Referees to put players "on report"

Rugby Championship and Super Rugby referees will have powers to put players "on report" for suspected foul play under a system being trialed in rugby union for the first time.

The International Rugby Board will monitor the trial of the system, adopted from rugby league, which aims to make the referees' job easier and achieve more consistent penalties in judicial hearings.

Under the system referees will be able to place a player on report when they suspect but aren't certain an offence has been committed. Referees will still be able to issue yellow and red cards in clear cases of foul play.

A player placed on the report will face a judicial hearing that will determine whether foul play occurred.

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,2...460720,00.html

This is a step in the right direction. I'd still like them to go a little further and allow immediate video revielw by TMO.
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This is a good idea but I still don’t understand the lack of sightings from the review panel. so often an incident occurs and is not picked up by the referee which is fine as they have masses if work to do but to then be missed by the review panel e.g. Pocock getting his head ripped off by Duplesi and Burger trying to give him a 3rd eye whole...that’s the real issue.

White cards to make Super Rugby debut

Super Rugby referees will - literally - have an extra card up their sleeves in this year's tournament with the addition of the white card.

As part of SANZAR's new experimental "on-report" system aimed at removing foul play from the game, referees in Super Rugby will have the option of using the white card to refer incidents of suspected foul play to the citing commissioner when the identity of the perpetrator is unclear.

The game will continue as the suspected player or players are put 'on report'. Referees will continue to carry yellow and red cards.

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,2...535030,00.html

The whole judicial thing always seems to be a bit unfair, the team the offence happened against usually has to live with the negative effect during the rest of the match, while the rest of the comp benefits from the suspension of the offender.

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Originally Posted by Burgs

The whole judicial thing always seems to be a bit unfair, the team the offence happened against usually has to live with the negative effect during the rest of the match, while the rest of the comp benefits from the suspension of the offender.

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Soccer is looking into this, as they fear some team will take them to court. If a defender commits a foul in the penalty area the attacking team gets a penalty, the defender gets sent off and the defender then gets banned from subsequent matches - it could get seen as triple jeopardy!

Not sure how the courts would view this, though. If you sign up to a league and a certain set of rules, you have to play to those rules. If I were a judge I'd laugh them out of court.