03 Dec 2020

Back to Duty Ref

Duty Ref 559: Aimee Barrett-Theron

With Currie Cup starting, Aimee, who became the first female to hold the whistle in a senior premier match in South Africa, spend some time answering some supporters’ questions.

Name: Benjamin Loader

Question: Hello! I referee in the Austrian premiership and for Rugby Europe. We had discussions in the society about the following and would ask your advice / guidance and how you manage this in your leagues: Can the following "kicks" be "marked" when the catch is clean and the player calls "mark!":

1. Penalty goal attempt falling short?
2. Drop kick in general play not hitting the uprights?
3. Penalty kick missing touch?
4. Free kick up-and-under?

Baie dankie, lekker dag and all the best from Vienna Benjamin

Aimee: Hi Benjamin, Great to hear from you all the way from Europe!

These are some great questions as the “Mark” section in the law book doesn’t quite expand on different scenarios so it’s great to explore these.

According to law, a player is allowed to call a “mark” as long as they have one foot on or behind the 22m line, they catch it cleanly, the ball reached the 22m plane and call mark as you’ve stated.

The answer to all your questions is “Yes” - the lawbook doesn’t expand on your specific examples so we follow the above guideline.

Regards to you and your society.

Lekker dag!
Aimee
 

Name: GJ Visser

Question: Pumas vs Stormers. Die aangee van laaste drie na galant wat heeltemal vorentoe. Hoekom word sulke driee gegee en nie verwys nie.

Aimee: Hi Visser

Thanks for the clip - this is a great clip for discussion and it’s one of those where there was a lot of attention drawn to this because of the match result.

Our guidelines as referees is that it must be a clear and obvious forward pass and that the ball must leave the hands backwards. If we’re having to watch several replays in slo-mo then it’s not clear an obvious.

If this hadn’t led to the match winning points, I doubt there would be much (if any) attention drawn to this because it’s not a clear and obvious forward pass.

Hope this answerer your question
Aimee