Assistant coach of the Springboks, Gary Gold has performed an in-depth analysis of the refs in the first round of this year’s super 14.

A copy of the article can be found on Gary’s rugby page.

Interestingly there were 2 local derbies in each country, and the penalty counts varied significantly when compared to the other match also in the same country. Are the refs being consistent? That for me is the biggest problem in rugby. It’s not that one ref is good, or one bad, it is the fact that they can differ so vastly from 1 game to the next, the poor players don’t know how to play.

That is the aim of these new law interpretations, but it’s silly to think players cannot concentrate fully on simply playing the game. They have to worry how the ref is going to handle the game, and that is not good for the game.

A great example was the game between the Sharks and Cheetahs in round 2. I thought Jonathan Kaplan was quite average, and after he was replaced at half-time by Pro Legoete the way the game was handled changed significantly.

Gary also discovered that 73% of the penalties in week 1 were awarded to the attacking side. Whilst this is a change SANZAR wanted, I don’t believe it is healthy for attacking sides to know that they are unlikely to be penalised unless something extreme happens. Both sides should be able to compete for the ball, and I’d probably prefer a 50-60% average for the attacking side.