Player safety remains the clear priority, while officials place greater emphasis on clear communication both on the field and with supporters.
“We are supporting the four pillars and the four game philosophies that were shared by World Rugby,” Henning said.
“As usual, the safety of players and protecting players is the top priority. Second is embracing the contest. Thirdly, it is to promote continuity, and then probably something new is to win over the fans.”
Henning stressed that the fan-focused pillar does not mean referees will seek personal interaction with crowds. Instead, officials will work to make decision-making processes more transparent through existing stadium systems.
“We’re not suggesting referees should walk to fans and try to take selfies after a game, but the way that we approach the game, we’re going to try to present it to our fans to give them a better understanding of our processes by communicating through in-stadium systems,” he explained.
“So we’re quite excited about those four pillars that we are fully going to support and embrace in our competition through our performances closely aligned to what the expectations are of World Rugby.”
A key part of promoting continuity and helping players stay within the laws involves more deliberate verbal communication during play, but Henning stressed the importance of making sure referees are not coaching players.
“We do not see it as coaching. We’re not trying to coach the players,” he said.
“What we try to do through verbalising at certain times is to give clarity to a player that’s in a contest that he believes he can still contest, but the referee has seen his knee on the floor, and you don’t want him to continue with that contest, and we tell them hands off.
“That is not coaching; that is just sharing in certain areas of the game where it’s not clear to the player that he’s not allowed to play or continue play or continue contesting. That is what we try to do.
“We see it as a communication to help the player understand if he can play or not. It’s the same as telling players to stay back, offside, step back.
“It’s just giving them advice in the areas where it’s grey. It helps with the continuity of the game as well.”
The same principle applies at the scrum. Officials will identify specific technical issues that cause collapses rather than instructing players how to scrummage.
“If a scrum is collapsing, one of our focus areas is to share with the player what the issue was and what needs to be fixed.
“It’s saying to the player, ‘The issue was you dropped your left shoulder and elbow, which caused the scrum to collapse. If you maintain that, that will help us a lot to keep the scrum up’.
“We do not want to coach players. We are not coaches. But we have certain management and soft skills that we can apply in the game to help the players play within the expectations of the law.”
Henning’s comments underline the push for a consistent approach across the URC to protect players, keep contests fair and continuous, and improve understanding for everyone watching.
By combining clearer on-field communication with better stadium messaging, officials aim to deliver a product that is both safer and more accessible to fans while remaining firmly aligned with World Rugby’s expectations.
