The WhatsApp groups are still busily pinging away, the grapevine is jumping.
Foul play, the stuff of red cards and serious injury, are high on the agenda. Here’s my take on things.
World Rugby insist that referees themselves can award a straight red, but, quite obviously, they don’t want to; and while the bunker might want to, it cannot. A perplexing paradox, which does nothing but successfully undermine the whole process.
Referees decide only if foul play reaches the yellow card threshold. They do not consider if it also qualifies for a straight red card, even when it’s blindingly obvious that it does. Let’s take the horrible hit on Hugo Keenan by Ross Vintcent in the Italian match.
From a halfway line restart the Italian player had a clear line of sight, ran hard into the Irish player, and smashed into his head. Luke Pearce sent it to the bunker, where it was upgraded. If that level of foul play did not merit a straight red, then we need to know what level of atrocity is necessary to persuade Pearce, and others, to deliver the full sanction.
French and Irish opinions are sharply divided on the injury to Antoine Dupont. Tadgh Beirne was falling, with his shoulder tucked, when he was shunted from behind by Andrew Porter. The prop’s action was legal, and considered to be the cause of Beirne’s weight falling across Dupont’s knee. Hence, the incident was judged as not foul play. I understand the reasoning, which is what this column said at the time.
However, the way this type of dangerous play is adjudicated must change. So, if a player ends up in an illegal position, that player must be held responsible for what happens next. In this case, instead of Porter being a potential excuse, Beirne would be considered a loose cannon, and would have to face the music.
Fabien Galthie was beside himself with anger. He did not, however, know or understand the reasoning for the decision, and there was buckets of time for referee Angus Gardner to provide it. Surely any referee confronted with such a serious injury would wish to see it for himself. After all, he is the primary official.
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Much more relevant, if Gardner had taken a look and talked it through with the TMO, everybody would have had the benefit of their reasoning. Importantly, Galthie would have had that benefit too. He might not have agreed, but at least he would have been informed.
Gardner explained to Gregory Alldritt that the incident had been reviewed, outlining, basically, that accidents happen. It left media, commentators, spectators, all in the dark. World Rugby rightly want to see transparency around critical decisions, but this was opaque. A transparent failure.
Gardner did his best to be friendly with Alldritt, but addressing him umpteen times as “mate”, was cringeworthy.
The whole business of the tackle-ruck-breakdown is a big headache, and World Rugby is aware of the issues. In May last year, they announced “a major review of the breakdown through the lens of safety and spectacle – eg, the impact of contesting the ball on the floor, the practice of jackaling as opposed to an upright driving game.”
No white smoke yet, but proposals are being trialled in the environment of controlled matches, with detailed analysis and player feedback. The conclusions, of huge importance, are awaited with impatience – things cannot be left as they are. For a start, the current law needs to be applied about binding when a player joins the breakdown. Players diving in, off their feet, attempting to blow opponents away, are given far too much dangerous licence.
Referees have also become soft on side-entry. Recalibration is needed urgently. There won’t be a raft of penalties, player behaviour will change if it’s refereed properly. Against Italy, Caelan Doris was fortunate not to cop a penalty when the Irish forwards were busy battering away, ad nauseam, at the Italian try line, demonstrating all the variety of a one-trick pony.
They might still be at it, but a scrum to Ireland mercifully finished the sequence. Off the setpiece, Jack Crowley took Jamison Gibson-Park’s pass at pace, with a deft offload to Hugo Keenan creating the try. It was classic use of the scrum as an attacking platform. It’s also why the scrum should be fixed, rather than continuing as the shambles it has become.
Safety alone must be the central driver for World Rugby in making law changes. Concussion, and repetitive hits to the brain, pave the road to dementia. A terrifying journey which has no return ticket. In due course, the London high court will hear the lawsuit taken against World Rugby, the RFU and WRU, by about 200 former players diagnosed with early onset dementia. The evidence will be grim.
Ryan Jones, twice Grand Slam-winning captain of Wales, and a Lion, is one of those suffering, diagnosed at just 41 years of age. His stated belief is that “rugby is walking headlong, with its eyes closed, into a catastrophic situation”.
More dreadful, sad news last week. A young French player, 15-year-old Nicolas Haddad, has died following a brain injury, inflicted while making a tackle. How quickly we forget, but six years ago there were four other deaths in France, including Nicolas Chauvin (18), a broken neck the result of a monstrous double tackle. Add it all up, and, by any measure, Ryan Jones is right.
