Concern over refereeing

By BEN JAYCOCK

Chester fourth official Martin Buck was part of the elite refereeing group between 2007-12 and believes the standards of officiating outside the Premiership is in serious decline.

Buck was frustrated this season as he watched ‘poor decisions’ being made in National Two West and isn’t alone with criticism of referees across the RFU pyramid rapidly increasing.

At a time when numerous senior clubs have folded, as well as junior setups, Buck is also concerned about the state of officiating across the game with touch judges in particular offered very little or if any training at all.

He told The Rugby Paper: “In regards to the standards of officiating, I have seen some very poor teams of three, where you’ve got a guy in the middle who is reliant on input from the sidelines, who haven’t seen a coach or had any education on their match performances all year. We haven’t got a touch judge coach in the north west at all, there’s one in the north east, the south west are certainly more blessed and I don’t know about the south east.

“I see a vast difference in the scaling of pressure on referees because when I was running touch going up into the Premiership, I was watched up to eight times a season which they don’t get anymore. Referee coaches are doing everything over video calls and that’s not good first hand training as far as I’m concerned but it’s cost cutting and it’s all coming from the central budget.”

Buck calls for support from the RFU but doesn’t hold much hope, believing their attention is solely on the top of the game. He added: “They are putting all their eggs into the Premiership and international side. The grassroots game is suffering and this is just one example.”