A Pyrrhic victory then, or very nearly. The Greek king, Pyrrhus of Epirus, has lent his name to battles which are so costly in victory that there are no troops left to fight the next one.
Ireland took everything in their stride, hardly hiccupped in fact, shrugging off all the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune as they put Scotland to the sword. It was a quite brilliant display which left the home team looking lost, bewildered and out of ideas long before Luke Pearce brought matters to a conclusion.
At the start of the championship, Pearce described Johnny Sexton as his most difficult player to referee – it was, putting it politely, extremely unwise. Pearce says that he will reveal all when he retires, but the suspense won’t kill too many of us.
In the event, the captain and the whistler didn’t have a lot to say to each other, one amusing Sexton intervention aside; when Pearce told Sexton that he did not appreciate Andrew Porter asking that Scotland be yellow-carded, the captain quietly, and reasonably, replied that he himself would do the asking in future. The Scots, however, did get on the wrong side of the referee, twice being rightly marched 10 metres for overenthusiastic questioning.
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Yellow cards were invented for a purpose and, in general, have served that purpose well. Pearce, though, seemed not to notice Scotland’s continuous defensive infringing, which should have seen at least one such card. Given their proliferation in the English Premiership, the omission was a strange one.
The law can be an ass but the officials were correct to disallow an early Irish try. A different ball was used by Scotland at the preceding quick throw-in, and playing advantage is expressly forbidden in that circumstance.
Late in the game Garry Ringrose went low into a tackle, suffering a sickening brain injury when his head smacked into Blair Kinghorn’s hip. It was nobody’s fault, but did nothing for the image of the game.
So to Twickenham – the day Le Crunch became Le Crumble.
The “old cabbage patch” has seen some bad days, but nothing has come even close to Saturday’s catastrophe. England were torn apart, shredded. France dismantled them at every turn, and not one English player would make the French team based on what unfolded.
Throw in the Under-20s match, and France racked up 95 points (11 tries) conceding only 17 (two tries) – England’s problems run deep.
Ellis Genge, the new captain, apparently considered it a key part of his role to engage referee Ben O’Keefe on a near constant basis. They left the pitch at half -time together, and reappeared still chatting away, having enjoyed a scone and a cup of Earl Grey no doubt.
I can imagine those two iconic captains of yesteryear, Martin Johnson and Will Carling, squirming in their seats. They would, at the very least, have ensured fire in the belly.
O’Keefe was calmly overtolerant with Genge, and, in the main, we had a referee who knew what he was about. He might, though, reconsider his chatter, a sort of ongoing commentary – it’s unnecessary. He will look again closely at the French try when Charles Ollivon leant over the ruck to score – the tackled Marcus Smith, as I saw it, never released.
The weekend’s hostilities began in Rome. A better, if imperfect, performance from Wales saw a mightily relieved Warren Gatland at the final whistle.
Italy, missing their brilliant talisman Ange Capuozzo, might still have won, but failed to take several gilt-edged chances. They have, too, some legitimate questions for Australian referee Damon Murphy, including how on earth Wales avoided a yellow card for persistent offences.
Coach Kieran Crowley was annoyed, and has publicly berated the refereeing. He will also have watched his captain Michele Lamaro become increasingly frustrated as the match developed; the two key areas, scrums and breakdown, will be thoroughly analysed.
It’s a must for every referee to be exceptionally well prepared, so that nothing is a surprise. Proactivity, not reactivity, is essential. When Pierre Bruno bashed his forearm into prop Wyn Jones’ throat, we had a real moment of ‘I used to be indecisive, now I’m not so sure’. Murphy first of all decreed that a yellow card would suffice. Really?
TMO Joy Neville unhesitatingly put him on the right track – red card. That was the first change of mind, before assistant Karl Dickson threw in his tuppence worth, suggesting that the action of Bruno might be considered a “push away”.
So, Murphy changed gears again, reversing to yellow, with Wyn Jones, clearly very shaken, leaving the pitch. The referee is supposed to lead these discussions, but that is not what we saw, not by a long chalk.
Murphy was right to award Wales a penalty when Williams was tackled in the air, costing the Italians both field position and a penalty of their own. But, when Williams himself jumped from a distance, similarly toppling Luca Morisi, the ref judged it a fair contest, whereas the simple, easy decision was a penalty. Consistency, where are you?
English referee Christophe Ridley, who must have missed out on the Six Nations by a whisker, would have done a far better job here. So too, Scotswoman Hollie Davidson, who was very good again in England v France Under-20s. I mean, why not?
