URC ref tsar Tappe Henning: 'The first thing to say is that referees are accountable'

The BKT URC’s Head of Match Officials Tappe Henning has outlined in detail the accountability process which operates in the competition and new plans to provide fans with explanations of big decisions.

Former international referee Henning was speaking in the wake of the sanction handed to Connacht Rugby wing Mack Hansen for his comments on the officiating of the league game against Leinster in Dublin just before Christmas.

Ireland star Hansen received a six-week ban – three of which were suspended – after an independent disciplinary panel upheld a charge of misconduct against him.

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Now Henning has sought to clarify precisely how things work in the league.

“The first thing to say is that referees are accountable,” declared the South African.

“They are accountable for their performances to the BKT URC.

“Every referee is reviewed during a match by a reviewer who makes notes of decisions that may not be accurate or decisions which were not made.

“After the game, on the Monday, the referee will join up with the reviewer and discuss the various incidents to get clarity around those decisions.

“It’s a process designed to make them accountable to BKT URC and to identify flaws in their refereeing so we can assist them in terms of how can we correct those errors, how can we help and support them with advice about how they can do things differently to get a better outcome during the match.

“It’s an evidence-based system, with a 15-second video clip of every incident we talk about.

“If a referee has performed to a level of acceptability, they will continue with appointments.

“If they have shown they have difficulty to perform at this level, with two or three performances where they did not meet the expectations of what is an acceptable or good and they have underperformed, there will be a period of remedial work.

“They will do some local games within their Union and once their confidence and understanding of the areas they need to improve is visible, they will be given opportunity later in the competition.”

Broadening his comments, Henning said: “It takes a special person to be a referee. It is a difficult task.

“You will have a thicker skin than an elephant.

“You need to be diplomatic under very difficult circumstances when you are challenged live during the game.

“It’s a process to get to that level.

“We identify talented referees and put them into our development panel. We then introduce them to a suitable match, which we carefully select, to show if they are capable of dealing with a game at that level.

“It takes us five to seven years of BKT URC exposure to build a referee to get them to Tier One. They will probably referee nine to ten games per season, which means their experience level reaches around 50 games and the more experienced they are the better they referee.

“As time goes on, we give our refs exposure to more difficult games to build them up to get them to a level.”

Outlining the make-up of the BKT URC officiating panel, Henning said:

“We have three levels of referee.

“We have our elite group of eight who have done 40 to 50 games in our competition and have been delivering consistently acceptable to good or very good performances over a period of five years.

“Then we have a middle group with 15-40 games. They will be in their second or third year in the BKT URC. We carefully introduce them to more challenging games to build them up until they are good enough to take charge of any game at any time.

“We also have a development group of referees who benefit from exchange programmes with other Unions to take them out of their comfort zone to see how they deal with different cultures and environments.

“We are pretty comfortable where we are at with our development pathway and programme.”

The BKT URC selection panel which carries out the review process and picks officials for games is made up of four former international referees – Wales’ Nigel Owens, South Africa’s Stuart Berry, Ireland’s George Clancy and Scotland’s Neil Paterson.

“That is the current four, along with myself,” said Henning.

“We have eight games each round, so we review 56 officials every weekend.

“Out of those, maybe six or seven are full time officials. The rest are people that have day jobs and are giving up their free time.

“I am talking about assistant referees, TMOs, time keepers, technical zone people. They are all volunteers that we need to train and upskill after hours in their family time that they give up.”

Speaking at a BKT URC media round table, Henning added: “As match officials, we see ourselves as team number 17 in this tournament.

“We want to be part of the success of the competition and the sides that play in it.

“Our philosophy is to be part of the success of every scrum, every lineout, every try and play our role for the success of that game and this tournament.”

As for what happens when referees come under fire, he said: “All Unions have good structures and systems in place to support our match officials when they go through very difficult times.

“When there is a lot of comment and criticism on social media, it takes its toll.

“From a BKT URC perspective, we will do everything in our powers to support our match officials under difficult circumstances.”

Explaining the feedback system currently in place, he said: “After a game, teams can send in clips about incidents and ask questions about clarity of decisions. We answer them back.

“We also have the opportunity for teams to engage with me before games in saying they are concerned about tendencies in the game, how do we deal with certain issues.

“The teams are good with that process. They provide us with the clips and ask their questions around decisions, and we reply to them.

“As it stands, there’s not a chance (for officials) to go to the media directly after the game. We will get things wrong at times and we will put up our hands to our teams if we do, but we need to protect our referees from being exposed to unfair questions about decisions before they have been verified for accuracy.

“We understand the frustration that goes with that, but we address it as soon as we can.”

Looking ahead, he said: “We are working on a platform on our website where questions can be posted to referees and we hope to introduce that in round 11.

“The fans and media, anyone, can ask questions about decisions in the game. They can ask questions about the law, about the referee, and we will have a duty ref that will reply to those questions on a weekly basis.

“If possible and where applicable we also put footage on that page as it grows to illustrate and answer questions about laws.

“We’re quite excited about that, for fans to directly engage with our match officials.

“There is a need to sign off on the big moments and the talking points of a game. We are looking to facilitate that. I am keen to explore that with the BKT URC where we can clarify decisions of the referee and the process that he undertook, where we can hold our hands up and say what we got wrong or indeed also clarify that the referee was correct. I would like it if that could happen.”