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The performance of England (6) against the All Blacks (32) at Twickenham was one of the most disgraceful and cynical I’ve had the misfortune to watch.
England were fearful of a hiding of Springbks proportions at the hands of the NZers who were chasing a Grand Slam. So they tried to ensure that as little rugby as possible could be played, and to test the referee to penalise them continually while he endured the pent-up, stupid wrath of the home crowd.
To his credit, Alain Rolland, an Irishman and a former first class halfback, had the courage to defy the baying of the crowd while he awarded 15 penalties against England, to 7 against NZ (four of them in the first few minutes of the Test). He also sin-binned four England players and warned England that more of them could be sin-binned (‘every one of you, if you continue to do what you are doing,’ he told the captain Steve Borthwich).
Danny Care, the halfback, a jersey-puller and feisty thug, could easily have been sin-binned several times, as well.
All Blacks were held back. They were elbowed. England played off-side deliberately. They dropped the scrum was often as they could. The mystery to me was this: why not use all this energy to play some rugby and try to defeat the All Blacks rather than try not to lose by too many points.
To a certain extent the tactics worked. It was not until the 60th minute that the All Blacks got a strangle-hold on the match after smashing England in a scrum, winning a tight head and then moving the ball along the line for a brilliant try scored by Mils Miliania.
I read the English experts to see what they thought about this disgraceful insult to the game. The Usual Suspect while conceding that ‘England forgot the laws, or the referee’s interpretation at least’ (I get it, the the referee was to blame), supported the disgrace by arguing that ‘this match was better for England.’
Paul Ackford, a former England second-rower and a rugby writer I admire, while acknowledging that the cheating as damage limitation ‘had some merit’, went on to make the point that ‘if this England squad is reduced to serial illegality just to keep in contention then that is a pretty damning indictment of their rugby prowess.’
I would go much further than this. The England game plan is a revealing indictment on the attempts by the Rugby Football Union (the England rugby union) to remain an arbiter of the laws and practices of rugby. How the RFU can oppose the ELVs on the grounds that they take the structure out of rugby (whatever than nonsense means) while condoning its national side not to play within the laws of the game is something that is impossible to comprehend.
Also, Ackford was generous enough to call the All Blacks ‘this wonderful team’ and the ‘best side on the planet by a distance.’
‘It was a pleasure,’ he said, ‘watching them deliver their lesson.’
As the All Blacks were part of a Tri-Nations invasion that lost only one Test to the northern hemisphere powers, it is obvious that the southern hemisphere way of playing rugby and understanding of the zen of the game is infinitely superior to the northern teams (with the exception of Wales).
And this applies, one would think, to how the game can be improved with improved laws.