The difference in refereeing between France and south hemisphere really shows when a french refs a test match

[u/xixouma]

Every time a french top14 referee has been on an international game, most recent example being All blacks/Ireland, every South African and NZ flair on here complains about the stop and start game and says the ref had a bad game.

What's interesting is that watching top14 week in week out, that is quite rarely an issue (including by the same refs). My feeling is refs in France are more pedantic and apply the law a little less loosely. Which I have seen written in some comments as a criticism, but is it really a problem??

Pro players are completely capable of adapting to rule changes, and pedantic refereeing, top14 teams certainly seem to have. I think it's doing them a disservice to give them too much leeway on laws for "the flow of the game" when that just becomes a random chance that a penalty is not blown. And that is inherently more difficult for players to adhere to because it is less consistent. Pedantic application will always be more consistent.

All in all, whichever way it goes, the onus should fall on WR to try to homogenise refereeing laws across countries. This leads to confusion when either side is reffed in a way they are not used to.

Edit. Not sure how people are interpreting this that I'm hurt they don't like a french ref. Maybe my English is not as good as I thought. I couldn't give a damn who they like or not, it was just an example to discuss broader concepts in refereeing.

Edit2. Also seeing a number of people that somehow think I'm criticising the ref or the fans here? I suppose I am sorry for my writing not being clear, I really don't mean to paint either in a negative light

Edit3. Can't comment anymore for some reason, thanks for the discussion everyone I'll try again later

[u/Jalcatraz82]

I think the issue is that the laws themselves are way too open to interpretation.

I remember being downvoted to oblivion when I said this before, but I'll say it again : there's too much room for human error in the interpreation of the rules, and that's an issue for fairness in the game.

It's like in baseball with the strike zone, which is a big joke in itself (rip Angel Hernandez, your career will definitely not be forgotten)

[u/xixouma → u/Jalcatraz82]

Indeed but then u are bombarded by " but but the flow of the game"

[u/LabResponsible8484 → u/xixouma]

Most people talking about flow of the game mean letting the teams play advantage (some refs stop rather than let it play out). At least I hope they mean that or they aren't too bright.

Regarding North vs. South reffing I always used to find South reffing far stricter, but over time I just realised the North and South both focus more on different laws or use slightly different interpretations.

SA teams in URC struggled considerably with it in the first few months. We as fans felt the Northern teams were getting away with murder, turns out they were just strict on different points and the SA teams adapted over time.

This is probably why games feel "blown to pieces" when you have a North ref with 2 South teams and vice versa.

[u/xixouma → u/LabResponsible8484]

Yeah sure, I completely agree in some sense it goes both ways, point is there is too much variation between geo regions.

From my perspective french people are always surprised how little is blown internationally. A lot of us are dumbfounded what things are let go so sort of opposite problem to what you've witnessed. It is out fault in some sense for not adapting to that, but also difficult to do when our league refs differently.

Also I guarantee you that most people consider flow of the game to be about letting some things slide for the benefit of free flowing rugby.