When do World Rugby string up Rassie Erasmus?

[Mahoney]

Forward passes strike me as being incredibly hard to do with technology.

I'd have thought that to measure the velocity of the player at the point they make the pass, and the velocity of the ball as it leaves the hand, and consequently calculate the direction in which the ball was accelerated by the pass, would be possible.

[Calculon]

Sure - in case it's not clear, I'm in favour of overhauling the laws to make things clearer and easier and safer. But doing so in response to Rassie losing his shit over a not particularly poor reffing display is the very worst thing they could have done.

WR are constantly tweaking and "improving" things, so it's not like they are doing nothing. The only response to this sorry saga should be to kick Rassie's arse hard enough to ensure this shit doesn't happen again, though.

But by their own admission, they got a huge amount of the calls wrong in that game, we can't ignore that!

Just because they're grumpy with Rassie, doesn't mean they can sweep the issue under the carpet and make the refs untouchable.

What's your definition of a huge amount? Ten? Out of literally hundreds of decisions they have to make in every game?

Berry himself admitted 17 mistakes, of those brought up in the video. the lions supporting telegraph only disagreed with two of rassies points. If Berry was indeed impartial it would imply roughly equal number of mistakes made bennifiting the boks , so at least 34 to 48 refereeing mistakes in that match.

[Blake]

The effect of this though is that now, when any South African coach questions a ref performance, a part of the rest of rugby will go 'just more rassie style BS' and ignore it. So in the long term it's harmful to SA rugby - but RE doesn't give a shit because he won't be involved.

I honestly don't think it will play out like that at all.

In reality it's going to be worse. SA coaches will think they are being clever and talk in code or say something passive aggressive at a presser like:

Journo: "What did you think of decision X"
Coach: "Ja, well, you know we can't really comment on those things. I don't want to be banned for 6 months"

It stupid and petty and ugly and pathetic and Rassie is to blame.

[Blake]

Forward passes strike me as being incredibly hard to do with technology.

I'd have thought that to measure the velocity of the player at the point they make the pass, and the velocity of the ball as it leaves the hand, and consequently calculate the direction in which the ball was accelerated by the pass, would be possible.

At tier 1 level it's pretty simple actually. The Varsity Cup in SA recently ran with a "Smart Ball" that had sensors in it.

There were even some cool stats displayed in the match about which scrumhalf had a faster pass etc.

The question is if we want to introduce that into the game at higher levels or not.

EDIT: I also don't know if maybe the ball failed in terms of accuracy. But it was pretty cool.

Some articles:
https://www.news24.com/sport/Rugby/Vars ... s-20210526
https://www.varsitycup.co.za/news/smart ... ack-heroes

[Blake]

Berry himself admitted 17 mistakes, of those brought up in the video. the lions supporting telegraph only disagreed with two of rassies points. If Berry was indeed impartial it would imply roughly equal number of mistakes made bennifiting the boks , so at least 34 to 48 refereeing mistakes in that match.

The number of mistakes are irrelevant after a match. No amount of mistakes will result in a match outcome getting reversed by WR.

If the mistake count is high, WR might stand down the ref for a while or give him some notes of what he should work on.

For the team the only relevant metric is whether the referee sticks to their on field call and the team needs to adapt for the next match, or the referee admits that he made a mistake. In the latter case the team can feel a little aggrieved but take solace in the fact that their understanding of the laws was correct and they don't have to change their approach for the next match.

That. Is. It.

[JM2K6]

But by their own admission, they got a huge amount of the calls wrong in that game, we can't ignore that!

Just because they're grumpy with Rassie, doesn't mean they can sweep the issue under the carpet and make the refs untouchable.

What's your definition of a huge amount? Ten? Out of literally hundreds of decisions they have to make in every game?

Berry himself admitted 17 mistakes, of those brought up in the video. the lions supporting telegraph only disagreed with two of rassies points. If Berry was indeed impartial it would imply roughly equal number of mistakes made bennifiting the boks , so at least 34 to 48 refereeing mistakes in that match.

The Telegraph agreeing with anything pretty much automatically makes it wrong. Fucksake, have we forgotten the inanity of the anonymous Kiwi ref who critiqued Barnes' semi final performance in 2007? Hilariously wrong, and easily proven so.

Being impartial does not imply an even number of mistakes. It doesn't work like that. Mistakes can easily be skewed one way or another, particularly if one side has more of the ball / a physical advantage, and that has nothing to do with impartiality.

At every tackle leading to a ruck, the ref judges:

Legality of tackle (height, arm usage)
Tackler behaviour (falling on the right side, rolling away)
Tackled player behaviour (not trying to steal ground, not knocking on, not holding on)
Supporting player behaviour (entry angle into the ruck, arm usage, staying on their feet, timing when going for the ball, interfering with the scrum half, use of the boot, use of the hands - for anywhere from one to six players!)
"Back foot" offside lines for both teams
How long the 9 is taking to play the ball

That's just one ruck. There's a ton of decisions a ref has to make every time. "He got 17 wrong!" sounds like a lot until you understand that referees are making decisions constantly.

[JM2K6]

Forward passes strike me as being incredibly hard to do with technology.

I'd have thought that to measure the velocity of the player at the point they make the pass, and the velocity of the ball as it leaves the hand, and consequently calculate the direction in which the ball was accelerated by the pass, would be possible.

How does technology know the direction of the hands when the ball is passed?

[Kawazaki]

But by their own admission, they got a huge amount of the calls wrong in that game, we can't ignore that!

Can you show me where this admission is? Berry agreed with some of the points in the Erasmus video in the email he sent him. I have not seen an official release from World Rugby. Can you point it out please.

[Calculon]

If the disciplinary is under appeal then why is he missing the game tomorrow?

I was tempted to go to Twickenham just so I could call him a cunt.

A decision by the Judicial Committee is deemed binding immediately on both Erasmus and SARU, even if either or both lodge an appeal. The penalties are effective pending the final appeal. All other member unions of the World Rugby must obey the initial decision. So, Twickenham/RFU would conceivably need to ask local authorities to arrest Erasmus if he attempted entry.

From my limited understanding Rugby is different to most sports in that it doesn't have something like CAS, so the "appeal" is not really an appeal, more an internal review of procedures that will probably just say the desision was correct. For a proper appeal rassie would have to go to the English courts and that would be a difficult case for him to win, though he might just do it anyway for a laugh.

[Kawazaki]

What's your definition of a huge amount? Ten? Out of literally hundreds of decisions they have to make in every game?

Case by case basis. Considering Berry agreed with 17 of the 36 clips prepared by Rassie, that for me is quite shocking.

Why is that shocking? All that stat demonstrates is that Erasmus is still wrong more than half the time even with the benefit of slow motion and multiple angles to look at.

[JM2K6]

That is a reasonable point. Even highly experienced Erasmus got it wrong a lot. Give refs a break.

[Kawazaki]

The effect of this though is that now, when any South African coach questions a ref performance, a part of the rest of rugby will go 'just more rassie style BS' and ignore it. So in the long term it's harmful to SA rugby - but RE doesn't give a shit because he won't be involved.

I honestly don't think it will play out like that at all.

In reality it's going to be worse. SA coaches will think they are being clever and talk in code or say something passive aggressive at a presser like:

Journo: "What did you think of decision X"
Coach: "Ja, well, you know we can't really comment on those things. I don't want to be banned for 6 months"

It stupid and petty and ugly and pathetic and Rassie is to blame.

Yeah, but here's the kicker. Nobody in South Africa will remember that Erasmus started this, in fact, I think most Saffa fans have already forgotten so if SARU or one of their coaches get reprimanded in future then they can put it down to prejudice and a conspiracy by World Rugby to get them.

[Mahoney]

Forward passes strike me as being incredibly hard to do with technology.

I'd have thought that to measure the velocity of the player at the point they make the pass, and the velocity of the ball as it leaves the hand, and consequently calculate the direction in which the ball was accelerated by the pass, would be possible.

How does technology know the direction of the hands when the ball is passed?

That's always struck me as a really stupid law definition - the intention, as I understand it, is to capture the direction in which the pass accelerates the ball.

[JM2K6]

I'd have thought that to measure the velocity of the player at the point they make the pass, and the velocity of the ball as it leaves the hand, and consequently calculate the direction in which the ball was accelerated by the pass, would be possible.

How does technology know the direction of the hands when the ball is passed?

That's always struck me as a really stupid law definition - the intention, as I understand it, is to capture the direction in which the pass accelerates the ball.

Yeah, it was a trick question to be honest! If you had the technology then you could dispense with that entirely - but then you'd be looking at separate interpretations of the law between the pro game with the technology and the amateur game without (or even pro in other countries without it).

I don't know what tech would be most apprioriate for something as fine grained as determining a forward pass accounting for momentum, accelerometers alone won't do it, GPS might not be accurate enough, etc.

[Calculon]

There was a poll in which most South Africans did not condone Rassie's actions with regards to the video. the loudest voices are always more noticeable.

[Kawazaki]

There was a poll in which most South Africans did not condone Rassie's actions with regards to the video. the loudest voices are always more noticeable.

Was this a poll in a What's App group you're in? Where's the link?

[Mahoney]

I don't know what tech would be most apprioriate for something as fine grained as determining a forward pass accounting for momentum, accelerometers alone won't do it, GPS might not be accurate enough, etc.

I was envisaging ball tracking, essentially. More complicated than in cricket & tennis because of 30 people fighting over it, but I reckon it'd be good for at least 4 out of 5 passes.

[JM2K6]

I don't know what tech would be most apprioriate for something as fine grained as determining a forward pass accounting for momentum, accelerometers alone won't do it, GPS might not be accurate enough, etc.

I was envisaging ball tracking, essentially. More complicated than in cricket & tennis because of 30 people fighting over it, but I reckon it'd be good for at least 4 out of 5 passes.

Good enough for an entire Lions/SA series then.

[Calculon]

Berry himself admitted 17 mistakes, of those brought up in the video. the lions supporting telegraph only disagreed with two of rassies points. If Berry was indeed impartial it would imply roughly equal number of mistakes made bennifiting the boks , so at least 34 to 48 refereeing mistakes in that match.

The number of mistakes are irrelevant after a match. No amount of mistakes will result in a match outcome getting reversed by WR.

If the mistake count is high, WR might stand down the ref for a while or give him some notes of what he should work on.

For the team the only relevant metric is whether the referee sticks to their on field call and the team needs to adapt for the next match, or the referee admits that he made a mistake. In the latter case the team can feel a little aggrieved but take solace in the fact that their understanding of the laws was correct and they don't have to change their approach for the next match.

That. Is. It.

Sure, I was just giving an estimate of the number of mistakes in that particular match. It might well be a number that is considered within the normal range and also acceptable.

[_Os_]

I've changed my mind. The oke is a tosser. Check out his latest tweet.

A rugby genius can't enjoy a pint of plain now?

The fact is the English don't like us (the Commonwealth countries they hammer on and on about are the majority white ones: Australia, New Zealand, Canada .... not us), a lot of them have accumulated a lot of bullshit views about us which cannot be changed, so it's pointless trying. This would be true regardless of results or what Rassie did or didn't do, they still would not like us. The reason the English are so obsessed about this, is about results though, if Rassie wasn't a rugby genius and the Boks were a rabble who had won nothing for years, the interest would be a lot more muted from them and their media. But they regard the Boks as number 1 (a lot of SA fans on the other hand are much less sure of that), so they're going for the Boks with whatever they can like they normally go for the All Blacks. Thing is, we're not Kiwis and don't much care what the rest of the world thinks of us, we're not like the Kiwis who seem attached to the All Blacks being revered. No one likes us and we don't care.

Jake White is forthright but also almost deferential to opponents he regards as strong (like most South Africans he's just blunt/honest, if a side is weak in his view he calls them weak, if they're strong in his view he calls them strong). As soon as he started winning stuff with the Boks, the English started developing a dislike for him too. You'll never see a man more desperate to coach England and more eager to please than that guy, it didn't matter.

Refs have been publicly criticised by coaches for decades now, the media environment that's been created by those criticising Rassie is worse, same goes for a growing number of former players on social media. The Rassie video was just further travel down the same road already being traveled. Yet some are intent on pretending it's still an amateur sport where the ref is never criticised. It's laughable.

[Mahoney]

The trick to not caring is to not care. Repeatedly banging on about not caring, airing all the things you claim not to care about in emotional terms, is the opposite of not caring.

[Kawazaki]

I've changed my mind. The oke is a tosser. Check out his latest tweet.

A rugby genius can't enjoy a pint of plain now?

The fact is the English don't like us (the Commonwealth countries they hammer on and on about are the majority white ones: Australia, New Zealand, Canada .... not us), a lot of them have accumulated a lot of bullshit views about us which cannot be changed, so it's pointless trying. This would be true regardless of results or what Rassie did or didn't do, they still would not like us. The reason the English are so obsessed about this, is about results though, if Rassie wasn't a rugby genius and the Boks were a rabble who had won nothing for years, the interest would be a lot more muted from them and their media. But they regard the Boks as number 1 (a lot of SA fans on the other hand are much less sure of that), so they're going for the Boks with whatever they can like they normally go for the All Blacks. Thing is, we're not Kiwis and don't much care what the rest of the world thinks of us, we're not like the Kiwis who seem attached to the All Blacks being revered. No one likes us and we don't care.

Jake White is forthright but also almost deferential to opponents he regards as strong (like most South Africans he's just blunt/honest, if a side is weak in his view he calls them weak, if they're strong in his view he calls them strong). As soon as he started winning stuff with the Boks, the English started developing a dislike for him too. You'll never see a man more desperate to coach England and more eager to please than that guy, it didn't matter.

Refs have been publicly criticised by coaches for decades now, the media environment that's been created by those criticising Rassie is worse, same goes for a growing number of former players on social media. The Rassie video was just further travel down the same road already being traveled. Yet some are intent on pretending it's still an amateur sport where the ref is never criticised. It's laughable.

Mods, can we ban this hopeless cunt? Cheers

[Chilli]

Well, this is exactly the point isn't it.

So Rassie sacrifices himself, and thereby the Springboks, to help the inept ref see the error of his ways.

Hopefully World Rugby has counseled Berry, sent him on more courses and equipped him to become a more competent ref, who won't blow so shit anymore.

Just look at how the death threats and complaints from New Zealand made Wayne Barnes a better ref.

What a shit stain of a human being.

That's a bit unfair. I think Wayne Barnes is an excellent ref.

He seems a top bloke too.

[Chilli]

You want Homer refs in SA Tests in SA again? Jesus, the Kiwis will lose their shit once more!!!

Any mention of 1976 still makes me foam at the mouth.

Is rabies curable?

[Chilli]

It would be a tragedy.

And you’re lumping every South African into the same category. Again.

Of course it would be awful, but to be honest that kind of 'back of the hand on the forehead' post could be applied anywhere - what if Rassie takes the ban the wrong way and spirals down etc etc?

Mental health is a serious issue and I'm very wary of it being tossed in to online "what if" knockabout appeals to emotion

I agree, but read the statement from Berry himself. This has had a massive impact on him and his family. Have you been online to read what people are saying about him? It's disgusting. And it's worth repeating here, he's done nothing wrong. He's just a rugby referee. That's it. He did everything Erasmus wanted, gave him his full cooperation, answered his questions. He even agreed with him that in many of the examples he was wrong. And then Erasmus betrayed him.

I hope somebody is keeping an eye on him.

I haven't seen what people are posting about him.

Please quote and post.

[JM2K6]

I've changed my mind. The oke is a tosser. Check out his latest tweet.

A rugby genius can't enjoy a pint of plain now?

The fact is the English don't like us (the Commonwealth countries they hammer on and on about are the majority white ones: Australia, New Zealand, Canada .... not us), a lot of them have accumulated a lot of bullshit views about us which cannot be changed, so it's pointless trying. This would be true regardless of results or what Rassie did or didn't do, they still would not like us. The reason the English are so obsessed about this, is about results though, if Rassie wasn't a rugby genius and the Boks were a rabble who had won nothing for years, the interest would be a lot more muted from them and their media. But they regard the Boks as number 1 (a lot of SA fans on the other hand are much less sure of that), so they're going for the Boks with whatever they can like they normally go for the All Blacks. Thing is, we're not Kiwis and don't much care what the rest of the world thinks of us, we're not like the Kiwis who seem attached to the All Blacks being revered. No one likes us and we don't care.

Jake White is forthright but also almost deferential to opponents he regards as strong (like most South Africans he's just blunt/honest, if a side is weak in his view he calls them weak, if they're strong in his view he calls them strong). As soon as he started winning stuff with the Boks, the English started developing a dislike for him too. You'll never see a man more desperate to coach England and more eager to please than that guy, it didn't matter.

Refs have been publicly criticised by coaches for decades now, the media environment that's been created by those criticising Rassie is worse, same goes for a growing number of former players on social media. The Rassie video was just further travel down the same road already being traveled. Yet some are intent on pretending it's still an amateur sport where the ref is never criticised. It's laughable.

If English people - and why the fuck is this about the English when it's the Saffers in the dock and everyone else being critical of them? - don't like Saffers, it's overwhelmingly the white Saffers they dislike, so you can shove that theory for a start.

Don't try and make this about England, you absolute weirdo.

[NeilOJism]

Perhaps. But this is where World Rugby have missed an opportunity to address sub-standard refereeing. It was a poor performance from all match officials on that day - by their own admission. What has been done to address this? Make them completely untouchable from criticism.

That’s what they do in football? Despite an individual decision having a much greater bearing on the final result if an official from a club criticises the ref implicitly they are in deep doo-doo. Of course you get the fans going on about it on the forums but in the main they are seen as a bit extreme. This despite the fact that huge sums of money are involved and patience for results is very short.

Who judges sub standard refereeing? Is it the official refs panel? If not can you suggest better. And is it now an accepted fact that Berry is a poor ref? When do you think he should ref another international with SA involved?

And the right honourable Rassie, with backing from his official body is still saying I did nothing wrong.

I think the difference between football officiating and rugby are chalk and cheese. The laws, in football are far simpler. In rugby, there are a myriad of infringements at every breakdown and, should an official have a particular preference for one side over the other, it is relatively easy to make decisions which favour that side without it being blatantly obvious. Did the tackler roll away fast enough? Was the tackled player holding on, or was he placing the ball? was the ball out of the scrum or was the defender offside? did the players in front of the kicker retreat far enough? What constitutes a retreat?

All of these offer the officials a degree of interpretative latitude, which they can, if they were so minded, use to help one of the teams over the other, while being easily defended in any post match appraisal.

I don't think Rassie was wrong in making his video because, if there is evidence of that sort of bias, then it needs to be examined. Where he crossed a line was in making his evidence public, which exposed Berry to humiliation and vitriol without affording him the chance to defend himself.

Unfortunately, World Rugby is run along highly autocratic lines, so I feel that Rassie was left with no other option.

Fuck right off

[NeilOJism]

I've changed my mind. The oke is a tosser. Check out his latest tweet.

A rugby genius can't enjoy a pint of plain now?

The fact is the English don't like us (the Commonwealth countries they hammer on and on about are the majority white ones: Australia, New Zealand, Canada .... not us), a lot of them have accumulated a lot of bullshit views about us which cannot be changed, so it's pointless trying. This would be true regardless of results or what Rassie did or didn't do, they still would not like us. The reason the English are so obsessed about this, is about results though, if Rassie wasn't a rugby genius and the Boks were a rabble who had won nothing for years, the interest would be a lot more muted from them and their media. But they regard the Boks as number 1 (a lot of SA fans on the other hand are much less sure of that), so they're going for the Boks with whatever they can like they normally go for the All Blacks. Thing is, we're not Kiwis and don't much care what the rest of the world thinks of us, we're not like the Kiwis who seem attached to the All Blacks being revered. No one likes us and we don't care.

Jake White is forthright but also almost deferential to opponents he regards as strong (like most South Africans he's just blunt/honest, if a side is weak in his view he calls them weak, if they're strong in his view he calls them strong). As soon as he started winning stuff with the Boks, the English started developing a dislike for him too. You'll never see a man more desperate to coach England and more eager to please than that guy, it didn't matter.

Refs have been publicly criticised by coaches for decades now, the media environment that's been created by those criticising Rassie is worse, same goes for a growing number of former players on social media. The Rassie video was just further travel down the same road already being traveled. Yet some are intent on pretending it's still an amateur sport where the ref is never criticised. It's laughable.

Fuck right off

[Mahoney]

I don't know what tech would be most apprioriate for something as fine grained as determining a forward pass accounting for momentum, accelerometers alone won't do it, GPS might not be accurate enough, etc.

I was envisaging ball tracking, essentially. More complicated than in cricket & tennis because of 30 people fighting over it, but I reckon it'd be good for at least 4 out of 5 passes.

Good enough for an entire Lions/SA series then.

[FalseBayFC]

I've changed my mind. The oke is a tosser. Check out his latest tweet.

A rugby genius can't enjoy a pint of plain now?

The fact is the English don't like us (the Commonwealth countries they hammer on and on about are the majority white ones: Australia, New Zealand, Canada .... not us), a lot of them have accumulated a lot of bullshit views about us which cannot be changed, so it's pointless trying. This would be true regardless of results or what Rassie did or didn't do, they still would not like us. The reason the English are so obsessed about this, is about results though, if Rassie wasn't a rugby genius and the Boks were a rabble who had won nothing for years, the interest would be a lot more muted from them and their media. But they regard the Boks as number 1 (a lot of SA fans on the other hand are much less sure of that), so they're going for the Boks with whatever they can like they normally go for the All Blacks. Thing is, we're not Kiwis and don't much care what the rest of the world thinks of us, we're not like the Kiwis who seem attached to the All Blacks being revered. No one likes us and we don't care.

Jake White is forthright but also almost deferential to opponents he regards as strong (like most South Africans he's just blunt/honest, if a side is weak in his view he calls them weak, if they're strong in his view he calls them strong). As soon as he started winning stuff with the Boks, the English started developing a dislike for him too. You'll never see a man more desperate to coach England and more eager to please than that guy, it didn't matter.

Refs have been publicly criticised by coaches for decades now, the media environment that's been created by those criticising Rassie is worse, same goes for a growing number of former players on social media. The Rassie video was just further travel down the same road already being traveled. Yet some are intent on pretending it's still an amateur sport where the ref is never criticised. It's laughable.

If English people - and why the fuck is this about the English when it's the Saffers in the dock and everyone else being critical of them? - don't like Saffers, it's overwhelmingly the white Saffers they dislike, so you can shove that theory for a start.

Don't try and make this about England, you absolute weirdo.

The English do like a good white Saffer batsman though. They love them in fact.

[Kawazaki]

Of course it would be awful, but to be honest that kind of 'back of the hand on the forehead' post could be applied anywhere - what if Rassie takes the ban the wrong way and spirals down etc etc?

Mental health is a serious issue and I'm very wary of it being tossed in to online "what if" knockabout appeals to emotion

I agree, but read the statement from Berry himself. This has had a massive impact on him and his family. Have you been online to read what people are saying about him? It's disgusting. And it's worth repeating here, he's done nothing wrong. He's just a rugby referee. That's it. He did everything Erasmus wanted, gave him his full cooperation, answered his questions. He even agreed with him that in many of the examples he was wrong. And then Erasmus betrayed him.

I hope somebody is keeping an eye on him.

I haven't seen what people are posting about him.

Please quote and post.

You can start with the Keohane article linked a page or two back.

[Slick]

I've changed my mind. The oke is a tosser. Check out his latest tweet.

A rugby genius can't enjoy a pint of plain now?

The fact is the English don't like us (the Commonwealth countries they hammer on and on about are the majority white ones: Australia, New Zealand, Canada .... not us), a lot of them have accumulated a lot of bullshit views about us which cannot be changed, so it's pointless trying. This would be true regardless of results or what Rassie did or didn't do, they still would not like us. The reason the English are so obsessed about this, is about results though, if Rassie wasn't a rugby genius and the Boks were a rabble who had won nothing for years, the interest would be a lot more muted from them and their media. But they regard the Boks as number 1 (a lot of SA fans on the other hand are much less sure of that), so they're going for the Boks with whatever they can like they normally go for the All Blacks. Thing is, we're not Kiwis and don't much care what the rest of the world thinks of us, we're not like the Kiwis who seem attached to the All Blacks being revered. No one likes us and we don't care.

Jake White is forthright but also almost deferential to opponents he regards as strong (like most South Africans he's just blunt/honest, if a side is weak in his view he calls them weak, if they're strong in his view he calls them strong). As soon as he started winning stuff with the Boks, the English started developing a dislike for him too. You'll never see a man more desperate to coach England and more eager to please than that guy, it didn't matter.

Refs have been publicly criticised by coaches for decades now, the media environment that's been created by those criticising Rassie is worse, same goes for a growing number of former players on social media. The Rassie video was just further travel down the same road already being traveled. Yet some are intent on pretending it's still an amateur sport where the ref is never criticised. It's laughable.

My god, I didn’t think we had any more levels of idiocy to go. Never underestimate a Saffa I guess

[Slick]

Anyway, I'm tapping out for the weekend.

I hope it's a cracking game on Saturday and may the best team win

Fair play assfly, you’ve done a fine job the last couple of days, enjoy the weekend!

[FalseBayFC]

Keohane's a joke. Nobody reads or listens to that tool.

[Chilli]

In all fairness, I was at Varsity with Rassie and knew him pretty well.
He is a bit of a cunt. So I'm not surprised that he wasn't exactly fair and truthful.

[Kawazaki]

Keohane's a joke. Nobody reads or listens to that tool.

Tell that to the thousands who follow him and agree with his shite on Twitter.

Keohane is one of yours.

[FalseBayFC]

Keohane's a joke. Nobody reads or listens to that tool.

Tell that to the thousands who follow him and agree with his shite on Twitter.

Keohane is one of yours.

I don't follow him but I've just checked his Twitter feed. He averages under 100 likes per post and several comments at best. Hardly an opinion leader or influencer of any note.

[Blake]

I don't know what tech would be most apprioriate for something as fine grained as determining a forward pass accounting for momentum, accelerometers alone won't do it, GPS might not be accurate enough, etc.

I was envisaging ball tracking, essentially. More complicated than in cricket & tennis because of 30 people fighting over it, but I reckon it'd be good for at least 4 out of 5 passes.

It’s tricky, but doable with accelerometers. You just need the telemetry data to come in and calculate the vector.

The “hands moving backwards” was just a mind-hack to assist officials in accounting for forward momentum of the ball due to the player running when passing.

It’s a very good guideline, but sometimes also goes wrong. When a player is tackled backwards just as the ball is passed, it can appears to float forwards and calls as such.

I think including the second interaction of the technology in the Varsity Cup will be very interesting, but the ball calling forward passes is going to result in a lot of debates and people explaining Physics 101 on television.

Version 1 of the tech was quite fun and created some interesting data during the matches.

[Kawazaki]

Keohane's a joke. Nobody reads or listens to that tool.

Tell that to the thousands who follow him and agree with his shite on Twitter.

Keohane is one of yours.

I don't follow him but I've just checked his Twitter feed. He averages under 100 likes per post and several comments at best. Hardly an opinion leader or influencer of any note.

20,000 follow him.

He thinks Nic Berry is a white supremacist.

He also thinks South Africa should withdraw from test rugby until World Rugby radically reforms. I'd agree with this - well the first half anyway.

[Kawazaki]

Keohane's a joke. Nobody reads or listens to that tool.

Tell that to the thousands who follow him and agree with his shite on Twitter.

Keohane is one of yours.

I don't follow him but I've just checked his Twitter feed. He averages under 100 likes per post and several comments at best. Hardly an opinion leader or influencer of any note.

I only looked a few down and this has currently got 275 likes and 61 retweets.