Safety First: Does RL need a 2nd referee like the NRL : Sun May 01, 2016 12:32 pm  

The biting allegation against a Toulouse player and official counter allegation by his Club, Toulouse Olympique, that a Rochdale player had him in a dangerous neck leverage brace raises an interesting safety concern. The player claims a spontaneous safety reaction to get himself out of the dangerous position. The Rochdale player allegedly delivering the neck brace shields his body from the referee and brings the Toulouse player to the ground out of view of the far side touch judge closest to the incident. The Club's official response is here: http://www.to13.com/2016/04/29/rochdale ... statement/ - I would imagine the Club will tender professional medical evidence of the danger of the tackler on it's player - but we will have to wait until the judiciary verdict on this serious incident, and have faith in the process. Let's hope. Should we have 2nd referees to monitor the tackling and visibility required to ensure the game is played safely ? If you inspect the video here on 42mins you will see the Toulouse player in a tackle and a highly suspicious and lengthy neck brace / leverage. View here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5_F_AcZwMY Neither the nearside touch judge or referee have visibility. Only the nearest Toulouse player is begging for intervention while it is occuring. As a witness to 2 footy games involving broken necks, one resulting in a paraplegic [ recent Newcastle Knight NRL ] the other being a friends son in RU, never to play contact sport again ... i would ask th question again : .... in the interests of better safety, do we need a 2nd referee? If not, how should we better manage safety in these situations like the neck leveraging.

The biting allegation against a Toulouse player and official counter allegation by his Club, Toulouse Olympique, that a Rochdale player had him in a dangerous neck leverage brace raises an interesting safety concern. The player claims a spontaneous safety reaction to get himself out of the dangerous position. The Rochdale player allegedly delivering the neck brace shields his body from the referee and brings the Toulouse player to the ground out of view of the far side touch judge closest to the incident. The Club's official response is here: http://www.to13.com/2016/04/29/rochdale ... statement/ - I would imagine the Club will tender professional medical evidence of the danger of the tackler on it's player - but we will have to wait until the judiciary verdict on this serious incident, and have faith in the process. Let's hope. Should we have 2nd referees to monitor the tackling and visibility required to ensure the game is played safely ? If you inspect the video here on 42mins you will see the Toulouse player in a tackle and a highly suspicious and lengthy neck brace / leverage. View here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5_F_AcZwMY Neither the nearside touch judge or referee have visibility. Only the nearest Toulouse player is begging for intervention while it is occuring. As a witness to 2 footy games involving broken necks, one resulting in a paraplegic [ recent Newcastle Knight NRL ] the other being a friends son in RU, never to play contact sport again ... i would ask th question again : .... in the interests of better safety, do we need a 2nd referee? If not, how should we better manage safety in these situations like the neck leveraging.

Re: Safety First: Does RL need a 2nd referee like the NRL : Mon May 02, 2016 8:33 pm  

Just to clean up the ruck, yes

Re: Safety First: Does RL need a 2nd referee like the NRL : Mon May 02, 2016 9:19 pm  

Where would we get a second referee from? We are struggling to get one decent referee per game. Ben Thaler's new role was to get more referees coming through, but we don't seem to be seeing them. Roby went to Australia, Thaler and Child have both covered games in the Championship. We are short on referee numbers as it is.

Re: Safety First: Does RL need a 2nd referee like the NRL : Tue May 03, 2016 7:23 am  

Cant see anything clearly from that footage. Would a second ref be able to see anything more without being so close as to impede play?
In answer to your question yes, a second ref would be good, but I'd question where those would come from. We are struggling as it is to get one decent ref. It would mean we would need at least 6, possibly 9 for televised games alone each weekend if Catalan are at home.
I'm sure the RFL want to do it- but it's lack of bodies that's preventing it.

Re: Safety First: Does RL need a 2nd referee like the NRL : Tue May 03, 2016 12:33 pm  

I cant understand why Refs cant do 2 or even 3 games over a weekend Thur-Sun

If there are 2 of them then the distance covered would be reduced significantly

Re: Safety First: Does RL need a 2nd referee like the NRL : Tue May 03, 2016 12:45 pm  

Exiled down south wrote:

I cant understand why Refs cant do 2 or even 3 games over a weekend Thur-Sun

If there are 2 of them then the distance covered would be reduced significantly

Many do. SL largely being spread across Thu-Sat with CH and L1 games on Sunday is a blessing in disguise for the RFL.

Re: Safety First: Does RL need a 2nd referee like the NRL : Tue May 03, 2016 12:50 pm  

Despite all the hype about 2 refs its not working as well as some people think.
For me Australia RL is to much stop and start.

Re: Safety First: Does RL need a 2nd referee like the NRL : Wed May 04, 2016 1:44 pm  

Second ref keeps the ruck clean (mostly) play the balls are pretty quick and they actually play the ball with the foot! would love two refs to be trialled here to see if they make a difference

Re: Safety First: Does RL need a 2nd referee like the NRL : Wed May 04, 2016 5:03 pm  

There just aren't enough refs available to make this work. Made even worse by inexperienced refs getting ripped apart if they have a bad game whilst learning their trade. If you think there's loads coming through, have a look how old (or young) the TJs are at this week's game for your club. That's who the 2nd refs would be.

Re: Safety First: Does RL need a 2nd referee like the NRL : Wed May 04, 2016 5:42 pm  

We really should have some version of 2 refs, whilst there are problems with the recruitment and development of referees, the game is too fast and under too much scrutiny for 1 ref.

We don't have to have the same system they use in Australia, I'd prefer 1 ref with a "roving assistant" to give the ref information and to give instructions to the players during play.

So it wouldn't cost much as we wouldn't need another fully trained ref per game just another touch judge, which could be paid for by getting rid of in goal judges.