Rugby referees could soon get the chance to explain contentious decisions on a weekly basis, with URC head of referees, Tappe Henning, indicating his willingness to explore such a platform.
However, they will stop short on allowing their match officials to conduct post-match interviews in order to protect officials from the growing menace of online abuse.
While not exactly mirroring the elements that form the Premier League’s weekly review programme with their head of referees, Howard Webb, where he reviews VAR decisions, URC head of referees Henning is keen to develop something similar for his sport.
Refereeing decisions remain a hot topic amongst supporters and teams, particularly in the wake of the recent high-profile suspension handed down to Ireland’s Mack Hansen following his criticism of match officials in a December game against Leinster.
The lead official in that game, Chris Busby, remains available for selection, according to a URC spokesperson, but has purportedly decided to retire early due to an influx of social media abuse in the aftermath of the controversy.
“There is a need to sign off on the big moments and the talking points of a game,” admits Hanning.
“We are looking to facilitate that where we can ask about the decisions in a game and what are the outcomes.
“I am keen to explore that with the URC where we can clarify decisions of the referee and the process that he undertook.
“And where we can hold our hands up and say what we got wrong or indeed also clarify that the referee was correct. I would like if that could happen.”
The URC already have plans afoot to introduce a public forum on their website where supporters will be allowed to interact with referees and pose questions to a duty referee about the previous round of league games, whereby they can seek clarification on certain decisions.
This will underpin the process already in existence between the URC referee office and competing clubs and coaches, where explanations about decisions are clarified.
“After a game teams can send in clips about incidences in games and ask questions about clarity of decisions, we answer them back,” added Henning.
“Those questions are being shared with the referees. I answer back to the teams, we also have the opportunity for teams before the games to engage with me in saying we are concerned about tendencies in the game, how do we deal with certain issues.
“The teams are good with that process, they provide us with the clips and ask their questions around decisions, and we reply to them.
“It is in-house what we do behind the scenes to accommodate the teams. We are working on a platform on our website where you can ask the ref, where questions can be posted to referees and we hope to introduce that in round 11.
“The fans and media, anyone, can ask questions about decisions in the game, they can ask questions about the law, about the referee, and we will have a duty ref that will reply to those questions on a weekly basis and not only round after round, so when the Six Nations is being played we will answer those questions.
“If possible and where applicable we also put footage on that page as it grows to illustrate and answer questions about laws.
“We’re quite excited about that, to engage with our fans and for our fans to directly engage with our match officials as a platform to also become part of our match official world, if I can call it that.
“As it stands, there’s not a chance to go to the media directly after the game. Those concerns need to verified as valid and accurate, we do not want to sit teams in a media conference and ask questions about things when they’re in the wrong.
“We will get things wrong at times and put up our hands as referees if we get it wrong to our teams and we say it to them. We need to protect our referees to being exposed to unfair questions that are being asked before it’s been verified for accuracy.
“We understand the frustrations that go around that but we address it as soon as we can. We do run a system where the selectors make me aware of a high-impact decision that may draw some attention.
“I bring that to the coach attention on WhatsApp during the games, that we are aware of that incident and are reviewing it for accuracy and will give a review back as soon as it’s done, so we do identify big moments that may become talking points.
“But we do try to give feedback to teams before they go into their review sessions to share with their players whether that decision was correct or not.”