Cooky, if referees are judged objectively and not subjectively is there a criteria to which performances are rated and judged astute or not? I.e. does the IRB establish an ideal amount of penalties/yellow cards/possession that they would like to see, and the referees that produce these statistics are elected to the world cup jobs by the Panel?
While there is no quota for the number of penalties referee are expected to issue, it is recognised that, on average, teams in a match would normally incur between 8 and 12 infringements in a match. If a referee's penalty count is extraordinarily high or low overall, or very one sided, a review of the match would be carried out to see if it is justified This can be hard to do at grass roots where there might not be video available. Referees are judged on a number of criteria, most of which includes aspects of game management such as positioning, use of voice, whistle tone, interaction with the captain and the players and a number of other things which are tedious and I won't bore you with. They are also assessed on the numbers and types of errors they commit. There are three type of errors, some more important that others;
1. Errors of judgement.
This would be a situation or scenario that was handled "correctly" in accordance with the Laws, but could have been handled better, e.g. two players exchange punches in an otherwise clean match, and the referee bins both of them. This would be correct in Law, and perhaps good judgement in a match where there had been a lot of ****le, but in an otherwise clean match that had seen no trouble up to that point, the referee would be expected to manage such a situation better with warnings, perhaps a word to the captains and perhaps a penalty. Errors of judgement are the least serious, as they can often be down to personal style. Referee must be prepared to justify their judgement.
2. Errors in Law
This is where a referee literally makes an incorrect call that is not in accordance with the Laws of the game. Examples would be awarding a penalty kick against a player when the the sanction for the Law they infringed only prescribes a free kick, or failing to bring the mark for a penalty infringement such as a late charge where the ball ends up in touch, to the correct place, in this case, 15m in from the touchline at the line-of-touch. Errors in law are more serious, and it is not a good idea to make too many of these.
3. Critical errors
These are errors in Law or gross errors in judgement, that the assessor considers either had the potential to affect the result of the game, or actually did so. An example would be awarding a penalty kick in the wrong place for a late charge (i.e. at the place where the late charge occurred instead of where the ball landed) if the difference between them was the difference between the team being able to kick a penalty goal that would have won them the game. A well known example of a critical error in recent times was Paul Marks' failure to use the TMO when Conrad Smith was tackled without the ball in the final seconds of the Hurricanes v Sharks match in 2008. The was a critical error that prevented a possible draw for the Hurricanes. Critical errors are the ones that make or break a referee. These stay on your record as a ref, and too many will prevent you from getting promoted.
There are limits for the number of errors made (although I don't know what they are for international referees) but there are no quotas for cards issued. I promise you that giving out red cards involves a SHITLOAD of paperwork after the match, and no referee I have ever met enjoys doing it.
