Coventry
Away Day Blues Again
By Whistle Watcher
September 27 2021
I DECIDED to give it a day or two before I published this week's front-page update.
There were two main reasons for this:
One; I couldn't get to the game (Ampthill is one I normally go to if it falls in the lighter days sections of the season, and especially as it's relatively local, which means I can drive there. However, SWMBO had already made plans for the (sorry, her) car, so I was out of luck. Or maybe I was in luck?
Two; the immediate post-match reaction was, to put it bluntly, emotive and emotional. It seemed appropriate to delay slightly.
There was a third reason too (although that was down to communications between the parties required to come up with said article, but that's rather by-the-by).
So then. Now that the dust has hopefully settled a little, here's the missive, which on this occasion I decided would be more appropriate coming from the keyboard of one of our other contributors, who is much, much closer to the match officials than most of us, given some of the forum commentary.
Steve.
Now, over to you, Whistle Watcher
Let's start with a disclaimer - anything you are about to read is from my head and based on the way I saw the game last weekend. If you can call it a game.
Considering we were on the field for almost two hours by the time the final whistle went (more about that later), you'd have thought it was an epic match of nip and tuck with moments of rare skill, brilliance and tactical wonder.
But you'd be wrong.
The first half hour was pretty well dominated by Ampthill kicking penalties that we gave away for various offences. It felt to me as though we were only there to give them away, at one point until, with a rather sarcastic cheer from the Cov travelling support, we were given a scrum. There wasn't a lot for our travellers to cheer about in the first half though, to be fair. We didn't create anything from the possession we did have, and we seemed to turn the ball over in breakdown a lot as well which either means our support players weren't quick enough or that Ampthill's defence were that much quicker to the breakdown.
I don't remember us being very successful at turning their ball over which possibly had a bit to do with the number of bodies they had on top of the ball carrier every time they went into contact. Our referee for the day didn't see it the same way as I did though, so they carried on, as you would.
Despite Ampthill having the ball for most of the first half, they never looked as though they would threaten our goal line, but we were so poor with ball in hand that we looked similarly bereft of ideas.
The half time tea must have done something, because the second half saw us take the game to them better. We scored three well worked tries, but I think we left more on the pitch, butchering a couple of more than decent opportunities towards the end of the game. Given that Rhys Thomas' challenge on their fullback warranted a yellow card and was the final penalty they scored against us (taking 18-19 to 21-19) was a blow, especially in light of some of the antics of their support players but I suppose that's one of the punches (word selected advisedly, btw) we had to roll with.
The final whistle came a little earlier than expected, having just been told there was a minute remaining – presumably one of those they wasted getting to re-starts when we had scored, but it wasn't to be. We won an attacking scrum in good field position, but were denied the time to take it, which is probably what pissed me off more than anything else.
I've been asked to write this to give a view of the referee's performance but I think he and his team made fewer mistakes than we did, one of ours being not to adapt to his interpretation of offside (1) and rolling away (2). IMHO, we can't afford to rely on the referee, whoever it is, to see the game the same way as we do, and we need to be able to adapt to their view much quicker than we did this week.
That's not to say I (personally) agree with all the decisions he made - or didn't make, as the case may be, but then that would be the reason why he's refereeing in the second level of the national game, and I'm not.
Pics: Nick Meredith
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27/09/2021 17:40
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021:10:02:13:19:55 by Kimbo.
As I have mentionen elsewhere, you might not like the opponents tactics but they are there to be beaten and overcome. You may not agree with the refs interpretation of the laws but your team has to adapt to that.
For me this season, including friendlies, we are taking too long to get going and the first half in general has been poor.
It is still early days, but these are things we need to get on top of quickly. Like carrying the ball into contact too high and getting held up and the ball ripped or just creating a messy breakdown where we get out numbered and players get pinned in.
But we have the basic components and the players to become one of the best teams in this league - and do it with style.
Lets back the boys - Gwan Cov!
A few years ago, when we had similar problems, Aggie was tasked with 'winding' the team up pre-match - maybe it's time to get the old boy back in the fold...
Quote:BackTenRef?
Referees are paid for their work. Expecting consistency from one week to another isn’t unreasonable. The championship is a product people pay to watch. It’s people’s livelihoods. Allowing teams to kill the game through time wasting ( 50 minute halves!) takes away from that so will ultimately turn supporters off and will ultimately lead to a reduction in revenue for all clubs.
It's happening at the top of the game with the world champions employing time wasting tactics and 10 man rugby. They beat the Lions and nearly beat the All Blacks by doing so. Whilst it's successful teams will keep doing it...
Quote:BackTenRef?
Expecting consistency from one week to another isn’t unreasonable.
As long as different people are refereeing different matches, you will never have consistency in decision making. Ask a room full of referees about a specific decision (shown on video, for example) what the decision is / should be, and you will get a consistent answer from the group.
Problem is that no two match situations are the same, so you won't get the same thing twice.
Quote:Egg TimerQuote:BackTenRef?
Expecting consistency from one week to another isn’t unreasonable.
As long as different people are refereeing different matches, you will never have consistency in decision making. Ask a room full of referees about a specific decision (shown on video, for example) what the decision is / should be, and you will get a consistent answer from the group.
Problem is that no two match situations are the same, so you won't get the same thing twice.
It would be very nice to have consistent treatment of the two teams in the same game.
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