THE URC INTENDS to introduce both a video review programme and an ‘Ask the Ref’ feature on its website as a means of engaging with the rugby public in relation to contentious decisions by match officials.

The URC’S head of match officials Tappe Henning has confirmed that the league will not adopt any of the game’s current law trials, such as the 20-minute red card, until they are passed into law by World Rugby, but the former South African referee says that the URC intends to publish short video reviews examining the implementation of existing laws in hot-button incidents from the weekend’s games.

Henning, who joined IRFU referee Andrew Brace for a conversation with media ahead of the BKT URC’s fourth season, said that the league would take its lead from World Rugby’s ‘Whistle Watch’ review programme with Nigel Owens, which has proven popular on YouTube and social media.

“After big test matches, he’s got a programme where he discusses two or three big decisions or talking points from the game”, Henning said of retired Welsh referee Owens, “and he explains the law, he explains the situation, he explains the decision.

“And rightly or wrongly, we then say the referee was correct or the referee was incorrect.

“That’s very useful and we’re going to look at something similar in the URC.

It won’t become a total reconciliation commission every Monday morning — but the true big talking points from eight games each weekend, we’re going to try and address those with a summary of, ‘That was the correct decision’ or ‘This was supposed to be the decision that matches the facts in the picture.’

Henning continued: “The second thing we’re going to do is we’re looking into our URC website to create ‘Ask the Ref’. And my idea around that is that once we’ve created that platform, we’ll appoint a duty ref every week and then people can send in their questions about laws, about a decision, about TMO, whatever. They can ask the ref and the duty ref will answer back on the website, and everyone then can read it.

“In such a way, our referees become more accessible to the public, to talk to them a little bit. Of course, you will get some silliness but we will filter that out.

“Those are the two things we’re looking at bringing into our URC competition to engage with the spectators and engage with the media as well about those big talking points.”

IRFU referee Andrew Brace, meanwhile, identified the law change around the ‘croc-roll’ — which was banned by World Rugby in July — as one of the greatest challenges facing referees in the URC this season.

Brace said that the narrower scope to make a legal cleanout would make it “even harder” to officiate the breakdown this season, and warned that it would probably broadly reward defending teams.

“Speaking to coaches and teams, there’s such a limited window of opportunity now to clear out effectively and accurately,” Brace said.

“A player has to be really connected to the carrier now so they don’t come too late to the clean. What we’re seeing is players reverting to foul play because they’re late to the clean because they lost the race. And there are so many jackalers across the URC, it’s such small margins to get that right.

“You have to win that shoulder-high battle. You can’t hit the head now, you can’t come in at the side, you can’t go down on limbs; there’s a really, really small window of opportunity to clean.

“That’s the first thing for us, is we’ve gotta be strong on safety there with the new global law change. The second part for me is you’ll probably see more holding-on penalties as a result, and that’s maybe favouring the defending side more which maybe as a spectacle is not what we want to see. We want to see free-flowing rugby, ball in flow.

“We have to be really aligned to what World Rugby want; being strong on any extra role of the tackler, first things first, before we can even reward a contest.

“And I think that’s been the really nice change, particularly after the 2019 Rugby World Cup where we were really strong on the tackler and that ended up getting less-than-three-second, two-second rucks. That’s the game we want to see. We don’t want to be blowing the whistle all the time.

“But we also have to understand the game is a contest as well. We’re going to be rewarding that contest. But first things first, we have to be strong on the tackler, which is probably what you hear a lot of the referees saying: ‘I can’t reward you because the tackler is in the runway first and I have to be strong on that before I can even look at anything else.’”

On the topic of the breakdown, head of match officials Tappe Henning insisted that “we do not want to referee the contest out of the game”.

“We must allow the players to contest because that’s the essence of rugby that makes it different to other sports,” Henning said. “We can contest the ball. In rugby league, you cannot contest the ball. In gridiron rugby in the USA (American football), you cannot contest the ball. That makes our game unique.

“It is the phase of play that happens most on the pitch and there are going to be mistakes around that from referees’ point of view, but we’ll try to strike a good balance — to still allow the contest but also to ensure there is still a continuity of ball in flow.”

Henning confirmed that the URC is proactive in contacting teams regarding refereeing decisions that are deemed contentious, and that each head coach is welcome to contact him via WhatsApp to request an incident be reviewed or contextualised for future notice.

Brace, meanwhile, discussed the complications in refereeing the set piece, and explained the extent to which a referee works in tandem with his assistant to supervise the lineout maul in particular.

“There’s just so much to look at,” he said.

“You cannot referee that by yourself. You need a strong team around you. For me and a lot of the other referees, we’d have a really clear plan where, the majority of the time, I’d stand at the back of the lineout so I can ref the back, and then the AR (assistant ref) at the front will ref the front.

“You don’t want four eyes looking at one side and then you miss something at the back. It’s so complex because you want to get first things first right, which is the setup. And if you get the setup right, then the contest is easier to referee.

I’ll be honest: a couple of weeks back, I wasn’t strong on the setup and that caused problems for me, then, in the contest of the lineout — because if you don’t get the mark right, then the hooker starts moving, then the defensive side starts creeping, then the attack starts getting too big in their gaps, and then you’re blowing the whistle and you’re having to over-manage that area.

“The same goes for scrum,” Brace added. “If you can get the setup right, I think it’s much easier, then, to referee.

“It’s so complex. We’ve never played, most of us, in the scrum. And that’s why I go into training with Munster, Leinster, Connacht, Ulster, the national team: I’ve had to go right back to the start and get a scrum coach. Stevie Scott (former coach) is very good to us in the URC, helping us with pictures to look for at scrum and lineout maul.

“That’s what I had to do 10 years back: I had to go right back to the start and work with the likes of John Fogarty and Jerry Flannery when he was with Munster — just to understand the scrum, just to understand the lineout maul.”

Brace added that he continues to work with Ireland forwards coach Paul O’Connell “a lot” in order to keep on top of forward-oriented game situations.