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It’s time we cleaned up foul play. It has no place in the game.
World champion and rugby superman Richie McCaw looks to game officials to clean up the game and protect him under its laws, especially where players are seeking him out deliberately and targeting him by using foul play.
Simply put, the IRB are sitting on their hands and granting permission for it to happen.
These perpetrating thugs will never be in McCaw’s class, will never exult to the McCaw standard of excellent and leadership, will never receive the accolades and honours that McCaw currently has (and is yet to gain) and so therefore resort to the standard they set themselves, a view so low that everything looks up to them.
McCaw has worldwide admiration, the way he leads his team and plays his game. He makes mistakes like any other player because of the intensity he plays under and the standards he sets himself.
He is fair minded and never retaliates to the deliberate thug actions of some who try to use the excuse of accidental actions of thuggery against him.
The most flattering accolade that McCaw has received in recent games is that Quade Cooper, (Aus) Dean Greyling, (SA) and now Scott Higginbotham (Aus) (not to mention the many others before this) have each shown what underrated, non-talented, yobbo thug players look like.
Officials need to be chastised too. It is their job to see everything during games!
There is no point whinging that they cannot do so if restrictive rules are in place preventing them doing it. In the most recent Bledisloe Third Test, Craig Joubert and his two assistants claim they too saw nothing of the incident, yet TV footage shows the referee apparently looking directly at the alleged head-butt by Higginbotham on McCaw.
McCaw relies on officials to control foul play, yet this perpetrator was permitted to remain on the field and maybe contribute to a near win by the Wallabies.
Granted, Higginbotham will be before the judiciary. Yet if the hearing is before the same South African Jannie Lubbe – the SANZAR judicial officer who exonerated Quade Cooper after the Wallabies playmaker was also accused of kneeing McCaw in the head when the teams last met at Brisbane for the Tri-Nations decider 14 months ago.
Add in the view of the fact that Dean Greyling copped only a two-week ban, effectively a one-test suspension, after he was found guilty of striking McCaw’s head with an elbow as he flew into the collision zone in Dunedin, what justice can McCaw expect from this current foul play?
One solution to foul play maybe, is to have in the TMO box, a judicial officer watching the game who can quickly look at a tape replay and either advise the referee by his communicator that (a) a deliberate indisputable piece of foul play has occurred and that the player be ‘Red Carded’ immediately from the field, or, (b) it was sufficient to warrant a ‘Yellow Card/Penalty’ and also be placed on report for later explanation, or, (c) simply ignore it.
This would mean that foul play will be seen, (even if missed by the Referee and his assistants), acted upon immediately thus having the offending player being prevented from benefiting his team at the time by remaining on the field, and/or giving justice at the time of the misdemeanour to both victim and his team.
If the IRB is truly serious about removing foul play from games, then implementing this simple solution would help. To allow players to continually be subjected to thuggery as is as present without allowing the victim to retaliate, simply infers that they condone the actions of these non talented Neanderthal like thinkers.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.