Ten minutes and No.4

Reds see red

The Reds played the Blues in Auckland. Late in the match, Nick Stiles of the Reds was sent to the sin bin with his side leading 10-0. When he came back his side were still leading, 10-6. But they played on with 14 men. When they got back to having 15 men, the Blues were leading 18-10.

There is some controversy and argument about the period between Stiles's return and the Reds' restoration to a full complement of players.

We shall look at some aspects of what has been said and try to give a time line of events.

The Reds were said to be furious.

The Australian reported: "THE Queensland Reds were cruelly denied an epic win when a bungle by the sideline match official left them a man short as the Auckland Blues scored two late tries at Eden Park last night.

"A shouting match erupted on the sideline 10 minutes from full-time when the Reds, ahead 10-6, were refused permission to send blindside flanker Daniel Heenan back into the fray when the fourth match official got into a muddle following the sin-binning of Queensland prop Nick Stiles in the 60th minute.

"With Stiles off, the Reds were required for safety reasons to send on another prop - Greg Holmes - to scrummage in his place, meaning another player - Heenan - had to go off while the 10-minute penalty applied. Yet when Stiles had served his penance, he was allowed to return to the contest but Heenan was not.

"The fourth match official, befuddled by the fact the Reds also used Stiles' return as a convenient moment to replace tighthead Anthony Mathison, refused to allow Heenan to rejoin the fray, arguing he was a tactical substitution.

"Reds team manager Garry Nucifora and team fitness co-ordinator Stu Livingstone screamed in vain, pointing out the official's mistake - which he allegedly acknowledged to the Queensland team after the match - but for four vital minutes the visitors were forced to defend with just 14 men until Heenan simply shrugged off the official and ran on, ironically to score a 78th minute try that earned his side a much-deserved bonus point."

In addition on Monday, the Reds' wesbite says: "The confusion on the sideline in the numbing 18-15 loss to the Auckland Blues on Friday night is now the subject of an official complaint being formulated by the Reds camp.

"In the four minutes that Daniel Heenan was held on the sideline by a match official, the Blues turned a 10-6 deficit into an 18-10 knockout punch against a 14-man Reds side.

"The Kiwi sideline match official insisted Heenan had been hooked from the field in the 60th minute in a tactical substitution and could not re-enter the game.

"Rather, it was a forced change for safety reasons so the Reds had replacement prop Greg Holmes to scrummage after Nick Stiles was sin-binned for 10 minutes.

"Queensland Rugby Union chief executive Theo Psaros, in Auckland for the match, will take the issue further.

"'It was amateurish and something you don't want to trip up any team,' Psaros said."

Rugby football used to have a referee. Now there is a battery of officials for a match - primarily a referee, a No.1 touch judge, who would take over from the referee if necessary, and a No.2 touch judge.

There are Nos 4 & 5. There job is to regulate and record the coming and going of players for things such as substitution, bleeding, sin-binning. Each one takes a team.

There is usually a sixth official to regulate the time of players in blood bins and sin bins.

There is a television match official and a timekeeper.

There is an assessor and his notational assistant.

That makes ten people in all.

We are going to look at what the No.4 (that is the official appointed to watch the comings and goings of the Reds) would have dealt with during some occurrences in a relevant part of the second half. (The numbers are minutes plus seconds - 59.45 means 59 minutes and 45 seconds into the match. It is playing time. The clock is stopped for non-playing time.) Other than scorers, the players referred to here are Reds players. The numbers in brackets after players' names are the numbers on their backs.

59.45: Stiles (1) is penalised at a tackle
60.10: Stiles is penalised at a tackle.
60.13: Stiles is given a yellow card and ;leaves the field.
McAllister scores a penalty goal.
62.09: The referee awards a scrum.
Rudi Vedelago (18) comes onto the field. He turns round and leaves the field.
Greg Holmes (17) comes onto the field. He is a prop.
Daniel Heenan (8) leaves the field.
63.44: Ben Tune (22) replaces Peter Hynes
66.22: Hugh McMenamim (4) leaves the field bleeding. He is replaced by Rudi Vedelago (18)
67.05: Sean Hardiman (16) comes on as a substitute for Stephan Moore (2).
67.45: Steve Kefu (12) is penalised for being off-side.
McAllister scores a penalty goal.
70.12: Scrum to Blues
Stiles (1) returns
Anthony Mathison (3) leaves the field. He has been replaced by Greg Holmes (17).
70.47: Carlos Spencer scores a try. McAllister converts.
72.42: Elton Flately kicks off
The ball does not travel 10 metres.
The Blues opt for a scrum.
73.00: Scrum to Blues.
73.19: McAllister scores a try.
74.53: McAllister kicks the conversion
Heenan returns

Heenan went off the field to allow the Reds to have a player capable of playing prop in the front row - Anthony Mathison. Heenan would then stay off till Stiles was allowed back on. It is usual for the errant prop to return after the ten minutes with the sacrificed loose forward. The player in the sin bin goes to a designated area, the sacrificed player to his bench.

There was no obvious attempt by Heenan to return to the field at the same time as Stiles, though one would have expected Heenan to know the drill.

There is a report that he stayed sitting on the side-line, with a blanket round him till his absence was noted when Xavier Rush broke from a scrum in a move that ended with Spencer's try. (A try which made the score 13-10 to the Blues.)

The touch judge drew the referee's attention to the touch-line unhappiness after McAllister's try. Then the confusion was sorted out and Heenan returned.

Allowing a prop on when a prop is in the sin bin is in the interests of player safety and to avoid uncontested scrum.

It is written in Law 3, though perhaps not as directly as one would like:

3.12 SUBSTITUTED PLAYERS REJOINING THE MATCH

If a player is substituted, that player must not return and play in that
match even to replace an injured player.

Exception 2: a substituted player may replace a front row player when
injured, temporarily suspended or sent off.

3.13 FRONT ROW FORWARD SENT OFF OR TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED OR INJURED

(b) When a period of temporary suspension ends and a front row player returns to the field of play, the replacement front row player leaves the field of play and the nominated player who left the field of play for the period of the suspension may resume playing in the match.

In the case above Stiles was the player temporarily suspended, Mathison his replacement, and Heenan the player nominated to leave the field till it was time for Stiles to comer back.

If there had been no scrums during Stiles's sojourn in the sin bin, there would have been no need for Mathison to come on or for Heenan to make his sacrifice.

The timetable above suggests that being a No.4 or a No.5 is not a sinecure. In the days of one man and his whistle there were no such complications. Imagine the referee controlling and recording all that to-ing and fro-ing. For the No.4 has to write down name, number, time and reason (blood, replacement, substitution, sin bin)  as he goes along.