I’ve been watching the six nations over the weekend and wanted to post this then, but of course Tim Sherwood’s appointment and the Leicester game were far more important, hence it’s had to go on the back burner.
I’ll hold my hands up and say that I’m not a Rugby fan at all and don’t really watch it.
It just doesn’t grab me in the same way as football does, but the missus loves it, especially the England games, hence we have it on the telly and you can’t help having a glance when the crowd starts winding up and something’s happening.
But there are things that I think Rugby does way better than Football.
First off, is being able to hear the referee. This for me, is brilliant, as you get an explanation of what he’s thinking. Whether you agree with the explanation is another thing, but at least you get one.
That’d put a stop to any not understanding why a decision was made.
There’s also the plus point where you can hear how the players speak to the ref in response.
Perhaps we’ve got to the stage where footy players give refs total abuse and it’s accepted, hence putting a mike on is not a good idea?
I’m not sure, but whatever, it strikes me football referees don’t have the same authority as it seems Rugby referees do, where the decision is final and just not up for debate.
Any slight sign of dissent is met with a reprimand and then a sending off.
I’d love this in football.
Second is where the clock gets stopped when there’s an injury or whatever.
Why this doesn’t happen in Football, is just beyond me.
It cuts out time-wasting at a stroke, something I’m sure we’d all like to see.
Or is that just part of the drama, that is all part of the Premier league/Champions league design, that is there purely to help wind us up?
Finally, there’s the video replays.
I know the criticism here. It stops the flow of the game.
My response to that is “so what?”
The referee gets a second opinion, where things are viewed from multiple angles.
Surely this can only be good, as we get more accurate decisions?
Even with slow motion shots, thing can still be debatable in my opinion, so it’s not like we’d be sanitizing the game entirely.
I know we have goal line technology, but how often has it been used?
Not much, I’d suggest.
No, I think we have to accept that Football is way behind the times in these areas.
Thoughts?
