Clive Talks-Refs Northern & Southern Hemisphere
Sir Clive Woodward
By Kath 25/3/04
April 7 2004
Sir Clive Woodward England's Head Coach talks to Zurich's Andrew Titheridge about referees both Northern and Southern Hemisphere!!
For immediate
release: 25 March 2004
Issued on behalf of Zurich
Zurich Daily Report with Clive Woodward
Speaking on www.zurichpremiership.com
Andrew Titheridge: You
will see the referee tomorrow, it's a Northern Hemisphere referee, is that good
news for England or does that not really make any difference?
Sir Clive Woodward: It is not a case of being Northern or Southern
it just depends on the individual referee. We have Alain Roland and he is the
best around. I think that he has been picked because he speaks fluent French. We
know him well, we have had him loads of times and I am surprised that he did not
go further in the World Cup, he is almost too young, which is a shame because I
think that his refereeing performance in the World Cup was probably one of the
best.
Along with Paddy O'Brien, I am surprised that we did not see him in the
Semi-Finals or Final. So he is one of the top referees in the world. We will
meet him as usual, go through our usual stuff, and have a cup of tea with him.
There has been quite a lot talked about the referees since the World Cup Final
but hand on heart you look at referees and see afterwards whether they affected
the result and the answer is always no. The guy in the World Cup Final was
probably the closest we have come but even in the loss to Ireland when we had a
few issues with the referee, we looked afterwards and asked did it affect the
result, and no it was down to us, not the referee. So there are different
interpretations and every referee is a little different.
Alain Rowland is funnily enough one of the few international referees who has
played international rugby. He played for Ireland at scrum half and he gets very
close to the ruck because he is used to it, he has no fear of it and because he
is close we have to be clinically clean because he gets the closest to the
action of any referee.
Other referees, who are less comfortable around the contact area, sometimes
stand ten metres away and they tend to miss a few more things but we like him
and the French like him and once again we hope that the result is not affected
by the referee.
Andrew Titheridge: Is there a difference between Northern and
Southern hemisphere referees or has that gap been closed?
Sir Clive Woodward: No, you have these meetings and you go through
all the various things and, honestly, they are all saying the same thing, you
can't say that's what the Southern Hemisphere do and that's what the Northern
Hemisphere do, they are all saying the same thing.
It is more down to the individual referees interpretation, sometimes you have
someone that has just come from a Super Twelve tournament, they don't tend to
referee the contact areas as closely as the Northern Hemisphere referees but in
terms of understanding the laws of the game there is no difference, it is
totally uniform and nothing to do with where they come from.
We now do an analysis on the referee, especially looking at the last two games,
picking out what he is strong at and then when we have a conversation with him
we mention this to him and they tend to agree but they have all got their little
ideas about how to create a great game of rugby.
You have got to know how to coach your players on how to play the game. I think
that the meetings are really healthy, if the referees say something on the
Friday that they are going to do, you have just got to make sure that the team
react on the Saturday. But it is a two way thing and we ask him what he is
expecting of us and is there anything that he wants to tell us.
They do their homework; they are full time professional referees. Alain Rowland
is full time referee he will have watched our games against Ireland and Wales
and he will try and watch out for the trends so that he goes in mentally
prepared as well.
But as I said, with the exception of the World Cup Final, where the referee
nearly came close to influencing the outcome of the game but fortunately we won
the World Cup and we put that argument to bed as well. In six years I have never
been able to say a referee has cost us that game or the referee has won us that
game.
ENDS