By Witchwood
July 18 2003

So the end has come, the final installment of the interview is here. Spreaders answers more questions and leaves us in the knowledge that there will be "more later..."

CAW: How do you deal with deliberate time wasting by feigning of injuries?

Spreaders: Simple, I stop the watch and that’s it. If a player says he’s injured and wants treatment, he can have it. You can’t say to him “get up, you’re not injured”, you’d be laying yourself open to all kinds of litigation if you got it wrong. I think that it’s happening less these days because we’ve got the timekeeping right, we used not to always stop the watch for those kind of things.


CAW: Do you find that the players understand the offside law well?

Spreaders: As it applies to their position, yes. Tens know where they can go, sevens and sixes know where they can go. Personally I think sevens and sixes know a lot more about the laws than they make out! So generally, it’s pretty good for that and all other laws, but if they knew them perfectly they’d be refereeing and not playing, wouldn’t they?


CAW: How do you deal with technical offences such as persistent killing of the ball or persistent offside?

Spreaders: The yellow card is a tool which we can use, as a personal view I don’t think we should use the “three strikes rule” exclusively. If someone kills the ball cynically for the first time, he should be off to the bin. It’s more important to get free, clean ball within the first twenty minutes than to bin someone in the sixtieth or seventieth minute. Players want to play, so I’ll warn them once in the dressing room, if you commit a professional foul or kill the ball you’ll be binned. I’ll tell them, “I don’t want to use the yellow so that it’s fourteen against twelve or something, I want to keep all fifteen on the pitch, but you’ve got to work with me, lads”. If I give a yellow card, I want the crowd to think, “that twat deserved it”.


CAW: If you could make one change to the laws, what would it be?

Spreaders: Stop all movement in the lineout until the ball has been thrown in. It’s like bloody Morris dancing sometimes, up, down, in, out. Let’s stop all that. Go back to basics, you come to the line, we check the numbers, we get the gap, the ball’s thrown in. Happy days.


CAW: Which aspects of foul play merit an automatic red card?

Spreaders: It’s a complex, physical game. Safety is paramount, and almost as important is the image that the game portrays. If I had my way, I’d say yellow card only for technical offences, red card for all foul play. If we did that, things would go mad in September, but come October, everybody would know. At the moment though it’s policed a little differently. If for example, Jason Leonard and Kevin Yates get in a scrap, I’ll say to them “come here”, press the secrecy button if I had it, and we’ll have a conversation along the lines of “Have you two finished?” “Yeah, I suppose so”, “Well, go back and get on with the game then”. On the other hand, if Mr.X the nineteen stone forward has hit a ten stone back and knocked him out, he’s got to go, it’s red. It’s very difficult. I think anyone that’s throwing more than one punch nowadays has got to go, for the sake of the image of the game, but of course that’s not written down explicitly in the laws. The law says if you punch someone, you get reprimanded, cautioned, or sent off. So, for every act of foul play, I’ve got three options. Rucking is part of the game though, I enjoy seeing people rucked fairly and correctly out of the way of the ball, you lot go mad though, and in France it’s getting even worse, any feet on the body and the crowd are on your back. Feet on heads, neck or above, that’s a red card though and the players know that.


CAW: How do you deal with being offered “advice” by players during a game?

Spreaders: I enjoy the banter! Give me advice if you want, but don’t expect me to listen to it! If the game is on the telly and you’re shouting at me, you’re running the risk of being sent off though. But I really do enjoy the banter. Tony Diprose, Jason Leonard, they’re tremendous people. I might get Keith Wood saying to me after the match “Spreaders, you gave us a hard time today”, and I’d point out that the penalty count was something like 7 to 3 in Quins’ favour, he’d start to bluster and backtrack. Great banter, if you lose that from the game you might as well start going to football.


CAW: What’s your position on coaching and “advice” coming from the bench while they’re warming up?

Spreaders: Well, the ref is in charge of the playing enclosure, which is the field of play plus the bit round the edge, so if things got out of hand we’d be able to deal with it. To be honest with you, with a game in progress you don’t tend to notice it. Half the time they’re doing it to wind you lot up!


CAW: Do you approach games differently depending on which teams are playing?

Spreaders: No, never have done. It’s what happens on the day that counts, not what teams or individuals have done or not done in previous matches. I’ll approach each game in much the same way. Players might do things differently though. They’ll want to know who’s reffing them on the Saturday so they can plan and adapt their game to the different refereeing style. The thing they hate most and can’t cope with is when you get a change of referee on a Friday night. “Oh, God, we never planned for you today! We don’t want a fast, free flowing game, we want to win!”


CAW: What does the law say about quick lineouts, and when they can and can’t be taken?

Spreaders: It’s got to be the same ball, the person taking the throw must have been the only player to have touched it since it went into touch, it can’t have touched a spectator, although it can come into contact with the advertising hoardings, that’s OK, and providing it’s thrown in straight, it can be taken anywhere from the point where it went into touch right back to your own goal line. Also, you can’t take a quick lineout if a proper lineout has been formed at the correct place, that means two from each side. So, if you’re planning to take a quick one, you don’t put two of your own players in the correct place. You might walk towards it, that’s OK, but you don’t form it! If that happens you get some stick from the other side “The lineout’s formed ref!”, but if there’s not two from each side, it’s carry on, you should have been watching properly!


CAW: If advantage is being played in the opposition’s half, and an incident of serious foul play (by the defending side) occurs, do you continue to play advantage and let the attacking side score, or do you immediately blow up for foul play?

Spreaders: It all depends on what’s happening. I had to send a Llanelli player off against Perpignan in a similar situation, if I hadn’t stopped the game there and then we’d have had World War 3. If possible though, I’ll say “playing advantage, I’ve seen that”, get on with the game, and deal with the foul play once play stops for another reason.


CAW: Do you think Northern and Southern hemisphere referees approach games differently?

Spreaders: Well, since 1996, when the first NH three man team was sent to the SH to officiate, things have been getting steadily better and better in that respect. I don’t think there’s all that much difference now, and I think you’ll find that there was a recent IRB study which backs that up. Maybe a penalty difference either way, but nothing much.


CAW: Well, thanks very much for that, Spreaders. As a follow up to this, would you be prepared to do a Q&A evening with the supporters at the Stoop?

Spreaders: I’d be delighted to. Give me a ring and we’ll fix a date.


EXEUNT