I guess there are... click here for the full story. Hello all,
USARFU has said for years that ropes are to be used at every match to keep
extra players, coaches, and spectators away from the pitch. There are a
bunch of reason this needs to happen, but the three biggest in my mind are:
1) to keep everyone on the sideline away from the action on the field. Over
the last couple of years I have seen 5 people hurt who were standing on the
sideline, when players were tackled in to touch. 2 very serious. None of us
want to see spectators hurt, nor do we want to deal with any law suite that
comes alone because we didn't make it safe to watch a rugby match.
2) To keep anyone from rushing the field when a fight or a punchup starts
up. The ref, players, and TJ's can handle what happens on the pitch, as long
as another 20 people from the sideline don't rush the field. Again I have
seen this happen to many times over the last couple of years also.
3) To cut down on the amount of ref abuse from the sideline. The number 1
reason people don't become refs, is they don't want to go out and be
verbally abused from the sideline, and with out ropes to keep people back
from the field, the abuse, and opportunity for physical abuse is raised.
There have been plenty of case's over the last couple of years where ref's
were attacked by fans, coaches, or extra players. This can not be tolerated.
We are already in a ref shortage, and something as little as putting up
ropes should be easy to help fix this problem.
So starting Sept 1 when matches start, all matches in SERRS coverage zone
will have ropes on both sidelines. Refs will not ref a match unless they are
up and done well enough to keep people back. If a ref travels and the ropes
are not up, the ref will not do the match, and the home team will be
expected to pay his normal match fee for his time to travel to there pitch.
We are one of the few areas left that still plays matches with out these
ropes up, and we will not be able to do it anymore. The liability issues
involved with not doing this are to large to continue like we have in the
past.
If you want ideas on ropes, how to put them up, or even on what to use to
roll them up, please let me know, I will happy to assist in any way I can.
Cheers
Mike Cobb
Chairman
SouthEast Rugby Referee Society (SERRS)
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