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England fly half, Jonny Wilkinson, kicks a ball during a training session in Sydney on Friday, June 18, 2010. England will play Australia in a test match, their second meeting during the current tour, tomorrow night. (AAP Image/Paul Miller)
England’s latest example (or bad example) of cheating by switching balls for Jonny Wilkinson to try and convert is outrageous. The IRB needs to deduct all the match points it gained from defeating Romania 67 – 3 to make a strong statement that cheating is not condoned at RWC tournaments.
If, as is the case unfortunately, the IRB virtually turns a blind eye to the serious offence, Argentina or/and Scotland should appeal the decision to do nothing about the incident.
A formal charge should be laid against England for the IRB judiciary to hear. Scotland and Argentina should require the judiciary to deduct all the tournament points England gained from the match.
This would mean that England would struggle to make the finals.
So what.
They do not deserve to remain in the tournament for allowing their officials, the kicking coach Dave Alred and the conditioning staffer Paul Strudgen, to change the balls when Wilkinson was preparing to make a conversion.
The laws of rugby state that ‘the kicker must use the ball that was in play, unless it is defective.’
The laws could not be clearer. What the England officials did was blatant cheating intended to give their team an advantage that was illegal.
This is the most serious matter that could be raised about a team. The IRB precedent of doing nothing about it promising to deal ‘severely’ with cheating if it happens again is just not good enough.
England need to be hauled up before the judiciary. The team is clearly guilty. The appropriate punishment is the deduction of tournament points.
The reason why this tough action is needed is that northern hemisphere teams have a history of cheating in RWC tournament.
In RWC 1999 Wales refused to close the roof of the Millennium Stadium when they played Australia, even though the rain was pouring down. This was cheating.
In the same tournament, France eye-gouged the All Blacks during the semi-final. When the All Blacks complained to the referee they were told to get on with the game.
In the final when France started eye-gouging, John Eales, the Wallaby captain, his left eye closed like an oyster, told the referee Andre Watson he was taking his team off the field unless the eye-gouging was stopped. This was cheating.
Incidentally, there was a photo in the NZ Herald a couple of days ago showing a French forward eye-gouging, or attempting to eye-gouge, Richie McCaw.
In RWC 1999, too, Scotland lied to the IRB about the jerseys they intended to wear against the All Blacks. The All Blacks played in their travelling jerseys which happened to almost exactly like the jerseys Scotland wore on the day. The RWC officials asked the All Blacks to change into their black strip at half-time.
But they could not do this as they had left this kit back in France. Nothing was done to Scotland about this blatant lying and cheating.
In RWC 2003, England had 16 men on the field at one time when the team’s officials defied the assistant referees and sent a player on before the injured player had left the field.
This was cheating.
In this RWC tournament, Ireland deliberately got their players to feign injuries to slow down the momentum of play in their match against Australia. Tonga and France did the same thing in their matches against the All Blacks.
This is cheating.
And so was the blatant dive by a French back which won a penalty (which was kicked) against the All Blacks. This was cheating, too, not as bad as the switching of the balls, but unacceptable all the same.
The IRB has turned a blind eye on all the northern hemisphere cheating, which had the potential to change the outcome of these matches, and instead has reacted ferociously against the Samoan Alesana Tuilagi, with a fine of $10,000, for wearing a mouth guard that is not IRB authorised kit.
The IRB has justified their total over-reaction on the grounds that the player ‘well understood’ the rules relating to kits.
Why wasn’t this principle of understanding the rules applied to England?
Could it be that Samoa has no influence on IRB appointments?
Could it be that England is so powerful in the corridors of the IRB, with Bill Beaumont intending to challenge for the job of IRB president, that the powers that be are scared to take an appropriate action.
Everything about the ball-switching affair stinks.
England look like getting away with behaviour that is totally unacceptable. Taking away their tournament points for the Romania is the only way to clear the air of this cheating stench.