Rugby: Breakdown rules get referees' tick

Stephen Donald is unfazed by the angry crowd before landing the winning penalty. Photo / Getty Images

Referees' boss Lyndon Bray predicted his men would collect some inflated Super 14 abuse as they applied a stricter approach to rugby's contentious tackled ball zone and several other laws.

All eyes were on the breakdown. Coaching staff, administrators, referees and assessors were all working furiously yesterday to collate their thoughts.

"I was generally happy and think we would give it a pass mark for the opening week," high performance referee manager Bray said.

"It was not perfect by any means, but we are intent on being firm and have no intention of watering down our approach. We mean business, we won't back off and we want to get to the stage where player compliance is the norm."

Bray's forecast of abuse nearly took on a sinister outcome in Durban as referee Keith Brown and Chiefs goalkicker Stephen Donald narrowly avoided being hit by a jug of lager.

The clown in the crowd must have been irate to waste his beer in the high humidity as he entered the Pieter van Zyl Hall of Shame.

Van Zyl crossed the line in 2002 at the same venue when he attacked referee David McHugh while the Blues were pelted with bottles there in the early years of the competition.

Crowds were also unruly at the season opener at Albany because they could not get into the ground quickly enough, and those in the park at Bloemfontein had to contend with a mid-match blackout in the middle of their entertainment.

While aerial ping-pong continued in games involving South African teams, it seemed the scourge of last year's rugby landscape had withered in matches in New Zealand and Australia.

As that tedium appeared to be on the wane, the new head-scratcher was all about the breakdown, and outside New Zealand the alleged crackdown on scrums seemed more faltering than fearless.

Even senior South African referee Jonathan Kaplan battled to maintain consistency.

Bray felt the Crusaders and Highlanders had learned a great deal from watching how the Blues and Hurricanes had been refereed in the competition's opening match.

Scrums across the whole competition were still too rushed and Bray accepted the changes were as much a culture shock for the players as the referees.

"But I think in general we saw a lot more frontfoot ball, the pick-and-go figures were down and there was less kicking."

Sharks coach John Plumtree offered a "don't blame the referee, get on with it" plea after his side lost by a single point to the Chiefs, provoking the unruly crowd behaviour in Durban.

Another beaten coach, Pat Lam, accepted his Blues side had to improve after being slapped hard in the breakdown penalty count by Stu Dickinson in their loss to the Hurricanes.

"I think our referees are making a big effort, they are strong on this and we hope it works across the board," Lam said.

Some referees and their offsiders may have been concentrating so much on the breakdown and scrum they relaxed in other areas.

Dickinson and his assistants missed Piri Weepu's blatant dropped catch and awarded him a mark, and Chris Pollock was hung out to dry when assistant Josh Noonan ruled a ball was out when, in fact, the Highlanders had scored from a Crusaders' mistake.

In Perth, warhorse Stirling Mortlock became the first player to break the 1000-point barrier in Super rugby, and former Blues five-eighths Carlos Spencer stepped out for half a game against the Lions in Johannesburg to claim a remarkable record of playing in the first and 15th season of the competition.

There were penalty goals galore, and the Bulls and Crusaders were the only sides to collect a bonus point for four tries or more in their victories.

Yellow cards got a workout and after a revival of interstate spite between the Reds and Waratahs, there were a number of judicial hearings.