The Wrap: The key moments that shaped rugby in 2016

Rather than ranking them ten to one style, this year’s significant rugby moments are separated into three categories.

Harmless noise

Clown name calling in New Zealand and England might have sold a few newspapers and provoked a bizarrely misdirected reaction from Michael Cheika towards the All Blacks, but in the wash-up, silly red noses at ten paces was a whole lot of fuss about nothing.

Much ado was also made about All Black thuggery in Dublin, which was as much about raised Irish expectations not being met than it was about any actual All Black villainy.

Sure Malakai Fekitoa’s poor tackle cost him a week – no more or no less than what it deserved – but that was hardly conclusive evidence of Steve Hansen ordering his side to maim on sight.

The overreached bleating from aggrieved Irish fans and some media lasted far longer than it needed to. Meanwhile, the citing commissioner and real rugby people got on with preparing for the next match.

International refereeing standards came under regular fire, mostly from partisan fans reacting to decisions they felt hurt their own side. Once again, much of the angst is due to misplaced expectation – the notion that a referee can manage a game, with all of its complex rules that are open to his interpretation, and perfectly satisfy everyone, is ridiculous.

The truth is that, while the TMO process still needs more certainty and consistency, refereeing standards at the top level are uniformly high. And if a forward pass here or there goes unchecked, fans would do well to consider the decisions they get right and wrong in their own lives every day, and learn not to frame their rugby viewing in terms of riding every refereeing decision.

Whatever Aaron Smith may or may not have got up to at Christchurch Airport, once the damage had been done, the All Blacks handled the matter well, immediately removing him from the team environment for as long as it took for him to repair things at home and for the matter to no longer be a distraction for the team.

Incredibly, there were people who emerged from the incident worse than Smith – those do-gooders who confected outrage at Smith’s crime being made even worse by the fact that he selfishly and disrespectfully used an accessible toilet, as if a queue had formed outside, prevented from going about their business.

Notable

Ireland beating New Zealand in Chicago, by 40-29, ended a 111-year drought – longer than the potato famine, a Rory Gallagher guitar solo, and the gap between laughs in Mrs Brown’s Boys combined.

Everyone knew an Irish assault was coming, but most expected an All Black loss, if it were to come, would be in Dublin. While the All Blacks were noticeably down on grunt and size in the middle row, they humbly offered no excuses to an Irish side that, this time, convincingly played out the full 80 minutes.

After a humiliating World Cup exit at home in 2015, England’s performance to win 13 straight matches this year must have exceeded even Eddie Jones’ private expectations. Largely inheriting Stuart Lancaster’s side – with a couple of notable exceptions – Jones now has serious depth in most positions and confidence to burn heading into the Six Nations.

Four of those wins were against the Wallabies who, one wonders, if a fifth match was to be played next week, would they consider trying a different tactic? Something novel like implement a kicking game to exit their defensive territory?

Six wins from 15 matches was a poor return, but next year’s schedule looks friendly enough to enable the win/loss ratio to be reversed and coach Cheika’s match-day body language to become more G-rated.

Enigma and frustration are two words that continue to sum up Argentine rugby. Many Super Rugby tipsters were caught out, over ambitious in their assessment of a Jaguares team that failed to adapt to the week to week grind, and the law book.

Their woes flowed through into the national side; just 40 minutes of excellent rugby in Hamilton a very poor return for the World Cup semi-finalists, exposing thin depth behind their frontline players.

At the same Double Bay hotel where INXS frontman Michael Hutchence met his untimely end, the rugby world was rocked by the All Blacks revealing that a listening device had been found sewn into a chair in their team room, prior to the opening Bledisloe Cup/Rugby Championships fixture in August.

The most revealing was learning that the All Blacks routinely sweep their meeting rooms for bugs. As for who the culprit was? The Wallabies were quickly eliminated, plainly having no idea what the All Blacks were up to. MI5 perhaps? Aaron Smith’s partner? Like Colonel Sanders’ 11 secret herbs and spices, we’ll probably never know.

In what history will ultimately judge to be an ordinary Olympic Games, Sevens Rugby was one of the highlights, Fiji winning their first ever gold medal, defeating Great Britain in the final.

Equally impressive were the Australian women’s sevens, superbly prepared by coach Tim Walsh. The arms race for female sporting talent in Australia is now on in earnest, and while the ARU trumpets heightened interest and participation in rugby from women, local rugby needs to provide meaningful, regular competitions to ensure that momentum isn’t lost.

The teams who adapt best to the changes announced to tackle laws and sanctions for high tackles will be those who immediately accept them and get on with business, as opposed to those bleating about the game going soft.

World Rugby has no choice but to be seen to be making the game safer, and to actually make the game safer. With the notable exception of England’s Eliot Daly, we have seen players adapt quickly to the way they contest, or not contest, high kicks, without the game being compromised or watered down.

The same will happen with the tackle. For anyone concerned about staging or diving, rugby does not have this culture and it won’t be tolerated by referees or fans. Forcing all players who claim to have been tackled high to leave the field for a mandatory concussion test will also help.

What really matters

Player eligibility is a mess and, if left unchecked, has the potential to make a mockery of the international game. For Fiji coach John McKee to have to watch his side taken apart at Twickenham, with two Fijians playing for the opposition and numerous others playing the same day for France, Australia and New Zealand, must have been galling.

World Rugby vice chairman Gus Pichot is all over this issue and has made it his personal mission to introduce stricter residential qualification requirements. More power to him, although it is concerning to see some of his initial enthusiasm tempered and contradicted by a blander, non-committal statement from World Rugby CEO Brett Gosper.

Super Rugby faces a difficult 2017 season, with a repeat of the unpopular conference system, lopsided travel demands, and a finals qualification process that does not equitably reward all of the best-performed sides.

Fans are best to simply enjoy the rugby and treat this as a transition phase; a step on the pathway to somewhere better, where a competition with either fewer or more teams will allow organisers to devise a structure where more meaningful games are played, more locally.

That said, there are whispers that the Accenture strategic review, commissioned by SANZAAR for release this year, is delayed because SANZAAR hasn’t actually been able to figure out what to do; changing its mind with each new pressure point being placed on its member partners.

The big story for 2016 must be South Africa’s decline. It is inconceivable that, before our eyes, South Africa is slipping from one of rugby’s two or three historical global superpowers into becoming a feeder nation for club competitions in the UK and France, and a moderate performer at Test level.

There is still optimism and belief that this is only a temporary dip but, as ill-equipped as Springbok coach Allister Coetzee appears to be, the issues are clearly deep rooted; economic, political and cultural.

USA head coach John Mitchell, who lives in Durban, told me this week that, in his view, the predominant issues are around governance and that for as long as administrative focus remains on transition requirements and a closed shop mentality, and not on development processes, innovation and learning, things are not likely to improve. Sobering and sad.

And just because I can…

The annual indulgence that is The Wrap’s ‘gig of the year’ and ‘album of the year’.

The first came early in the piece, an unforgettable St Kilda Palais concert from the David Rawlings Machine; chilling in its simplicity and impeccable musicianship, what resulted was a road trip with Steinbeck’s America out one window and a more contemporary, edgy Nashville out the other, a wholly authentic mixture of understatement, melancholy and joy.

Album of the year is in the same mode, Charles Lloyd and the Marvels, ‘I Long To See You’, featuring the superb Bill Frisell on guitar, delivering a mostly instrumental set, blending languid jazz with Bob Dylan and traditional folk songs.

Lloyd is a delight; at 77 years old, able to make his tenor saxophone sing with ridiculous ease, never playing two or three notes when one will suffice. His 82-second reading of the classic Christian hymn ‘Abide With Me’ is a lesson to any of us would-be musicians and writers to get in, make your statement, and get out, leaving the audience hanging for more.

And on that note, Xmas goodwill messages have been flying back and forth for a couple of weeks now; for anyone who has hung in until now, thanks for your readership and contributions. Best wishes all for a safe and happy Xmas period.