random. For a start there’s a seismic difference in regenerating any club side over a test team. EJ pretty much had to urinate with the appendage he’d been given at test level whereas club success is impacted hugely by the budget. Look no further than Boudjellal’s Toulon project for a perfect example. The set ups at La Rochelle and Leinster are like chalk and cheese and you are correct that Leinster are ahead. Leinster are not just slightly ahead though, they are light years ahead on their plans, with the next gen champions cup team already blooded, seasoned and developing at speed from their time manning the fort in the URC while the cream play CC and tests. They have engineered a strong talent conveyor belt into their system, supported by private money funnelled into a couple of Leinster private schools. The really smart move from Leinster and the IRFU however is maximising the Irish Revenue tax breaks (tax relief on the best 10 years earnings refunded at retirement) to help keep all of their stars in Ireland and happy, while simultaneously funding marquee players consistently. And of course Barrett is the latest example. But in no way is he a “replacement for Henshaw”, he’s only there for one season!!! As for Rob Baxter, the best advice you can give him is to start lobbying Parliament and HMRC for a similar state subsidy, but don’t hold your breath… One thing Cullen has been very smart with is his coaching team. Very quickly he realised his need to supplement his skills, there was talk of him exiting after his first couple of years but he was extremely shrewd bringing in Lancaster and now Nienaber. That has worked superbly and added a layer that really has made a tangible difference. Apart from that you were bang on the money… 😉😂
5 Go to commentsNot sure exactly what went wrong for him at Glasgow but it’s pretty clear he ain’t Franco’s cup of tea. Suspect he would have been better served heading out of Scotland around the same time as Finn, Hoggy and Jonny!
1 Go to commentsBulls disrespected the Northampton supporters and the competition. Decide quickly, fully in or out.
26 Go to commentsI wonder if Parling was ever on England’s radar as a coach? Obviously Borthwick is a great lineout coach, but I do worry he might be taking on too much as both head coach and forwards coach.
1 Go to commentsJason Jenkins has one cap. When Etzebeth was his age he had over 80 caps. Experience matters. He will never amount to what Etzebeth has because he hasn’t been developed as an international player.
2 Go to commentsSays much about the player picking this gig over the easier and bigger rewards offered to him in Japan. Also says a lot about the state sanctioned tax benefits the Irish Revenue offers pro rugby players, with their ten highest earning years subject to an additional 40% tax relief and paid as a lump sum, in cash, at retirement. Certainly helps Leinster line up the financial ducks in a row to fund marquee signings like this!!! No other union anywhere in world rugby benefits from this kind of lucrative financial sponsorship from their government…
5 Go to commentsTrue Jordie could earn a lot more in Japan. But by choosing Leinster he’ll be playing with 1 of the best clubs in the world and can win a champions cup and URC…..
6 Go to comments