Consecutive penalties

[Cross]

Just happened (Stormers vs Bulls): ref tells Blues' captain that they've committed 4 consecutive penalties in the last 5 minutes and therefore he is giving 14 a YC (last Blues player who committed a penalty). I have two questions:

1) If all the penalties had been done by different players and if the last one was done by a player that had a YC before this, does the ref have the option to YC one of the players who committed previous penalties to avoid a RC? Is this at his discretion?

2) Why 4 penalties and not 3? Or 5? Is there a directive about this or is it again at the ref's discretion? (in this particular case the penalties were quite all over the place territory wise).

Thanks in advance.

[Pegleg]

Law 10.3

[Cross]

That is one of the reason why i am asking. There was no "general warning" here. Can the ref avoid that general warning (as per 10.3) and then YC a player for a simple (i.e. non YC worthy on its own) penalty?

[Pegleg]

How do you know that there was no warning? And secondly, why not include that "fact" in the original question?

[Cross]

To answer your questions

How do you know that there was no warning?

I was watching the game, you can listen to the what the ref is saying quite clearly through skysports, so it is quite simple to know whether he issued a warning or not

How do you know that there was no warning?

Because as a rule of thumb, you generally display evidence of what happened, not of what didn't happen. I didn't mention he didn't warn a player for foul play (which he did not because it didn't happen), nor that he did not warned the Stormers' #9 for foul play (which didn't happen either).

[VM75]

If a referee has decided that offence number #4 warrants a YC then the player committing #4 should get it, seeking out a previous offender isn't advisable IMHO.

The team 'Repeat' offender might appear unlucky but if one of my players was already on a YC then I'd expect him to be operating 'squeaky clean' and not giving the referee the opportunity.

Personally after x3 in 4mins [at most levels above 10] I'd be giving a loud 'preventative' warning to the Captain of the offending team, so that if they continued offending then my escalation comes as no surprise to them.

hmmmnnn, Maybe we should have a secondary signal to make spectators aware of 'behaviour change needed quickly' status .... white card anyone????

[Pegleg]

To answer your questions


I was watching the game, you can listen to the what the ref is saying quite clearly through skysports, so it is quite simple to know whether he issued a warning or not


Because as a rule of thumb, you generally display evidence of what happened, not of what didn't happen. I didn't mention he didn't warn a player for foul play (which he did not because it didn't happen), nor that he did not warned the Stormers' #9 for foul play (which didn't happen either).

The reason for including it in the question is because, from your reply to my response, that is why you asked the question. Your reply to my post indicates you were aware of the relevant law. So your question, to my mind, should have beenstright ti: "Does the referee have to give a warning?". Regarding sky's coverage, they often talk over the referee so the viewer does not get to hear everything.

[Nigib]

Personally after x3 in 4mins [at most levels above 10] I'd be giving a loud 'preventative' warning to the Captain of the offending team, so that if they continued offending then my escalation comes as no surprise to them.

Agree; possibly after 2, depending on circumstances/level of game

Maybe we should have a secondary signal to make spectators aware of 'behaviour change needed quickly' status .... white card anyone????

Not for me. Giving that indication so visibly boxes me in to having to YC at the next offence. I'd rather have the latitude to give a final, final warning if I so choose. And there may be occasions when I bin on second or any number of offences without warning. It's up to me to set the level, and then be consistent, and this could/may change with each match.

Crunch L7 between 1st and 2nd last season, I binned for 3rd pen offence after a warning just before HT. Coach storms up to me and 'queries' on his way to the huddle - apparently there's a difference between attacking and defending repeat offences at this level, and since the PK sequence had been defence, defence, attack, I had no reason to YC. Oh how we laughed.