How to improve consistency in rugby officiating

1. Get rid of the 'jackal' type competition at rucks. Go back to the old rules that the ball can only be turned over at a ruck by driving past the ball. Will help limit injuries like the Dan Leavy one and the one on JOD today for Munster.

2. Stop the incessant coaching. Warn the players once in a match and then penalise. One warning is enough.

3. Limit scrum infringements to a free kick. Penalty only on the 3rd successive scrum offense. Too many shenanigans going on in scrums to try to milk penalties from the officials. Scrums are about shoving the opposition off the ball.

4. Bring back a straight feed at scrums so the primary purpose of the scrums for the defensive team is to hook against the head or push the other team off their ball.

5. Hopefully item 1 above will allow for policing of the offside line more closely. The referees can't do that effectively because each ruck is such a mess with so many hands vying for the ball.

And what of the multiple advantages leinster got from incidents the ref missed or didn't penalise. I'm sure ulster posters here could easily argue about multiple incidents that leinster were not penalised or that they should have got a penalty when they didn't. That's part of the game.

Your idea of when a penalty try is awarded is incorrect.

Hoe would you improve the officiating or laws?

"thats part of the game" when referring to referee mistakes is kinda a cop out tbh.

What exactly is wrong with a thread that hopes to remove such mistakes?

Because you won't remove them. It's impossible to keep every single incident reffed exactly as the Laws intend.

We have a laws thread already. We have a general rugby thread. The op could easily have went into either of those.

The Laws thread has always been about discussion of laws and there application as well.

Maybe time it better.

No one cares mate, ye lost, get over it.

All the players are having a few pints and a bit of banter together, Christmas times.

At 90% percent of amateur rugby matches now there are a few know it all's on the pitch and on the sidelines who won't shut up. I think you could have laser precision decision making and they will still not shut up.

In comparison to other sports, we are miles ahead in standards of referring at amateur level. At professional levels I am not so sure - it's probably even or others are slightly ahead of us sometimes and we are slightly ahead of them other times. Also think the standards in Leinster J leagues are way better than what they were - nearly everyone is very interested in fitness and putting a lot of work in. The support structures are also excellent - second to none. When I chat to ref's in other sports I feel very lucky.

The op specifically mentioned he was talking about the pro game only though.

I think we are still ahead of a lot of sports in pro game. Though there is plenty of criticism I have yet to see any suggestions from many very vocal critics of what could be done to improve things

A poster can be correct in being critical without having to propose solutions, that's the remit of someone else.

Personally, I think Frank is a poor ref and shouldn't be getting InterPros, I prefer Busby but I thought he was poor enough last night but in their defence, reffing a game in the weather that both games were played in last night and on St Stephen's night is far more challenging and I'd cut them some slack

I would question, how, when using TMOs the officials can get it so wrong at times.

The problem is what do you have each ref looking at.

Far easier in nfl with time of each play etc. Harder with rugby.

When you add 'what is materiel' to the onfield 'coaching' of players it becomes very confusing.

Perhaps a review of the Laws to focus on what is absolutely going to be penalised instead of what might, despite what the Laws state, be penalised, by some refs, depending on the situation.

In terms of what the Laws state, a particular action is either a penalisable offence or it isn't. If players don't get penalised for infringing to gain an advatage, they'll continue infringing.

What you think of Football ref's?

I was at a few league of ireland games over summer and thought they were very good. General fitness, lines of running were great from both ref's and linesman. Lower levels, not good at all.

Physical fitness, as in all sports, enables mental awareness over longer periods. Our IRFU refs look and move & think better than their predecessors did. But having to adjudicate multiple actions has resulted in referees, at WR's direction, choosing to deal what is deemed 'materiel'. The more certain offences are ignored, the more offences by multiple players simulataneously will occur, exponentially increasing the onfield workload of the referee & thus making consistency more unattainable.

Ref the Laws, and if that is impossible, change the Laws. And if that is impossible (& imho it's not) increase the number of officials actively monitoring the game. At Pro level this will mean more learning opportunities through active involvement for the next generation of officials. At the moment Pro games require a minimum of 5 officials. It's hardly a stretch to add one more.