Match Recap: Week 4 BIW vs Portland
Another great match to be a part of this past weekend with a playoff bound D2 side taking on a D1 club. The Irish Cultural Center in Canton is a special place to referee as it’s the closest thing to international rugby you’ll get in the US. A pitch side clubhouse with referee changing room (and shower) and a pub on site for post match feed. Unfortunately, I was severely under dressed with my society tracksuit as most of the Wolfhounds were in coat and tie. Either way it was a great warmup for Gloucester, England as it even drizzled/rain for most of the match.
The weekend started with a U19 match on Friday, under the lights. I was a little late getting to the pitch and the boys were ready to kickoff while I was still warming up. It was their first time with the new scrum sequence and I wanted to make sure it wasn't going to be an issue during our pre-match. Unfortunately the new sequence with pre-binding threw off their confidence and early on it looked like we were running uncontested scrums. They finally got it after some encouragement and a few resets but nearly went to the opposite end of the spectrum with both sides early driving. The match was a little one sided though there were some solid athletes on both sides that scored some fantastic trys. The big plays made the match that much more fun as I spent most of my time coaching the players through phases just to get the ball moving. There was also a funny incident where the flyhalf kicked off the second half before my whistle as I was still in the process of getting my tracksuit off. Lesson learned, hold onto the ball until you’re ready to restart the 2nd half or at least on the pitch.
Saturday was a different story as I was at the pitch an hour and a half ahead of time. A light drizzle started just before kickoff and worsened by the end of the match. I had decided to go ahead with my voice recorder which I was regretting as the rain picked up in the 2nd half but the recording turned out well and no damage was done. Walking away from the pitch and into the locker room was a miserable feeling as there were far too many reset scrums, my FK count was going to be high, both SHs were constantly feeding, and of course I was frozen. I am often my own worst critic and this weekend was no exception as the coaches and captains seemed pleased with my performance...though most will be as soon as the pints are flowing.
The more time I've had to think about this match the better I'm feeling about my performance. Despite both coaches/captains seeming to be pleased after the match it was a different story during. You can hear in the audio where I may have lost my temper a bit and raised my voice to a level I typically try and avoid in response to player decent. There are two moments which stand out early in the 2nd half where players got in my face or were complaining about things that simply weren't an issue. I didn't feel right about my responses during the match but after listening back my concern may have been gratuitous. The 1st is ~2 minutes into the second half where a scrum went down because of poor footing and I was sick of the BIW back row claiming that it was due to Portland's 1 boring. The 2nd is ~5 minutes in where I was calling a knock on by the BIW near the ingoal. A Portland defender got in my face screaming it was a knock while I was trying to signal the call. He apologized shortly after which you can also hear on the recording.
Positioning was much better this match as I outran fewer tackles and used the pocket well. Both are still a work in progress as I adjust to this level of play. Mental focus was also much better as I tested myself by guessing the penalty and free kick counts on a few occasions throughout the match...surprisingly only 1 over each time. Another goal for the weekend was properly managing repeat infringements, especially as play approaches the ingoal. I handled this much better than the previous week, issuing a YC at the 65th minute to the BIWs for repeat in the 22. I warned them ~15 minutes in but Portland didn't smell the goal line again until the 2nd half. I reminded the captain again at the start of the 2nd and warned their replacement captain when the original left at the 60th minute. Portland started attacking again and after 3 penalties (2 back to back) I gave the YC to a replacement player who was also being testy with a few Portland players making it a good time for him sit for 10 minutes.
Couldn't have been more perfect with the penalty count as each team was called for 5 per half for a total of 20. Several advantages gained including a QT and not 10 that led to a try...always sweet :)
There were 5 FKs in the match including an early drive and 2nd for the defense not getting back 10 with no advantage gained. One was for not matching numbers in a line out and I told BIW to match 3 times. Another was for intentionally kicking out of the tunnel which I warned the Portland hooker about and had to call after the 3rd time. The last was for a BIW early lift later in the match and it was so egregious/late in the match that I felt compelled to call.
There were 14 reset scrums with 7 coming in each half. My abbreviated pre-match conversation was likely sufficient but I grew frustrated with the BIW 3 and Portland 1 who were more interested in screwing with each other than scrumming. At the 20th minute, I stepped to the mark and proceeded to go through the minute details of acceptable propping and finished with a, "now let's play actual rugby." I was so occupied by these 2 idiots and poor footing in the 2nd half which is likely why I didn't properly manage early feet up or skewed put-ins. Not surprisingly my friendly reminders of "clean feed" went ignored by both SHs. I should have done a better job of managing both, perhaps by taking them aside and telling both to cut it out before I had to get involved. If they didn't listen FKs, PKs, and cards for feeding would have just as easily cleaned up the reset scrums.
Here's the full audio from the match:
BIW were filming the match and I should get a copy in HD. Hopefully it comes before I leave for Gloucester so I can share/digest it. My guess is this weekend was a great preview/prep for Gloucester given the player tempers and conditions. NERRS match report available in the meantime as always.
