Owen Doyle: Don’t give referees the red card just yet

“Can you please explain what on earth Matthew Carley is up to?” That was the gist of several messages which pinged to my phone round about the 24th minute of Leinster’s match against Clermont.I’ve altered the wording. The messages were angry, invective-laden and would correctly never have passed editorial scrutiny. Here’s what happened: Leinster had just been awarded a penalty five metres from the Clermont line and, quite within their rights, chose to have another scrum.Scrumhalf Fintan Gunne put in the ball. Carley, standing behind the Leinster scrumhalf, immediately blew for a crooked throw, awarding a clearing free-kick to the home team. My initial thought was, what was the referee thinking, why would he wish to get involved in the scrum put-in? After all, he and all of his peers have persistently, and consistently, ignored this part of the game for aeons. READ MORELeinster put in a great performance and won in style. Had they not done so – the score was just 7-6 to Leinster at the time – Carley’s decision could have taken on significant relevance. Wherever he conjured the decision from, the referee should now clarify that he erred and has no intention of repeating the trick.He made matters worse by grinning at Gunne and saying “not even close”, whereas the scrumhalf, I’d be absolutely certain, found nothing whatsoever to smile about. We are a long way away from having straight put-ins, if indeed we can ever get back to those, and referee solo runs are confusing and, worse, completely inequitable.Carley had already pulled up Gunne, as early as the first minute, for not using the ball at a breakdown within the five seconds allowance. An unusual sanction. Referees are somewhat loose on this for the simple reason that it’s easier to allow a little leeway than to whistle it up. I found myself wondering if the absent Jamison Gibson-Park would have been treated the same way in these two incidents, but can’t claim to know the answer to that one.Leinster did get one big decision which went their way, Carley awarding them a penalty try that was highly debatable. All of these issues confirmed that, in any sport, the referee becoming the centre of attention is a bad idea.[ Rugby referees need to cut out the first name chummy approach to playersOpens in new window ]The change in the bonus point system for this competition means that both teams will play hard until the end. Even if the winners score four tries it is not automatically enough. Now they must score three more tries than their opponents to get a bonus point. The only bonus point now available to the losers is to finish seven points or less behind the winners. So, referees cannot afford to relax either – they must continue accurately and equitably until the full 80 minutes is played. Going into cruise control is not an option.Stade Toulousain and Exeter Chiefs in a scrum during their Champions Cup round one game in Stadium de Toulouse on Sunday. Photograph: Ben Brady France’s glorious Pink City provided an epic, sensational match where 14-man Toulouse just about hung on to defeat Exeter. It went right down to the very last kick, with Henry Slade missing a penalty that would have earned a draw. Exeter left with only one bonus point as the new system kicked in. And Toulouse, despite scoring seven tries, earned none as it was only one try more than the visitors scored.Referee Hollie Davidson came out of it very well. The straight red card she handed out to Rodrigue Neti, all of 124kg, for a hard shoulder directly to the head of Toulouse’s Ross Vintcent was absolutely correct and calmly explained. No argument could be brooked.However, the permanent nature of the card probably underlined once again the difference between the two hemispheres in dealing with foul play. Down south, from what we’ve seen, it would have gone to the bunker for a maximum sanction of a 20-minute red. It is a continuing, unwelcome, divisive argument, and a global solution must be found. It’s a shame that this fractured European competition is now mothballed for a month or so. If anybody can follow who plays who next and why, then please advise. The whole thing needs urgent revision. Its appeal, which really only starts with the knockout stages, will otherwise continue to diminish.Apart from the put-in, the scrum continues to attract a lot of attention, especially with regard to the hookers’ so-called brake foot. Opinion is divided. Some see it as helping stability, others consider that it’s not safe. In either case, it’s hard to believe that the brake can have much effect in steadying the two packs, both of which come in at around 950kg.[ Owen Doyle: Someone needs to have a word with some of these referees – and their criticsOpens in new window ]However, there is another part of the law that is not applied: the part that requires all players in the frontrow to support their body weight on at least one foot. Instead, the four props are allowed to have their feet way behind themselves to achieve maximum heft. Quite often, on collapse, a prop is penalised for having his feet too far back so it seems common sense to get them packing down correctly from the outset. Maybe it could be the start of the props actually “propping,” and the hookers “hooking,” which was their role once upon a time. That’s probably too much to hope.I’ve resisted saying it before, but the referee kit supplied for the European competitions deserves a mention. It can’t be beyond the powers-that-be to find something more suitable than dressing the match officials in fluorescent flamingo pink or canary yellow shirts. It’s awful.