By Canadian Press

Rugby referees have plenty to say during games — and everyone can listen

Oct 25, 2023 | 8:42 AM

After a flare-up at an English club rugby game between London Irish and the Worcester Warriors, referee Wayne Barnes called the offending players over and calmly read them the riot act.

“I understand this is an important game. Loads of pressure,” said Barnes, a lawyer when not being a top-flight official. “But you’ve still got a lot of games in the season. If you two carry on like this, we’ll just get two other players on (the field). OK? Understand?”

Suitably chastened, the two players shook hands and got back to business.

When it comes to communication between players and officials, the sport of rugby likely leads the pack. And, as evidenced at the current World Cup in France, viewers get to hear it all with referees wearing a microphone.

They usually have plenty to say.

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“I think what we’re seeing at the World Cup are the referees who are the best in the world,” said Canadian referee Julianne Zussman. “And they’re the best in the world because of their communication with players.

“That’s really the art of refereeing. It’s how to manage a game. Anybody can blow a whistle and know the laws and apply the laws. But it’s understanding the nuance and understanding when not to blow your whistle.”

In the hard-hitting world of international rugby, keeping a lid on things is part of a referee’s job. But so is explaining the sport’s myriad of rules, many of which are subject to interpretations.

So it is common to hear referees bark instructions, yelling “stay back” at defenders creeping towards an offside position or “hands away” to a player not in legal position to wrest the ball away in a ruck.

“You’ve got to be way more disciplined,” Australian referee Angus Gardner told Argentine captain Julian Montoya after detailing a laundry list of maul violations his team had just committed early in the Pumas’ recent 44-6 semifinal loss to New Zealand at the World Cup.

“Well done, No. 3. Well done,” Gardner told Argentina’s Francisco Gomez Lodela after the Argentine prop rolled away after making a tackle on All Blacks hooker Codie Taylor so as not to slow down the New Zealand ball.

The idea is to keep the game flowing. And with penalties possibly resulting in three points via a kick at the posts, they can determine the outcome.

“I think that’s one thing that we do really well in our sport — how we get our messages across and make sure that players, fans and stakeholders understand how the game is being facilitated,” said Canadian referee Moe Chaudhry.

Unless their soccer counterparts, rugby players also know who’s boss on the field. They routinely defer to the referee.

“You never are negotiating decisions because ultimately the sport allows enough respect from players, stakeholders and coaches everyone to understand that the referee is the sole judge on the park making decisions,” said Chaudhry.

Not doing so comes with consequences. Barnes famously sent off Northampton’s Dylan Hartley in the 2013 Aviva Premiership final for calling him a cheat, with an F-bomb thrown in for good measure. The former England captain insisted the slur wasn’t directed at the referee but Barnes had already warned him about his language.

Northampton went on to lose 37-17 to Leicester and Hartley, whose disciplinary record was already comprehensive, was subsequently banned for 11 weeks, missing the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia as a result.

Chaudhry, a 33-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., has worked as both referee and assistant referee on the international front as well the HSBC SVNS, formerly known as the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series. He also works Major League Rugby games.

When not running rugby games, he is a Chick-fil-A franchisee. A former Tim Hortons franchisee, he also spent time as athletic director at Bill Crothers Secondary School in Markham, Ont.

Chaudhry said while he knew his playing skills would not carry him far in the sport, officiating gave him a chance to remain in and grow with the game he loves. So he spent a year in each of New Zealand and Australia on university exchanges, honing his officiating skills while attending the University of Otago in 2011 and Curtin University in Perth, Australia, in 2013.

Zussman has gone from Canadian international to officiating on the world stage. The Victoria native has worked  the Tokyo Olympics, Women’s World Cup and World Cup Sevens, among other assignments, since retiring as a player in 2018.

The 36-year-old Zussman, whose day job is as program coordinator of the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner Program, became in 2019 the first Canadian test player to referee at international level on the HSBC Sevens Series.

A fullback, she won 44 caps for Canada and took part in three World Cups.

She says one of the toughest steps in the transition was learning how to “come across authentically and how to be myself and let my personality show a little bit.”

“At first it was a challenge to learn how to balance being really consistent and fair and rules-based with being a human being,” she added. “Over time that’s something that’s become a lot more comfortable for me.”

On Saturday, Barnes will be working with an all-English crew of assistant referees Karl Dickson and Matthew Carley and television match official Tom Foley as the World Cup final between No. 1 South Africa and No. 2 New Zealand.

Connected electronically, the four work together as one.

“The modern game is so fast and so dynamic that it’s extremely hard for one referee to be able to facilitate a just match,” said Chaudhry, whose next assignment is the Nov. 3-4  Pan American Games rugby sevens in Santiago, Chile.

Barnes is the world’s most-capped referee with 110 tests under his belt. The 44-year-old, who made his debut in June 2006 taking charge of a Fiji-Samoa match in Suva, becomes the second Englishman to officiate a Rugby World Cup final (Ed Morrison was in charge of the 1995 final between New Zealand and South Africa).

It will be a record 27th World Cup match for Barnes, in his fifth tournament, and his sixth of this tournament, tying his record of 2019.

Soccer has begun to take baby steps towards improved communications with referees explaining the result of video review at the FIFA Women’s World Cup and other select events recently. 

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 25, 2023.

Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press