Pre‑season Wrap: Speed, Space, Set Piece & Safety

We kick off the Bay of Plenty Referees Podcast with a frank pre‑season wrap: early red and yellow cards, heat management, and discipline trends from the Bay.In our Education recap we cover NZR’s Game Focus Areas: Speed (tackle/jackal), Space (ruck/maul and in‑front‑of‑kicker), Set Piece (scrum: square/space/stable; lineout contest; legal maul set‑up) and Safety with a real emphasis on sternum‑height tackle and removing the croc roll. We also run through key DSLV points: 20‑minute red card replacement, halfback offside at scrum, lineout not‑straight (play‑on unless contested), and 1.5 m scrum push settings for schools.Whistler of the Week: Jaco Brower (Eastern Bay) for launching an Associate/Assistant Referee course, already adding three new refs. Plus: this week’s appointments, the Mini Team Challenge, and next Monday’s session on report writing (YC/RC, abuse reports).Subscribe for weekly, NZ‑focused referee insights; video version on YouTube.