Orlando Rugby Club

To all clubs, players & coaches.

In reference to Franklyn Williams’ recent e-mail regarding “On Pitch Violence” I believe we have reached a critical stage for the Florida Rugby Union and it needs to be addressed further.

If you are the original recipient of this e mail as part of the “Groups” then you have a responsibility to make every member of your club aware of its contents. Don’t assume someone else will do it. In particular, Presidents of clubs and club coaches need to act immediately in the dissemination to web sites and their membership e-mail list, it’s that important.

This weekend saw a further three red cards bringing the total to 10 in the first six weeks of the season – already twice the number in the whole of last season.

The offences
Kicking
Kicking a player in the head
Head butting
Fighting
Punching
Aiming a punch at a referee
Referee abuse

This does not take into account the amount of off the ball incidents which were not spotted, but are clearly on the increase (one of which has lead to an impending law suit for assault). Ask yourself, does it have to be a fatal or life altering injury for us to take action? The answer of course is categorically, no!

I have taken it upon my self and with the approval of your board to try and understand why this is happening and what we collectively need to do to stop it. I have talked to Presidents of clubs, the President of the FRRA ( who collaborated with me on this note) and other players and referees in a concerted effort to get to the root causes of our problem as well as watching and officiating at games myself.

I believe the root causes can be defined as follows.
1. Lack of knowledge of the Laws of the Game including coaches, players.
2. Lack of qualified coaches. (We have 4 qualified coaches for 36 teams.)
3. Player Frustration. In particular, as regards to experienced players taking the law into their own hands when rookie players transgress. This is particularly evident in tackle/ ruck situations where persistent infringements such as entry from the side, failure to release tackled players, and tacklers failing to roll away immediately, leads to illegal responses from their opposition.
4. Lack of player self control and self discipline.
5. Lack of respect for referees at all grade levels and experience, by a growing number of players, coaches and spectators.
6. Lack of leadership and understanding of the role of “Captain” by many of the players who are designated to this critical role.
7. Lack of remedial action by club officials for transgressions by their players that were not seen by the referee.
8. Pre conceived and often coached views about opposition teams’ mode of play.
9. Verbal incitement from side lines that encourages unsportsmanlike behavior.

Here is how we are going to address these causes.
1. Referees will adopt “Zero Tolerance” for tackle/ruck offences, offside, foul play and abuse.
2. Coaches to use their next and subsequent sessions to aquaint, or reacquaint themselves and their players with the laws particularly as they apply to tackle/rucks & offside. Referees will be made available on request to teach the laws.Make their squads aware of zero tolerance from referees. Reiterate fair play rules and sportsmanship.
3. Each Club President to immediately commit to address the Union’s concerns with their membership.
4. Club Officials to assure the Union that they will deal appropriately with players that commit offences in a game undetected by the referee.
5. Add a link from the new FRU website to the IRB website for Laws of the Game so that every one has easy access to learn.

I believe that this plan of action will alleviate the current trend. However, an alternative option being considered is for the Union to appoint three officials to each game. This will immediately reduce the number of games played by 50% and triple the cost to each club for match officials. There is evidence from divisional play that this is extremely effective and may well be the long term solution if there is no reduction in offences.

I expect all Club Presidents to respond to this e-mail

Clubs – It is in your hands!

John Devonport
President
FRU
November 2 2007