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Nigel Owens is back in rugby after landing new role

Nigel Owens / PA

Retired refereeing royalty Nigel Owens is set to make an official return to the sport. The United Rugby Championship’s (URC) Head of Match Officials Tappe Henning has added a new element to the competition with the introduction of an independent referee selection panel – writes Leezil Hendricks.

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The URC Independent Referee Selection Panel will include Nigel Owens (Wales), Goerge Clancy (Ireland), Stuart Berry (South Africa) and Neil Paterson (Scotland).

The panel have been appointed to review the performances of match officials in the competition, while they also have the responsibility of selecting an elite group of referees.

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“We changed the structure a bit on how we review our match officials’ performances,” Henning told reporters.

“In the past, it was done by the five high-performance referees from each Union. But now we have a switch for four independent assessors as a selection panel. They are going to do those reviews with me as the chairman of the group.

“By doing this, we have aligned ourselves to the model World Rugby is using to assess international performances. The idea is to bring a fresh pair of eyes and fresh thinking into the mould.

“All four of them are recently retired international referees.

“The aim of that then is to get to an elite group of referees selected on merit and not necessarily on representation from each Union, to bring credibility to the match officials we appoint. That’s the long-term goal.”

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Henning revealed that former Scotland hooker Steven Scott has been added as a set-piece analyst.

Scott will have the responsibility of reviewing the scrums and line-outs, which Henning pinpointed as two of the major officiating problem areas.

“Scott will review each and every set-piece and will assess the performance of the referees in the area,” Henning said.

“He will show the referee what are the important parts of the scrum, line-out and maul they should focus on, what they missed, what they didn’t miss and what they did well.

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“Most of our referees never played in the forwards, to be honest. Scott has 17 years of experience coaching forwards. Having him on board will help referees to understand the set-piece process a bit better and then hopefully that will lead to better decision-making and more accuracy in reading situations.

Henning added: “Smith’s role will also be to engage with the forward coaches of the teams to discuss matters that they are uncomfortable with and be the link between referees and clubs.

“The main aim is consistency and understanding our responsibilities on both sides in that part of the game.”

Henning also conceded that referees and TMOs will be appointed in pairs, in an effort to create synergy between the two individuals and limit the referral stoppages.

“Our aim is to appoint those [referee and TMO] in pairings. The more they work together the more effective they become and the better understanding there is between them.” Henning said.

“It will then take less time to reach the right decision when it goes to the TMO.

“It also means the TMO can make calls without stopping the game and calling for an official referral. He can give information to the referee that the referee trusts for something that’s only a penalty and doesn’t need to be referred.”

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3 Comments
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Pieter 769 days ago

Yes, that as well, I saw replays and it was a legitimate try

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Pieter 770 days ago

Hopefully they can get the ref’s not to behave like idiots, the yellow card for Eben Etzebeth what a joke it’s a disgrace that games are officiated in this manner. There are replays about the incident and then they get it 100% wrong, what we saw this weekend was incompetence at it’s best and the worst of it all these mindless decisions can change the outcome of games.

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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LONG READ Are the All Blacks doomed to a 70% flatline? Are the All Blacks doomed to a 70% flatline?
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