IN my column last week, I wrote about the players not fully comprehending the rules and laws of the game and constantly complaining to the referee about obvious infringements that go ‘unpunished’ because the referee was playing advantage rule.

So this week, I will try to explain how this applies and hope these players and some of the match officials can understand it. And I will try to do so in layman’s terms instead of the technical mumbo jumbo.

Advantage, either territorially or possession-wise, occurs when a knock on, knock forward or penalty infringement occurs and the defending team gains an advantage from this infringement and so play goes on.

If, as a result of the opponents’ knock on, knock forward or penalty infringement, the team that gains possession, moves past the advantage line — the line where the infringement and advantage occur — then play goes on, and the referee will call that advantage is over.

However, if, after gaining possession, the team is unable to pass beyond the advantage line — meaning that no advantage is gained territorially — then the referee will blow for either a scrum or free kick or penalty kick at the spot where the infringement first occurred.

I helped to coach a school team previously and always pointed out to the players they must play according to the whistle and not to what they know or have been taught.

When an opponent commits an infringement like knocking the ball forward or knocking it on — which is an obvious infringement — but because of this, the defending player is able to gain possession of the ball, and advantage to attack, then do it.

Don’t just stop everything and wait for the referee to blow for the infringement just because the rules and laws state that for a knock on or knock forward, a scrum is awarded with the defending team putting in the ball. Yes, the rules and laws are correct in that sense but they also allow for advantage to come into play — so just carry on playing until the referee blows his whistle.

I believe the fundamentals here are that the players and team officials must respect the referee as the referee respects the players during a match. When clubs or teams accept an invitation to play in a tournament, they must abide by the decisions of the referees appointed by the organisers to officiate matches.

To play a game, three things must be in place – (1) enough players (2) a referee, and (3) rules and laws to be applied and this is done by the referee.

If there is no referee, the players will not be able to start.

By the same token, if there are no players, the referee will not be needed.

A referee respects the players in that he will make sure rugby is played in the true spirit of the game and NOT with the intention to hurt or injure an opponent.

As rugby is a close contact physical sport where two opposing teams have to fight for possession of the ball to score points, defend their territory or attack their opponents’ half, a player must be able to tell whether an opponent, when making a tackle, does it fair and square but hard or with malice to cause hurt.

Sometimes during a game, things happen that no one can foresee — like an attacking player ducking as a defending player is coming in to tackle. What happens next is that the defender ends up tackling the attacking player a bit high, which the rules do not allow or condone, but in this instance, the attacking player ducks at the last moment, so he becomes ‘shorter’ and thus ends being tackled high.

Under the rules and laws of the game, this is a penalty offence but because the attacking player ducks, the tackle becomes high even though originally, the tackler isn’t aiming to go high.

In this instance, the tackler isn’t aiming high but due to the sudden drop in height of the player he is going to tackle, the tackle becomes high … albeit with no malice intended.

Even so, the teammates of the tackled player will start to remonstrate with the referee that it is a high tackle and so a penalty should be given. However, if, as a result of this infringement, an advantage occurs to the attacking team, then they should carry on playing.

If the tackler really means to tackle high but because of what he does, an advantage occurs, then the referee will allow play to continue. However, if, as a result of the high tackle, the tackled player is injured, then the referee will blow for a stop and admonish the offending player either with a warning or yellow card.

If the tackled player is not hurt, play will continue until the next stop when the referee will call in the offending player and warn him or send him off.

Of course, there are some referees not up to the mark but during a tournament, there will always be a convener or a chief referee to assess the performances of referees and advise them on their mistakes or misjudgments.

The point here is that by accepting an invitation to play in a tournament, the players and officials of a team must abide by the organisers’ choice of referees to officiate games.

The losing teams will always have their point(s) as to why they lost and one of them will invariably be the referee but they seem to miss the point that in any game, there must be a loser and a winner.

The referee does not tell the players how to play, so I think the players should not tell the referee how to run the game.

If the referee were to blow for scrum or penalty or free kick whenever an infringement occurred during a game, then the game would become boring with stops all the time. What the referee is trying to do is to make sure the game flows and the players get to enjoy it.

Both sides need each other for a game to take place for without one or the other, there will be no game. Simple as that.

I hope I have been able to clarify a few misperceptions with my explanation above and that this habit of remonstrating with the referee will stop.

Last weekend in KL in the CIMB-Cobra International U-16 Schools 10s, SMA Sheikh Haji Othman Abdul Wahab (Shoaw) won two of their three pool games on Saturday — losing to Sultan Ibrahim of Kelantan by a try (0-5), winning 17-12 against Ming Chi Junior High School of Taiwan and blanking SBPI Kuantan 21-0.

They came second in Pool D, losing out on countback to the Taiwanese although they had identical points — six from two wins. The Taiwanese topped the table because they had a two-point advantage over Shoaw. The Taiwanese were ranked fifth after the pool matches while Shoaw were ranked eighth out of 20.

In the round of 16 on Sunday, Shoaw were paired against ninth-ranked Sultan Alam Shah from Putrajaya. In the quarter-finals on Sunday morning against Sultan Alam Shah, Shoaw lost 7-17 and were thus out of the tournament.

As the organisers decided not to have a bowl category this year, Shoaw’s campaign ended with the loss. Although they lost in the quarters, credit should go to the players and team officials for the good effort put in to finish second in the pool matches and make the quarter-finals.

The loss was mainly due to the players’ lack of experience compared to their Peninsula counterparts who get regular playing time through the various state leagues and national tournaments whereas we do not have a league, and for national tournaments, we can only go to a few because the costs of flying to the Peninsula for these tournaments are exorbitant. All the national tournaments are held in the Peninsula, unfortunately.

So for the other school teams in the Peninsula, they can travel by land to the various national tournaments while we from Sarawak have to fly and that is what’s holding us back in terms of gaining much needed experience vis-a-vis controlling the game and restricting our opponents. Technically, we are on par with our counterparts but it’s the ability to control the game that’s one of our weaker points.

In Miri, there will be a friendly between Miri Rhinos and Royal Malay Regiment today, kicking off at 4.30pm. Anyone interested in having a run out, please get in touch with the man in Miri, Tim Lian (016-8747126) for further details.

My apologies to the president, and exco of Miri DRU for erroneously stating that Miri have not hosted the SRU President’s Cup in the run-up to the tournament two weeks back.

Two of the exco members who were in Kuching for the tournament took issue with me on that and I must say I’m guilty as charged.

My apologies Antonio, Bunyamin (Bun) and Timothy for the mis-service on my part.

Miri, in fact, did host the tournament in the late 90s and early this millennium and they have, in fact, verbally informed me they want to host it again next year.

There will be a game today for everyone who turns up at the field today at 4pm.

See you all at the field.