SANZAR tightens citing

Throughout the rugby world there are misgivings about citing and the consistency in citing. SANZAR is now taking steps to try to achieve greater consistency and to eliminate the ongoing suspicion that nationality leads to citing bias.

To this end SANZAR has appointed only one citing commissioner in each country - Scott Nowland (Australia), Steve Hinds (New Zealand) and Freek Burger (South Africa). Nowland and Hinds have long experience of citing and Burger, once a representative player and a Test referee who refereed two Super rugby Finals and was the manager of South African referees, has been involved in citing in South Africa in the last two years.

Each of the commissioners is required to watch every Super 14 match on television. They will sit at home, even when matches are in their home city. The citing commissioner will take the lead in citing for matches played in his own country, but the three will discuss incidents - the process is referred to as calibration - as soon as possible after matches, that is on the Saturday or the Sunday. They all will view the incident and discuss it. The final decision of whether or not to cite will rest with the citing commissioner in whose country the incident occurred.

The citing commissioners are also entitled to make suggestions about incidents which did not occur in their own country.

There is 24 hours for the citing to take place - that is, to be referred to the judicial officer. The actual hearing may well take place in a country in which the incident did not occur. If a player is cited for an incident in Johannesburg, for example, the hearing may well take place in Perth if that is his home city.

Citing is generally regarded as the result of an offence worthy of a red card. Under the new system, citing commissioners could also examine what would probably have been a yellow-card offence and notify the player's team accordingly. This is seen as a proactive measure against foul play.

It is the judicial officer who will finally decide on the procedure to be followed after the citing commissioner has cited.

SANZAR aims at greater consistency in citing and thus greater credibility.