Respect My Authoritaaaaaah! Part 3

In the final installment of our chat with three of Finland's top refs, we explore the more personal sides of the game in Finland, both the good and the bad. As always, the names have been changed to protect the 'innocent'!

Ruck Tales (RT): What is the best incident of good-sportsmanship you have seen during a game?

Ref 3: It’s quite common for a team meeting an opposition low in numbers to lend players, which sometimes results in losing the game. But all players still have good fun!

Ref 2: At Snow Rugby this year, during Porvoo v Kotka. A Porvoo player broke his leg in 3 places with the only ambulance booked for the day having driven off for relatively minor injuries. One or two of the Kotka players were paramedics and so they stayed with him for about 25 minutes and made sure he was ok.

Ref 1: I’ve seen it many times from many teams: one side turns up with too few players and the other team lend their players, agree to change the numbers in the scrum, accept uncontested scrums, etc etc, and yet choose not to claim a forfeit but play the game and if they lose are still happy to let the other side walk away with the competition points. Always terrific to see that happen.

(Photo by Rod McCracken - Who done it?!: the officials had their hands full when Cyprus visited Finland in June)

 RT: And the worst?

Ref 1: I can’t recall a single incident that would qualify as the worst beyond the red cards I’ve had to dish out over the years.

Ref 3: Violence in general. Rugby is a sport where players can show physicality within the boundaries of the law, so why throw a punch or worse?

Ref 2: No teams mentioned, but many years ago there was a serious leg injury to a player (a compound break) and the opposition were moaning for him to leave the field so they could get on with the match as their bus was leaving at a certain time and they wanted to be home on time. There was no respect or concern for the injured player whatsoever.

 (Photo by Rod McCracken - 'One for the ref': rugby players always have the decency to thank the ref.)

RT: People on the sidelines often enjoy vocalising their opinions on the reffing – what’s it like having all those people shouting at you when you’re trying to do your job?

Ref 3: Frankly, I don’t hear them. Or to be more precise I only hear those from people whose opinion I value (and usually they shout if I make a mistake, bad call or bad positioning and they’re spot on). In those cases, I make a conscious effort to refocus - pretty much like coaching.

Ref 1: I don’t hear people on the side very much at all during a match, but of course you know they’re there. The supporters in Finland generally don’t vocalise their complaints at the ref though; if there is a bad call my experience is that they tend to grumble to the person next to them and only one or two shout across the field. They’re also quite respectful and as long as they understand why you’ve given something they’ll generally accept it and move on, as do the players. Learning to communicate to the crowd (distinctive whistle tones, short/loud verbal cues, and good secondary signalling) really helps with this.

Ref 2: At the start I was very conscious of it, but now I just switch off and concentrate on the game. If only all these ‘sideline refs’ actually wanted to, or took the time to, become ‘proper’ refs, we wouldn’t have a shortage of refs in Finnish rugby!

Personally if I heard something very nasty said to any official, I would now stop the game and ask both captains to request that person leave the sidelines or the game wouldn’t restart (I nearly did this in Snow Rugby this year but the individual left when I asked him to - yes, he was drunk).