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The
meeting commenced at 7:30 p.m., President Tom Tani
presiding.
In
attendance: T. Tani, R. Dial, G. Gavin, S. Harty, S.
DeVerna, J. Dibble, J. Burchill, D. Henry, K. Smith, P.
Bethe, B. McLane (NYRFC Coaching Rep.).
1.
Harley Griffiths
Suffered
injury from car accident.
Recuperating at home.
Will miss spring season.
Society sent flowers.
All encouraged to call him and wish him quick
recovery.
2.
Law Changes
Mike
Hochschild reports from South Africa that law changes
forthcoming.
a.
Lifted players to be required to be lowered to
ground by teammates.
b.
5 second grace period on static mauls to “use
or lose” before blowing whistle and setting scrum.
3.
Touch Judge Training
New
training forthcoming for touch judges.
Will be required for all referees of grade C3 and
above. Training
courses anticipated to begin this summer.
Level I will be directed to club TJ’s; Levels
II and III will be directed to referee TJ’s (i.e. Law
6(b)6 issues). Goal
is to have training completed by 9/1/01.
4.
Grace Gavin – Hong Kong Women’s 7’s
Invited
after organizer saw her at Cape Fear 7’s.
8 female, 4 male refs.
Final match was officiated by a team of 6 women.
Grace reffed Australia, New Zealand, England,
Samoa, Hong Kong, Khazakstan.
Evaluated by IRB evaluators.
Reffed Cup semifinal (NZ vs. Eng.) and Asian
final. TJ’d
championship match (USA vs. NZ).
Attendance over 20K for championship.
Team of 6 used “talking flags”.
5.
Match Reports
Get
them in on time (within one week) to Tom Tani (e-mail
preferred). Will
accept them later, but no match fee if report late.
6.
NRU Appointments
Division
3 Playoffs – Grace Gavin, Charlie Lydon
Division 2 Playoffs – Jem McDowall
Division 1 Playoffs, Men – Carl Maresca
Division 1 Playoffs, Women – Tom Tani
Division 2 Sweet 16 – Tom Tani, Jem McDowall
7.
New Grades
Congratulations
to the following individuals who have been promoted to
the following grades:
·
Paul Bethe to C3
·
Noel Mara to C1
8.
Coaches’/Clubs’ Concerns
Only
one coach attended the meeting: Bruce McLane of NYRFC.
Union RFC and Old Blue RFC had player/refs
present. Most
discussion was related to USARFU directive circulated
July 2001 which included interpretive notes on laws and
match management.
A.
Scrum Engagement: Recommended call by ref is
“Hold … Engage”. Not
meant as call to engage but rather meant to signal
readiness to engage.
Still must insure no charge/barge, boring,
pulling down, etc.
Should be sufficient at upper levels.
Lower levels may require (and prefer)
crouch/touch/pause/engage type of sequence.
Manage for safety first.
B.
Wheeling: Watch for pulling by props – illegal
to pull in wheel. 90
degree issue – use liberal standard – must be
through 90 degress, not at 90 degrees.
Use it or lose it.
C.
Scrum Notch: Off limits for opposing (defensive)
scrum half. Scrum
halves and flankers should not touch.
D.
Instructions, Pre-Match: Discussion on benefits
from specific pre-match instructions to front rows as to
what is expected from them.
Important safety issue.
Can include tight five in such instructions, as
well as reserves.
E.
Advantage: Advantage interpretation clarified by
USARFU directive. Number
of phases differs by situation – scrum offense, allow
two phases; PK or FK offense, allow three or four
phases. Advantage
of position or possession.
New interpretation is somewhat tighter than what
had previously been encouraged by many referee
evaluators.
F.
Match Anticipation: Importance of refs
understanding coaching strategy, flow of match, etc. in
order to facilitate constructive play.
G.
Line-outs: Closer scrutiny of pulling offenses by
defensive sides, especially collar-pulls (serious safety
hazard).
H.
Tackle Situations: Allow tackled player to
release, tackler must release tackled player and allow
tackled player to release/play ball without delay
(unless tackler remains on feet, in which case USARFU
directive promotes release of ball by tackled player to
tackler or other players on their feet).
9.
Miscellaneous
·
Training sessions as a group
·
Law Review
·
Next meeting May 7th, 7:30 p.m.
until 9:00 p.m., at Merkley Newman Harty, 200 Varick
St., 12th Floor, NYC
Adjourned
8:59 p.m.
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