'It is coming to the extent that it's excessive' - Expect crack down on barracking of match officials, says URC ref chief

Referee Hollie Davidson signals for Leinster's second try scored by Thomas Clarkson during the United Rugby Championship match at the Aviva Stadium. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

URC referees’ boss Tappe Henning has warned this weekend’s play-off quarter-finalists that barracking of match officials will no longer be tolerated.

The URC head of match officials was speaking on a media call for the BKT United Rugby Championship when he was asked how he proposed to cut out players shouting at referees and trying to influence or demand decisions.

Rugby convention has it that only captains may communicate with referees with Henning highlighting Law 9.7.c: “A player must not: Do anything that may lead the match officials to consider that an opponent has committed an infringement”, for which the sanction is a penalty.

The South African was set to meet this weekend’s match officials on Tuesday night ahead of the quarter-finals. The URC announced its panel of referees following the media call with Wales’s Adam Jones taking charge of Friday’s clash between Glasgow Warriors and Connacht at Scotstoun. Andrea Piardi will referee Munster’s visit to the Bulls at noon Irish time on Saturday, with Eoghan Cross leading an all-Irish team in Cape Town for Stormers v Cardiff, and Scotsman Sam Grove-White in control for Leinster’s Aviva Stadium clash with Lions at 8pm.

Officials will be told to adopt a stricter approach during the knockout stages than it had been during the regular season.

“It is coming to the extent that it's excessive,” Henning said. “I have discussed with colleagues of mine what our approach should be. We do not want to go into zero-tolerance, but if it does not improve from a match official's end, we will get to a point where we will apply a zero-tolerance philosophy to that.

“At the moment, the referee will try to manage it early in the game and request the captain to take control of his player and tell his player, ‘we do not need that advice and shouting’. And then protect the relationship between captain and referee.

“And then that needs to be in a courteous manner as well and not excessively during a game. And the referees are required to use good judgment when they believe it is excessive and then draw the line in the sand to watch it out.

“That will be one of our discussions that we will have with our group tonight to make sure that our play-off remains a spectacle. These are our top referees in our competition. They have been around for quite a while. All of them have a lot of experience in the game and they will deal with it appropriately.

“We do not want to overreact. We understand the reaction of players. We understand the disappointments of players verbalising their disappointment when they disagree with a decision.

“We do not really want to overreact but if it gets to a point where the referee draws the line in the sand, we would expect players to then respect that. And then for the rest of that game, the referee will then apply that standard he set earlier of what is acceptable and what is not.

“We have seen in games where even captains have been penalised for shouting at the referee and screaming at the referee for a decision. The law supports that. There is a specific law in the law book, law 9.7c, which is actually a provision which says that a player is not allowed to do anything that would bring the match officials under the impression or try to convince the match officials and bring them under the impression that the opposition has committed an infringement.

“We do not want to go and chase that because players are emotional on the pitch. They are involved, they are very tense and they want to perform well and they are disappointed and disagree with some decisions. But we, as match officials, will need to draw that line. And in this play-off part of our competition, that will be discussed tonight and our approach will be to handle it better than what we have done in the pool games previously.”