Rugby: Refereeing of ruck may take time to sort out

Aaron Cruden. Photo / Christine Cornege

Do not expect players to get to grips with what referees are trying to do at the breakdown until round four or five of the Super 15.

Crusaders and All Black halfback Andy Ellis said the feeling was it was still a bit of a lottery as to how the officials would rule the contentious ruck area.

"We're not too sure how refs are reffing it at the moment. We think it will take until the fourth or fifth round until refs have been able to watch enough games to get a really good feel for what the happy medium is - what's acceptable and what's not," Ellis said.

The Crusaders tonight "travel" north to Napier for a home game against the Chiefs, coming off a loss to the Highlanders, a match where they felt they were beaten at the collision.

"We knew that's what the Highlanders were going to do, but we just didn't quite match it. After that we know that's where other teams, including the Chiefs, are going to come at us," Ellis said.

Sanzar referees' boss Lyndon Bray and his team have targeted the breakdown for special attention this year.

They felt that after the good gains of 2010, players had been allowed too much leeway last year.

Of particular concern was the attacking team's players leaving their feet at the breakdown to seal off the ball, effectively preventing the tackle area from being a contest for possession. That had the spin-off effect of the defence refusing to commit numbers to the breakdown, knowing they would not get access to the ball, and instead fanning out in a seemingly impenetrable wall.

But it's not the officials who the Chiefs are most concerned about tonight.

First five-eighths Aaron Cruden said his team were keen to right the wrongs of their scoreless second half against the Blues.

"I thought our first half was outstanding, we were able to pick up four tries in the first 40 minutes and then we went into cruise mode a little bit in that second half," Cruden said. "It was disappointing for us. We've talked about that as a group and addressed a few issues that we can tidy up and we'll look to do so again [tonight]."

CRUSADERS

Napier, 7.35 tonight

Sean Maitland
Israel Dagg
Robbie Fruean
Adam Whitelock
Zac Guildford
Tyler Bleyendaal
Andy Ellis
Kieran Read (c)
Matt Todd
George Whitelock
Tom Donnelly
Luke Romano
Owen Franks
Corey Flynn
Ben Franks

Crusaders: Quentin MacDonald, Wyatt Crockett, Sam Whitelock, Luke Whitelock, Willi Heinz, Tom Taylor, Tom Marshall.

CHIEFS

Robbie Robinson
Lelia Masaga
Richard Kahui
S Bill Williams
T Nanai-Williams
Aaron Cruden
T Kerr-Barlow
Kane Thompson
Tanerau Latimer
Liam Messam
Brodie Retallick
Craig Clarke (c)
Ben Tameifuna
M Schwalger
Sona Taumalolo

Chiefs: Hika Elliot, Shane Cleaver, Mike Fitzgerald, Sam Cane, Augustine Pulu, Andrew Horrell, Jackson Willison.