RWC 2015 - Day 3

Another exciting day of Rugby, and although the results were much more predictable than Saturday's, there are still some big implications for the rest of the tournament.

Match 6: Samoa v USA (25-16)
Samoa showed that they're going to be a competitor in this group.  Their direct and effective play will challenge both Japan and Scotland.  One highlight was a great right-to-left move at an attacking scrum that put Tim Nanai-Williams over in the corner, on the end of a grubber kick by Tusi Pisi. 

Match 7: Wales v Uruguay (54-9)

Wales won easily but at a big cost in terms of apparent injuries: Corey Allen is out of the squad with a torn hamstring, after scoring a hat-trick of tries.  Liam Williams, Samson Lee, Dan Lydiate, Aaron Jarvis and Paul James all had to leave the field. 

Well-managed match, which didn't become a penalty-fest in spite of the differences in skill levels between the sides.  Uruguay kept going until the end, great courage and spirit. 

Match 8: New Zealand v Argentina (26-16)

The crowd's booing of Richie McCaw aside, there was little to disappoint in this great clash between Southern Hemisphere sides.  Off the field - well, the service at the bars could have been a little better organised; how long can it take to take the tops off four plastic bottles of Heineken and exchange the result for a £20 note?  Someone told me afterwards that Murphy's stout was also available, but no other beers. 

Argentina played themselves to a standstill after leading for much of the game.  All Blacks' attack was very organised and patient.  They won't care that they didn't score a bonus point - all they need to do is win their matches, and no-one else in the group is likely to threaten that aim.

Wembley was brilliant, and the crowd was a record for a RWC pool match, almost 90,000.  England2015 and Transport for London were very well organised to help us get away in good time.  My own experience was this: we reached the back of the queue, 250 metres from the station at 18:55, and were on the (right) train at 19:17, at Waterloo and enjoying a beer (not Heineken) at 19:45.   

Let's stop the Hooker's Shuffle

As a grass-roots referee, I want to see a safe and fair contest at the set piece. The scrum gets lots of attention, but the line-out is also a place of skullduggery.

Some teams consistently win their own lines through good throws, great timing and well executed drills. Others feel the need to add some insurance that takes away all possibility of a contest. It's sometimes said that the side that can't win its own line-outs can't win the match, so this can affect the outcome of important games. 

Here’s how it can happen:

• a line-out is awarded to Red, at the mark made by the Assistant Referee
• the referee marks the 5m line: either the line of touch, or where the players should stand, or both
• the line-out players arrive and take up their positions; the Red hooker arrives, is handed the ball and a towel, dries the ball, listens to the call, confirms the call, discards the towel, and prepares to throw
• often the AR moves to a different viewpoint, and the referee moves to the back of the line-out
• Red hooker throws, ball won by Red

What's wrong with that? Blue didn't bother to compete, so why worry?
Simply, the hooker has been allowed to throw along a line (even if straight - who's checking?) that made it impossible for Blue to compete. Watch the hooker's feet after he receives the ball and first stands in the middle - each action includes a subtle shuffle, a boot-width, towards his own side. When he throws, it’s straight along his own players. There’s no contest: if Blue close the gap, that's a FK; if they cross the line of touch, offside (PK)

Sanctions
Normally line-out or scrum to Blue; however, if the referee judges the Red team to be standing on the line of touch (after all, their hooker is throwing along it!), FK for closing the gap.

There’s no fairness here: potential PK to Red versus Blue scrum (if offence is detected).

Solution - fix the line
Law 19.8(n) is specific – “Metre Gap: Each line of players must be half a metre on their side of the line of touch”. Nowhere does the Law allow the referee to say "Black, the line is yours" but this often happens.  Assistant Referees seem to have difficulty communicating the right place for the hooker to stand - often because the mark is ignored or conceded to one side or the other

This ploy spoils the game. 16 of every 30 players are forwards, and they should be allowed to compete as the Laws intend.

Cliff's question

Last Saturday, we were standing on the balcony in pleasant August sunshine with a beer in hand, watching Petersfield's pre-season warm-up match against a Chichester XV, refereed by the excellent Mike Gill.  In the third quarter, Petersfield scored a try close to the near touchline.  The kicker brought the ball back to the 10 metre line to gain the extra two points for the conversion. Cliff asked why they brought the kick so far back, and I agreed - it looked too far.  Indeed the kick missed.

 

 Obviously, the reason that the kicker brings the ball back from the try line is to make the apparent target as big as possible.  The parallax effect means that the goal posts look wider apart as you move back, but at the same time the distance for the kick grows, making the kicker's task more difficult. What's the ideal distance to bring the ball back?  Is there a simple way to work this out in the heat of the match?  Probably every professional kicking coach knows this, and maybe there are doctoral theses on the subject, but here's my take on the question. 

The geometry is simple - the width of the target depends on the distance back from the try line and the distance of the mark made by the referee from the mid-point of the goal posts.  The width of the target can be shown as the angle viewed by the kicker from the point where the ball is placed.  So assuming that the pitch has been marked up properly and is rectangular in shape, the following table shows this angle for various positions (distances in metres, angles in degrees):

Offset from centre line		0	5	10	15	20	25	30	35
Distance from try line	10	31.3	25.5	16.2	10.0	6.5	4.5	3.2	2.4
	15	21.1	19.1	14.8	10.8	7.8	5.7	4.3	3.3
	20	15.9	15.0	12.8	10.3	8.0	6.3	5.0	4.0
	25	12.8	12.3	11.0	9.4	7.8	6.4	5.3	4.3
	30	10.7	10.4	9.6	8.6	7.4	6.3	5.4	4.5
	35	9.1	9.0	8.5	7.7	6.9	6.1	5.3	4.6
	40	8.0	7.9	7.5	7.0	6.4	5.8	5.1	4.5
	45	7.1	7.0	6.8	6.4	6.0	5.4	4.9	4.4
	50	6.4	6.3	6.2	5.9	5.5	5.1	4.7	4.3

The widest angle for each 5 metre distance (wide and back) is highlighted in the table.  With the crossbar at a height of 3 metres, I don't think many people will choose to kick from closer than 10.

So on this basis, it looks as though the widest angle is always given by taking the ball back as far out as the mark is from the centre of the posts.  On a full-sized pitch, this means that a line through the crossing point of the 15 metre dashed lines (20 metres from the centre of the pitch) and the 22 metre line is very close to the best apparent target.  And conversions from the touchline should never be further back than about 5 metres short of the 10 metre line.

The other important factor in deciding whether to kick, and where from, is the distance.  A kick taken too far back will need a huge knock.  Here's the distance table with the same squares highlighted as in the table above:

Offset from centre line		0	5	10	15	20	25	30	35
Distance from try line	10	10.0	11.2	14.1	18.0	22.4	26.9	31.6	36.4
	15	15.0	15.8	18.0	21.2	25.0	29.2	33.5	38.1
	20	20.0	20.6	22.4	25.0	28.3	32.0	36.1	40.3
	25	25.0	25.5	26.9	29.2	32.0	35.4	39.1	43.0
	30	30.0	30.4	31.6	33.5	36.1	39.1	42.4	46.1
	35	35.0	35.4	36.4	38.1	40.3	43.0	46.1	49.5
	40	40.0	40.3	41.2	42.7	44.7	47.2	50.0	53.2
	45	45.0	45.3	46.1	47.4	49.2	51.5	54.1	57.0
	50	50.0	50.2	51.0	52.2	53.9	55.9	58.3	61.0

So you can see that a 10 metre error in the positioning of a touchline conversion will change a 49.5 metre kick to 57 metres, as well as making the angle worse.  On the other hand, taking the same kick from just outside the 22 metre line will worsen the angle by only 0.3 degrees (next to nothing) and make the kick 6.5 metres shorter - could be important for some kickers. 

All of these calculations assume that a kicker can hoof the ball 50-60 metres - easier at altitude - and they ignore weather conditions and pitch slopes that will lead to a more complex decision-making process.  But it does look as though many kickers are making their task more difficult.

Feedback welcome. 

Sky Sports

At last I've done the deed.  I thought about it and blogged about it last year.  The final straw was another price rise and reduction in useful service, which has at last pushed me over the brink to cancel Sky Sports. 

Sky used to be the place to watch Aviva Premiership matches, and cycling through Eurosport.  The rot started when they started failing to provide proper coverage (semi finals on ESPN, for example).   Then they moved Eurosport out of the Sports packages into an Entertainment package, best described as a pile of infantile rubbish costing extra £5 a month.  Eurosport is sport, isn't it?  And then they lost the rights to show Aviva Premiership Rugby to BT, and put the price up at the same time, presumably to provide even more funding for football players to keep their WAGs in the accustomed style. 

In the 2013-14 season, the BT coverage started a little shakily but has gone from strength  to strength.  They have a great team of presenters, a fun format, and can bring a smile to your face in the midweek programme, unlike the tired old Sky show that we used to endure.  Sky Sports is characterised by people sitting around in suits, BT by people enjoying themselves.

Any Sky Rugby coverage that I need to watch is shown at our local pub or at Grayshott Social Club.  £20 a month or thereabouts is a high price to pay for the occasional Championship, Super Rugby or tour match.  What about other sports?  The BBC's  Formula One coverage isn't as good as Sky's, but it's acceptable.  Frankly Sky F1 is overblown, too many hours of blather; the noise to signal ratio is too high.  I rarely watch it live, and delete most of it without watching the recording.   Cricket isn't worth watching at the moment; Test Match Special on BBC Radio 4 LW is enough pain.  And I've said enough about wendyball already.  Better without it. 

CBSY9 - Quins v Saints

My experience of the new scrum sequence - Crouch, Bind, Set, Yes 9 - has been totally positive.  As a referee, it gives me control over the process, removes the high intensity hit, allows me to see the positioning of the front row players and has the outcome of a tiny number of collapsed scrums, less than one a match.  I've not changed my policy of insisting that the throw-in to the scrum must be made properly along the centre line of the scrum (I referee at the community Rugby level), and so there has been a real contest at the scrum in most matches.

My big worry is that this great improvement - as shown by the firm refereeing of Craig Joubert in the first of this year's NZ v Wallabies matches - could be undermined.  If the professional game is allowed to continue with the bent throw-in to the scrum, then there won't be a contest and hookers won't need to hook. The lawmakers could ditch the contested scrum altogether if the CBSY9 trial fails.  Here are the scrums from Friday night's Aviva Premiership match (13/09/2013), in foul conditions, between Quins and Saints:

1st half

07:54 - Saints scrum 5 - first attempt, both front rows fail to crouch
08:32 - goes down on Quins LH side, Marler underneath TH prop
09:20 - third attempt, ref comes round to far (Quins LH) side; Marler has bound long (on TH shorts?), penalty for 'hingeing': 0-3
13:50 Quins Rob Buchanan on for Joe Gray (hooker)
17:45 Saints scrum, goes down on throw-in side, referee talks to captains
18:05 Scrum reset, Quins penalised for popping up (penalty missed)
24:11 - scuffle, captains warned
24:35 - scrum to Quins, Marler long bind, goes down
25:05 - scrum reset, Care feed ball between LH and hooker's feet - successful scrum
28:00 - Quins given FK for numbers at line out, but opt for scrum...
28:40 - scrum collapses on set, still moving as Care throws in, Saints LH penalised for angle (3-3)
36:20 - diagonal feed by Care, never near middle line - succesful scrum
40:00 - another feed by Care, standing a foot to the right of middle line - successful scrum

2nd half

44:20 - penalty to Quins, taking man in the air (6-3)
48:40 - scrum to Quins went down
49:12 - reset, ref on far side, ball at least visible in tunnel - successful scrum
52:50 - line out penalty to Saints (6-6)
58:20 - Marler subbed by Lambert
62:15 - Great Saints maul, but then turned over. Couldn't see Quins throw in, didn't look good; scrum had gone low on far side, before ref allowed scrum to start - successful scrum but messy result for Quins.  Saints charged down kick at subsequent ruck and scored a try from there, converted by Myler (6-13)
65:10 - Care dropped Ball at LH prop's foot but it rebounded and Saints won scrum against head - successful scrum
66:15 - dubious feed by Dickson, scrum moving but no way Quins hooker could challenge - successful scrum
67:50 - early engage by Saints, FK
70:55 - went down on far side from Quins throw-in, reset
71:30 - Ref starts on far side from Quins throw-in but in a great position; he moved off the middle line, but ball visible in tunnel - successful scrum
74:10 - Nick Easter YC
76:30 - Myler YC

Summary

Six scrum awards in each half.   In the first half, three awards ended successfully: two at first attempt, one after one reset.  Three other awards ended in penalties, one after two resets, one after one reset, and one at the first attempt.  In the second half, five ended successully: three at the first attempt and two after one reset.  The other award ended in a FK to Quins. 

Saints were awarded three of the twelve but managed to finish only one of them successfully, the two others resulting in penalties.  Quins had six successful outcomes, plus one lost against the head, one FK and one PK. The ball was visible in the tunnel in only two of the successful outcomes, and from the viewpoint of television, the opposing hooker would not have been able to reach the ball if he'd bothered striking for it in either case.  

Sky TV Customer Survey - 4th July

7. Please use this space to provide any other feedback you may have:

I feel ripped off by Sky because you will no longer be carrying Aviva Premiership Rugby, substituting in its stead the RaboDirect Rugby that has been free on BBC and/or S4C for several seasons.  Even in the last two seasons you failed to show some key Aviva Premiership matches such as semifinals which were only available on ESPN.

I hate paying you silly amounts every month so that you can pay ever more millions to line the pockets of football players, and I'm frustrated by the fact that I can't tailor my subscription in any way that's meaningful to me. It's no good offering Sky 1 Sports and Sky 2 Sports as separate products when what I want is split across them.

If you wanted to, you have the capabilities to offer a Rugby subsscription, a Cricket subscription, a Golf subscription, etc. You exploit your monopolistic position and show these sports across a mixture of your channels, instead of as discrete products. So if I want all of the Rugby and none of the football I still have to buy Sky Sports 1 & 2 at disproportionate cost.

You are cross-subsidising football's grossly excessive wages from subscriptions of people like me that don't want it.  I hope one day the Competition Commission will take you to the cleaners for abuse of your market position, which I think has been going on for years.

So when the new BT Sports offering comes on line, Sky Sports will be distinctly optional.  I can live without Super Rugby and I can visit at least two places within 500 metres' walk to see any interesting matches that you still manage to show.  

When you treat your customers like that, don't be surprised when they desert you, no matter how good your customer service agents are. This one was fine, but I'd received the letter telling me of yet another inflation-smashing increase in monthly payments just that morning.

Deliberate Knock-on?

You sometimes see Rugby laws being invented on the fly.  Some sort of herd instinct amongst crowds, television commentators and players can communicate itself to the referees, and then suddenly a new norm is established.

I think that this is happening with the 'Deliberate Knock-on'.  Law 12.1e specifies that:

A player may not make an intentional knock-on or throw forward.  Sanction: Penalty Kick.  A penalty try must be awarded if the offence prevents a try that would probably have been scored. 

This is all quite clear, and has existed for at least the last 40+ years that I've been playing and refereeing the game.

We're now being faced - and not only in the professional game - with an assumption that a (failed) one-handed attempt to intercept a pass is automatically a deliberate knock-on.  Every deliberate knock-on is a then taken to be professional foul (negative play) which is therefore held to be a yellow card offence.

The original assumption isn't justified in every case; often the pass that leads to the deliberate knock on is a 'miracle' pass that may not succeed anyway.  The Laws of the game don't refer to professional fouls, and they clearly define the sanction for a tactic which can be used to cut out a sloppy pass.  We should stop rewarding sloppy play - which is what a yellow card does in some of these cases. 

I just watched the highlights of last weekend's Leicester Tigers v London Wasps match.  Tommy Bell of Wasps attempted to pick off, one-handed a bad pass by Tigers that would have hit the intended receiver on the shoulder, admittedly, in the five metre zone, but the pass was terrible - it wouldn't have stuck anyway.   Bell just failed to grab the ball with one hand - not a slap down.  If the knock-on  hadn't touched the intended receiver of the pass, it's quite possible that Bell would have regathered the ball and made a successful interception and counter-attacked.  Instead, he received a yellow card.

At the Community Rugby level, I refereed a match recently where the passing by the home side was terrible, but each knock-on when attempting interception of a sloppy pass was called by them as deliberate.  "Yellow card" was muttered in my hearing twice.  After the third time, I had to have a word with their captain, and the appealing stopped.  But it's quite clear that they thought that they could gain an easy advantage this way.

I think we need to get a grip and stop this nonsense.  The Law is quite clear, and we need to make a proper judgment, for each occurrence, about whether an offence has been committed.  Using one hand to try and reach a bad pass or a ball lobbed overhead is not prima facie evidence of intention to knock on.  If the pass may well not have reached the intended receiver, it's also quite possibly difficult to intercept.

A Penalty Kick should only be given when it's absolutely clear and obvious that an intentional offence has been committed.  A Yellow Card isn't specified by the Law and should only be given if there are additional aggravating circumstances not sufficiently satisfied by the award of a PK or a Penalty Try.

If the lawmakers decide that there is a shortcoming, let's go through the formal process to consider a change. But please, let's not invent new law on the fly and reward a failed 'miracle pass' with the sanction of a yellow card against the defender that gets in the way.

Hampshire Rugby Clubs map - updated

I've now updated my Google map of Hampshire Rugby Clubs (link) for the 2012-13 season. It's based on the latest Hampshire RFU handbook and should include all Hampshire RFU member and associate clubs, and schools.

The general rule is that associate clubs with no ground listed are not shown on the map, so this leaves out Rugby-based charities that are associate members of Hampshire RFU. However, you can find out about their activities through these links:

• Rugby For Heroes RFC 
• Wooden Spoon RFC

I've parted company with the handbook over the ground for University of Southampton Solent, which I refereed last season at the Hardmoor Sports Ground, opposite Trojans, rather than at Southampton RFC.

The map also includes Farnham RUFC's new clubhouse and grounds, officially opened by Lord Coe on Sunday 2nd December. It's at Wilkinson Way, Monkton Lane, Farnham GU9 9ND - off the A325, not very far from Sainsburys.

Hampshire Rugby Clubs

Just updated my map of Hampshire Rugby Clubs (link) from the Hampshire RFU handbook for the 2011-12 season.  Changes are:

• All mainland and IoW clubs that are full members of Hampshire RFU should now have full address and postcode (for SatNav purposes)
• One missing club (Les Quennevais) has been added
• I've tried to put them in alphabetical order but can't get this to stick.  Google maps seems to shuffle them back to a random order (or maybe the order of original creation) next time you open the map

I'll do the Channel Island clubs, schools and associate members as soon as I can.  There are a number of new associates, which I've noted but not yet added.  Beeches RFC seems to lack a location so I can't stick it on a map.  Please advise of any other errors or omissions. 

Rugby World Cup 2011 thoughts

I think it was a fantastically exciting Rugby World Cup and the All Blacks were worthy winners in the end.  The second half of the final was real edge-of-the-seat stuff, even for a neutral.  The hangovers in all parts of New Zealand today must have been monumental. 

Although Craig Joubert is a fine referee, I didn't think he had a good first half in the final.  Front row dynamics are difficult and sometimes it's wrong to give a penalty - when it isn't clear who (if anyone) has committed an offence.  He also seemed to be pressured by the crowd, playing poor advantages to France and then calling advantage over, but in contrast awarding decisions quickly to New Zealand.  He appeared much more even-handed after half time.  In fact I hardly noticed him in the second half, which is a good sign that he was doing an excellent job. 

There was lots to talk about at every round: there were some fantastic matches, and unexpected results including Ireland's defeat of Australia which pretty much guaranteed that there would be a Northern Hemisphere v Southern Hemisphere final.  The way that some of the smaller countries are progressing is great for the game, and Georgia, for such a tiny country, were magnificent.  The inclusion of Sevens in the Olympics in 2016 is already making countries like Russia and China take Rugby much more seriously, so we could see some powerful newcomers in the later rounds of future World Cups.

Sadly the UK audience were denied the chance to see or hear the opening ceremony because the ITV producers couldn't allow Steve Ryder and his experts to be quiet for a few minutes.  I thought it rude to the organisers to ignore the NZ culture that was featured.  I thought it was a real shame that IBM didn't come up with a few more varied ads for the later stages of the competition.  We've all seen the old dears on the mobility scooters, the barber and the pizza takeaway about 48 times.  Enough is enough.  Audi seemed to change their ads as the weeks went on, which was much more interesting for the audience, but they could have done more too.

We didn't like music played in the stadia during injury stoppages.  I'm sure that Rugby crowds in New Zealand aren't so moronic that they need Sweet Caroline or something else from Neil Diamond's greatest hits to be played when the medics are treating a potentially serious injury.

Didn't the new all-indoor Otago Stadium in Dunedin look fantastic?

England were very disappointing, and really seem to have lost their way discipline-wise.  Wales lost shape after Rhys Priestland was injured, and although Warburton's red card looked crucial at the time, more important was the failure to kick from the tee. They lost three matches by a total of five points, and missed out on 40 points in penalties and conversions.  They also missed six attempted drop goals.

All sides seemed to have problems with place kicks; maybe there is more to be discovered about the aerodynamics of the new ball, particularly when painted up for the test matches, wet, and used in real play for half a game or more.
 
I thought the persistent booing of Quade Cooper was an absolute disgrace - nothing to do with Rugby, and a surprise that the Rugby-mad crowds in New Zealand would treat one of the world's great talents in such a disgusting way.  In contrast, I bet McCaw won't be booed for his knee to the eye of Morgan Parra during the final.

Picture from Official RWC2011 site

Every referee seemed to have difficulties at times, but sometimes the criticism was unfair.  Francois Pienaar slammed Wayne Barnes on ITV saying that Contepomi was offside in the Scot v Arg match when Parkes missed a poor drop goal attempt.  The Official RWC2011 match video has a view from behind the posts at the critical moment (about 5 minutes 50 seconds into the recording), and you can see that Contepomi was at the back of the ruck and onside when the ball was already being passed to Parkes. 

He also claimed Alain Rolland was wrong to give a red card to Warburton, but even Welsh referees applaud him for not chickening out, and applying the right sanction for the tackle. 

But all in all, congratulations to New Zealand on hosting a tremendous World Cup.  England will have to do extremely well to match this in 2015.

Dangerous tackles in Rugby

Last season (2010-11) I wrote down details in my refereeing notebook of 44 Rugby matches where I'd officated.  This excludes tournaments and sevens, and I may not have recorded every card, but the score is 21 cards awarded, of which four were for reckless tackles involving lifting the tackled player's feet above his head.

None of these involved a clear slam, or a drop onto the ground as seen in the Sam Warburton sending-off in the RWC 2011 semi-final.  Instead the tacklers (multiple tacklers in two cases out of four) kept hold when bringing the player down.  The cards were for the danger caused by lifting the feet above the head.

I'm refereeing at levels 9 - 11 (with the occasional 8s and 12s) but it's just as possible for players at this level to be seriously injured by a tip tackle as for an international player.  I think Alain Rolland did exactly what he'd been instructed to do, unfortunately for Wales, who I would love to have seen against the All Blacks in the final.

All cards for the season:

Match 3: Dangerous tackle
Match 8: 2 x continuing handbags well after whistle, 1 x fighting, 1 x dive on try scorer
Match 15: 1 x Repeated offside at ruck and maul, 1 x repeated illegal bind (loose head)
Match 17: 2 x raking
Match 19: trip - clear but in otherwise well-tempered match, it didn't look worth a Red card
Match 25: poor attempt at a punch
Match 27: affray
Match 28: not retiring at penalty
Match 29: dangerous tackle
Match 30: high tackle in red zone preventing possible try
Match 31: 1 x repeated offending inc. high tackle, 1 x raking
Match 32: 1 x dangerous tackle + 1 x offside/fighting (Red), 1 x fighting + 1 x referee abuse (Red)
Match 34: striking with elbow instead of hand-off
Match 38: dangerous tackle

Essential vocabulary

Here's some Rugby vocabulary, gleaned from S4Clic, which has some great Rugby coverage, and Wicipedia, which shows the ingenuity of the Welsh to translate even a Hawaiian word such as wiki into their own tongue.

Welsh	English
cic gyntaf	kick off
cosbi	penalty
dacl peryglus	dangerous tackle
tir	territory
cam drafod	forward pass
cais	try
yr Eidal	Italy
Iwerddon	Ireland
Lloegr	England
prif carlwr / mewnwr	scrum half
eilyddion	replacement
Leiniau	line out
dacl peryglus	dangerous tackle
cerdyn goch	red card
Seren y gem	Star of the game
Sgor terfynol	Final score
Dreigiau	Dragons
Gweilch	Ospreys
Gleision	Blues
buddugoliaeth	victory
colli	loss
Isdeitlau Saesneg	English subtitles
Blaenwyr	Forwards
Olwyr / Cefnwyr	Backs
Dyfarnwr	Referee
Hanes	Caps
Cymru	Wales
Y Llewod	The Lions
Oed, Pwysau, Taldra	Age, Weight, Height
Safle	Position
Safleoedd Rygbi'r Undeb Blaenwyr Prop pen rhydd (1) Bachwr (2) Prop pen tyn (3) Clo (4 a 5) Blaenasgellwr (6 a 7) Wythwr (8) Cefnwyr Mewnwr (9) Maswr (10) Canolwr (12 a 13) Asgellwr (11 a 14) Cefnwr (15)	Positions in Rugby Union Forwards Loose head prop (1) Hooker (2) Tight head prop (3) Second rows / Locks (4 and 5) Flankers (6 and 7) No 8 (8) Backs Scrum half (9) Stand off or Fly half (10) Centres (12 and 13) Wingers (11 and 14) Full back (15)

Six Nations reality check

England's dream of a Grand Slam was smashed into little pieces by an Ireland side that dominated every element of the game.  Up to now, they'd ridden their luck with narrow wins in three of the four matches: 7 points in Cardiff,  8 against France, and 6 against Scotland.  Scotland had shown that it was perfectly possible to stop England from playing,  and that's exactly what Ireland did.  They were able to spoil England's scrum ball with a 45 degree wheel away from Flood on at least three occasions, and they competed ferociously at the breakdown.   

England were on the wrong side of the refereeing team throughout the first half.  They gave a first silly penalty - the backs advancing too quickly at the line out to make it 3-0.  About 12 minutes into the match, Ireland wheeled the scrum, stranding Reddan offside, but he was allowed to play on as the ball emerged. Ashton was penalised for a high tackle on an assistant referee's call (6-0).  Cueto seemed to take an identical high tackle just after the restart, but no call was made.  O'Driscoll had a try disallowed for a forward pass, but an AR call for not rolling away led to a penalty in front of the posts instead (9-0).  Flood missed a shot at goal, and England failed to regather the drop out.  Ireland hacked ahead, and Foden attempted to clear to touch under severe pressure.  No England player was more than 2 metres ahead of the 22m line when the ball was caught near half way, but England were penalised anyway, presumably under the 10 metre law (11.4).  Bowe went over for a try after Sexton's quick tap (14-0).   Another high tackle by Ireland, and D'Arcy lying in the back of an England ruck, also failed to interest the referee or his assistants, although he whistled for offside at the ruck shortly after to give Flood a second shot at goal (14-3). Youngs managed to earn himself a yellow card after he ran the ball into touch and then threw it into the crowd after some last ditch defence against Wallace.  Another AR call, and Sexton duly slotted the penalty for a 17-3 half time lead..  

O'Driscoll scored a good try to take the record for the most tries scored by an Irishman.  Sexton converted, and at 24-3, Ireland were out of sight of the struggling England team.  England's best move of the second half started by Cueto near his own line, carried on with Wood, Hape, Care, Foden, Care, Flood and ended with Ashton passing right to Gordon D'Arcy instead of left to Flood under the Irish posts.  

An interception try by Thompson couldn't make the overall result respectable.  A missed conversion and earlier missed penalties meant that 8 points were lost that would have made a big difference to the final score of 24-8.

Conclusions: Banahan wasn't the right replacement for Tindall at centre, England's kickers lost direction - even Wilkinson.  Easter wasn't able to play an effective part as captain and Hape was pretty much anonymous.  The pack was bullied in tight and loose by Ireland, giving Flood little ball to play with.  Youngs' sin-bin was symptomatic of the rout.  Only Wood and maybe Foden emerged with real credit.

Ireland may have done England a huge unintended favour by giving them this reality check and wake-up call before the summer break leading up to the World Cup.

Andy Millar

from Andy's Facebook

Maybe it's a sign of the times, but I first got a hint that something was wrong through Facebook.  Then the tributes started rolling in, then the confirmation by e-mail.  Andy died on Friday night, 4th March 2011 and by early Saturday morning many of his Rugby friends knew the shocking news. 

He and Celia pitched up one Saturday afternoon (spring of 1984?)  at Petersfield and said they were planning to move to the area from Milton Keynes, and were looking for a friendly Rugby Club that offered Mini Rugby.  We didn't, but I told Andy that we were looking for someone to organise it.  Sure enough, they did move to Petersfield, and instantly got involved.  Andy played prop for the third XV, absolutely solid and the foundation of a tight-knit unit that included the colonel and me in the second row.  And the promise was honoured: he got the Mini and Junior section of the Club up and running.  It quickly became a huge success, with hundreds of boys and girls taking part in Rugby on Sunday mornings at Penn's Place.  Something soon became clear and has become increasingly important over the years: the parents of Mini and Junior players, with their greater life experience, were often much better organisers than the players, who formed the majority of the Club Committee at the time (I was Hon. Sec).  Many parents have gone on to help in the overall administration of the Club, which has made a huge contribution to its development over the years.


from Andy's Facebook


When the roof of the old Clubhouse was blown off in the Great Storm of 1987, Andy was one of the members of the Clubhouse Organising Committee (CHOC).  He insisted on the construction of the balcony for the new Clubhouse which opened in 1990.  He's pictured right as he could often be seen, offering advice to players and referees.

Andy made another huge contribution as match reporter and author of match programmes.  He made sure that the local press was supplied with high quality reports during the season, and even a trickle of stories during the summer months to keep the Club in the public eye.  When he didn't have the team list from the opposition, sometimes he'd substitute one based on his wide knowledge and wit.  I was delighted to see that Tostig, Godwin and Sweyn were still playing for Winchester.  A few years ago he was rumbled by a former sport sub-editor of the Petersfield Post - when 'Field played Old Paulines, he got a bollocking for Philip and Felix.  Eric Bloodaxe was pushing things a bit far too, and one week I only found through the Hazy Herald that Al Eric, Hunery and Geiser were representing Weybridge Vandals.   But normal service was soon resumed.  About a year ago he excelled himself, with Black, Gang, Chine, Ryde, Pier and Neadle all playing their part for Sandown and Shanklin. 

We'll all miss him, his humour and the passion for the game that he loved.  All our sympathy and thoughts are with Celia and their boys, Alasdair, Iain and Jimmy.

{Update 16/03/2011] Andy's funeral was at St Lawrence's Church, Petersfield, on Wednesday 16th March.  A tremendous number showed up to say goodbye to the big man, family, team mates, friends from far and near; I counted ten referees as well as friends from many other Hampshire Rugby clubs.  Stuart Barden gave a great tribute and the music included two of the great Rugby hymns: Bread of Heaven and Jerusalem.   The wake, back at the Rugby Club, was one of those meetings of old friends that unfortunately is only brought about by the saddest of events.  But it was one you'd be sorry to have missed.

Fed up with the Harlequins Bloodgate saga

In a very British form of torture, the General Medical Council is hearing the case of Dr Wendy Chapman, who was suspended after she was involved in the "Bloodgate" scandal resulting from the Heineken Cup quarter final between Harlequins and Leinster in April 2009.  She's been suspended from her job, without pay, since then.

This is disproportionate and unfair treatment, and the reason that it's so unfair is that it's taken so long.  Justice delayed is justice denied.  Everyone else involved is back in business apart from Dean Richards, who according to The Guardian on 16 August 2010, is acting as a consultant for Premiership teams and still doesn't know the exact terms of his suspension..

I'm not a Harlequins supporter, and have no connection with anyone involved.  It's not as if Harlequins cheating was sensible - the player brought on to kick was crocked - and it didn't pervert the result of the match.  I think enough is enough.  GMC: please let Dr Chapman get on with looking after patients.  

Absolute joy - a week's holiday

I thoroughly enjoyed my week's holiday, though it was busy from finishing work on Friday night until going back ten days later. Two trips (one overnight) to my late father's house to continue with the preparations to put it on the market and to meet an estate agent, three full length Rugby matches refereed, together with about two dozen 7s matches over four days at the National Schools Sevens, nine items sold on Ebay, a curry evening with Ruth's colleagues from the maths department, a pretty exciting Grand Prix and a trip to Broadcasting House to watch the recording of The Now Show for BBC Radio 4.

Almost all of these were an absolute joy. Even the house clearing effort progressed well, and apart from poor weather and lots of mud on the Thursday, the Sevens were great; talent, speed, skills and some really close,exciting games, and the chance to referee some fantastic teams.

The event in the Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House was fascinating too, not least for the contrasts with a TV recording. Last autumn, we saw BBC2's Mock The Week at Television Centre. The studio was completely rammed with lights and cameras - over 100 gantries above our heads, and I may have counted ten cameras used during the show, each with its own cameraman. We were in our seats for a full three hours to produce a sub 30 minute programme, plus a few segments for the Christmas show. This was in the end exhausting and I'm sure that the cast struggled to raise many laughs after the two hour mark.

The Now Show seemed much lighter on its feet, though maybe more of it was scripted. Just a microphone each (one set lower for John Holmes), and we were out within 90 minutes - less than an hour's recording, and could easily have taken more.

The Radio Theatre is worth a closer look. Art deco, with bas relief sculptures round the sides at floor level - the floor has clearly been raised by some six feet. Wikipedia says that the sculptures are by Gilbert Bayes, though much else around the building is by Eric Gill. Sadly there is no mention, let alone photographs, of this work in the National Archives article, which however does show his work at Lords Cricket Ground, amongst others.

Hampshire Rugby Clubs

Just updated my Google Map of Hampshire Rugby Clubs with the changes that I'm aware of for the season 2009-10.

The map includes

• Member Clubs of Hampshire RFU including the Channel Island clubs


• Associate Clubs of Hampshire RFU


• Associate Schools


• non-Hants clubs that play in Hampshire leagues or merit tables.

Please let me know if you spot any errors or omissions.

RBS Six Nations 2010

As I can't find a calendar file to download for the RBS Six Nations 2010, I've made one myself that you are welcome to use.

It's available in several formats:

vCalendar file (.vcs)
Excel(.xls)
Comma Separated Variable(.csv)
XML(.xml)
HTML file
Zip file of Time & Chaos Transportable Records (.ixl)

The start times are all shown as Greenwich Mean Time. Where a separate KO time is shown, this is the local time for matches in Paris and Rome only.

Looking forward to a great tournament, but Stade de France on a (cold?) March night could be a very tough place for England to finish their campaign.

EDF Energy AngloWelsh Cup

After the excitement of the semi-finals, the final was one-sided. Gloucester never managed to raise their game in the way that had seen off Ospreys. They never looked as though they would win the collisions. It almost seemed as though the confidence that had allowed them to put extra firepower against Ospreys into the breakdown had evaporated against Cardiff. The half time score was 22-5 to Cardiff, and maybe they'd had one or two lucky breaks to be so far ahead. By the end, the result of 50-12 was fully justified, and they were worthy winners.

What a shame that this competition, in this format, won't be around next year. It's a fantastic opportunity for the best teams of the two countries to test themselves against each other, and to give great entertainment and thrills to their fans.

EDFEnergy Anglo-Welsh Cup

I've now finished catching up on recordings of the two semi-finals in this year's Anglo-Welsh Cup. Magnificent! Gloucester beat Ospreys by 17-0, with an 80 metre interception try by Balshaw at the death to seal an intense match. This showed Dean Ryan's coaching and direction of the team at its magnificent best - committing more men to the tackle area and literally blasting Ospreys off the ball. Ospreys, despite the brilliance of their attacking resources, never managed to compete against the sheer commitment shown by Tindall's team.

Northampton stayed in touch but never led against Cardiff Blues in the other match. In the first half, their defence was awesome but they rarely left their own end of the pitch. Cardiff pressure brought a deserved try by scrum half Spice, following an early penalty, to lead 8-0 at half time. Northampton came back strongly after half time with an early try by Ansbro, created by Myler (8-5). Northampton had the lion's share of territory and possession for the remainder of the match, but were unable to break through. A penalty for Blair, with 10 minutes remaining, gave Cardiff a wider margin at 11-5, but the match remained on the knife edge until the last play. It was a strange game, with both kickers misfiring and odd tactical choices made, but the intensity of the physical confrontation was wonderful to watch.

Sadly the future of the competition is undecided - the RFU and Premier Rugby seem unable to agree, and this excellent link with the top Welsh sides could be lost. That would be a shame. At least we still have this year's final to look forward to, on Saturday 18th April at Twickenham.