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During this season we have had the English Harlequins blood bin debacle. The coaches et al have suffered the consequences of that. Appropriate penalties were handed out, was my view.
Then there was the ref who was pushed by a player. The ref knew it, allowed play to go on, spoke to the bloke and did not send him off – an abysmally slack response by the ref but let’s see what the judiciary says about that one. Look at this for a blatant assault on a ref:
I wonder what Percy Montgomery, for example, thinks about that. I can’t think of any recent examples apart from him. In 2003 he got a fine and 2 years suspended after 6 months for pushing over a touch judge. Disgracefully light I thought.
Then there is this classic. A former French winger coaching but getting himself involved in play to assist his side by holding back a player wanting a quick throw-in.
Now let’s not forget that the first unwritten of Rugby as I was taught it was “Firstly do not get caught”. Fair enough.
But are things getting a bit tawdry here?
Has professionalism made the current crop of Rugby folk a bit too intent on winning rather than playing “within the spirit of the Laws” as the Rugby bible says?
Or have we we always been and remain a pack of boundary testers intent on getting away with what the ref couldn’t see (especially before those touch judges, now assistant refs, could make reports)?
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