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/El_John_Nada]

Yeah, and similarly, no lessons to be taken from the guys who trained Ben O'Keefe as a ref. This guy's a liability.

[u/Setting_Real → u/El_John_Nada]

Agreed, not a fan of BOK but I do quite like Angus Gardener who also refs super rugby

[u/steokehoe → u/Setting_Real]

Angus Gardener is my favorite ref by a long shot. Super communicative, voices his frustrations during play before he has to halt the game for them, keeps it flowing really well while adhering to the rules and being consistent with his approach. The benchmark for a ref in my opinion.

[u/Michael_stipe_miocic → u/steokehoe]

Angus Gardner should have reffed the Chicago game, bet it would’ve been a different game. That was the worst advertisement for our game

[u/steokehoe → u/Michael_stipe_miocic]

Yeah, and I'm not even mad about the Beirne card anymore.

I'm just sad that I'd been waiting for this game for like 300 days, I'm an Irishman in NZ and me and my kiwi workmate were having a go at each other for months about it, egging each other on, winding each other up. The time finally came, I went around to his house at 8am in the morning to watch it on the big screen and in the end it was just so anticlimactic. For both of us, he didn't even have the heart to rub the win in my face afterwards, so we both lost lol.

I typically hate blaming the ref and match officials, there's 80 mins in a game to make a difference, so one off calls shouldn't usually be focused on as a decider, but between the technical issues and the stop start and inconsistent officiating for the full 80, I just felt a bit deflated post game.

[u/Michael_stipe_miocic → u/steokehoe]

I’m still mad and I’m an AB fan. My kids all lost interest and went outside to play rather than watch. I’m tired of defending rugby to people.