Nigel Owens: Six Nations decision proves I was right to be worried
The first round of the Six Nations is done and dusted, and already we’ve seen some debates break out over a few refereeing decisions.
Forward passes were a talking point on the opening weekend, with both France star Antoine Dupont and Ireland’s Dan Sheehan accused of committing them in setting up well-worked tries in their respective games against Wales and England.
As ever, social media was soon awash with rugby fans debating whether those passes were indeed forward or not. In many ways that showed how difficult a referee’s job can be, making those judgements in real time.
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The point is, for the match officials and the TMOs, neither pass was clearly forward. My friend Wayne Barnes said earlier this week that if referees start calling those marginal passes as forward, then fans would have to brace themselves for a lot more whistle and less try-scoring action.
Wayne is right, nobody wants to see a more stop-start game where players are pulled up over 50:50 decisions. But, saying that, there is a balance to be found.
When I was refereeing, I only blew the whistle if I saw something clear and obvious that went against the laws of the game. If it was something marginal, I wouldn't blow the whistle.
That is the philosophy of all your great referees, your Derek Bevans, your Clive Norlings, your Ed Morrisons. That has always been their mantra - it’s not clear and obvious, you don’t blow your whistle. That’s the way I refereed and that’s the way I coach the referees I coach here in Wales now.
But, as I said, at the same time, there needs to be a correct balance with keeping the game flowing and actually making the right decisions as well. What you can't have is a referee ignoring decisions for the sake of the flow of the game.
Your first job is to make sure that you apply the laws when they are clear and obvious. When something is blatantly obvious, then you blow the whistle. If it’s not and instead it’s 50/50 or marginal, then you should let play go.
With the technology now, the TMO should only be coming in if they have what I used to call an “oh f***” moment. If they’re sitting there watching what happened and something makes them go “oh f***, the ref’s missed that?!” then that is the time for them to come in.
I used to tell my assistant referees and TMOs that I only wanted them to come in for those sorts of moments. If it could be a potential offside or maybe a knock-on or a forward pass, I didn’t want to know.
That philosophy is something that I certainly followed as a referee and is what I encourage other referees to embrace too.
But as I said, the outcome has to be correct. You can't sacrifice the actual decisions of the game in order to keep the game flowing. At the end of the day, there’s a reason why a forward pass is a forward pass or a knock on is a knock on.
If we look at what happened in Paris for Dupont’s pass to set up Theo Attissogbe’s second try, I was watching the game and when I saw it, I thought it was forward. If I was refereeing that game, I would have called it forward. That was my view then and that is my view now.
Other referees, though, may have been unsure and if that’s the case, then you play on. Obviously, the referee and the TMO in the France game felt it was not clear and obvious enough for them to come in and chalk off the try, and that’s fine. If it’s not clearly forward to you as the referee, then you should let it play, and I would agree with that.
But if you’re sure that it’s forward, then you need to blow the whistle. We can’t just let clear and obvious decisions go just for the sake of keeping the game flowing. You would be opting out of doing your job then! So, it’s all about getting that balance right - get it wrong and the game suffers.
Overall, I think the refereeing over the first weekend was pretty good. There were a couple of big moments in Dublin but generally there were no major controversies. Even if Dupont’s pass against Wales should have been called forward, it didn’t make any difference in the context of the game!
We saw the 20-minute red card used for the first time in the Six Nations, with Romain Ntamack making history for the wrong reasons in Paris. The French fly-half, for whatever reason, just lost his head and went flying into Wales’ Ben Thomas, and in doing so illustrated my big fear about how the 20-minute red card is used.
That collision was not accidental, it was reckless - and it deserved a straight red card. When you’ve got an incident like that, where it’s not down to a lack of timing and is simply down to a player losing their head and going in with their shoulder, then the 20-minute red card makes a mockery of the laws of the game and how they should be applied.
The 20-minute red should only apply in moments of carelessness, rather than recklessness. I don’t think anybody could argue that Ntamack was trying to make a fair tackle and simply got a bit unlucky in his execution.
This was my big concern all along. Players will still get straight reds for acts of thuggery like punching or headbutting an opponent, but is that necessarily more dangerous than somebody going in with their shoulder with absolutely no attempt at all to wrap?
Ntamack has now been banned for three weeks for the tackle but, of course, this will be reduced to two if he completes ‘tackle school’ - another big let-off for him in my opinion.
As for this weekend, I’ll be back in Scotland to watch them take on Ireland in my role for the BBC. I’m intrigued to see what lies ahead - as ever in the Six Nations, I’m sure there will be plenty more talking points to discuss in my next column!
But let's all remember that players make mistakes, just like referees. Yet, for some reason, social media in particular will always be awash with the match officials' errors, while there is rarely a mention of the players' ones. Who would want to be a referee eh?!
