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Rugby must find balanced and sensible approach to safeguard game's fabric as well as players' health

Roar Guru
11th July, 2022
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Roar Guru
11th July, 2022
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Rugby Union in Australia is now the subject of ridicule and derision. Matter of fact, it’s the subject of jokes in New Zealand too.

Two massive series against Ireland and England have been marred irreparably.

What makes matters worse is that this state of affairs was entirely predictable. If you add a conga-line of unplayable rules and a rampant TMO guided by slow motion replays to a game that was already slow and difficult to follow, you get made fun of.

Almost exactly a year ago, in July 2021, I wrote an article for the Roar stating the obvious:
the rules of the game were not protecting the players or the sport. There was no balance even then, the rules were an example of absolutism and zealotry which would lead to the game being undermined.

It was an appeal to the custodians of the game, the fans. Yet it was generally met with a trite reception of “I’m all for protecting players.”

I’m all for minimising road deaths but I don’t think making the speed limit 40 km/h on every road is the way to do it. Nor do I believe that cameras on every corner fining drivers for making decisions in real time is appropriate either.

But make no mistake, that is where we are at with Rugby Union in 2022 and, well, I told you so.

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My July 2021 article was also in response to the ridiculous sending off of Marika Koroibete in the French series and the play acting by the French captain no less, that brought the TMO into the game. I noted that:

“It’s just a matter of time until a huge game is won or lost off the back of a similar call.

Forget replacing players 20 minutes after a red card. Make it harder to get a red card.

The game, especially in Australia, can’t afford to be a laughing stock.”

Now a year on, just as the game should be ramping up for a Lions Tour and gaining momentum before the 2027 World Cup, supporters don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

We’ve had people escape severe punishment or any punishment at all for hair pulling and ramming forearms across throats. Yet we’ve seen a player yellow carded for not turning into Clark Kent and changing direction in the air while attempting a charge down.

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Eddie Jones has blasted the refereeing of modern day rugby as “out of control” with a red or yellow card dished out for “everything”.

It’s worth noting that Eddie’s comments weren’t just in relation to the two yellow cards over the weekend for ‘deliberate’ knock ons while attempting intercepts.

Eddie also rightly castigated the rules of the game for producing a red card to end Angus Ta’avao’s night in Dunedin. Putting aside that the highly influential Jones has had a hand in introducing all these rules, he had a point when he said:

“The All Blacks prop, he got more injured than the ball carrier, there was nothing intentional about him, it was a complete accident. He’s 135kg … and he got beaten by a change of direction and his head hit [Ringrose’s] head.”

Even the referee Jaco Peyper sounded remorseful when the on field microphone caught him saying:

“It looked like an accident, I just think that’s a direction change, it didn’t look like anything foul. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to give him a red card.”

The voices of Andrew Mehrtens, Tim Horan and even Andrew Kellaway over the weekend just added to the sense of desperation that is engulfing the game.

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It is not hysterical to say that next year’s Rugby World Cup will probably be decided by a moment of madness not by a player, but by a referee interpreting bad rules badly.

The way things are at the moment, where common sense has gone out the window, I can’t see that two semi-finals and a final will occur without being marred by the rules, the TMO or the referee. Probably all three!

For the love of the game, there must be a change in approach.

I am not talking about introducing 20 minute red cards either.

All that does is add to the farcical scenes we saw in New Zealand last week. The touch judges, coaching staff and referees were more confused than the mystified players about who should and should not have been on the field.

Nor does adding a 20 minute red card address why cards are being handed out like candy in the first place.

At the very least, an element of intention should be introduced to the red card criteria. There was a day where a spear tackle was easily identified by the actions of a tackler. Similarly, there was a time where a swinging arm or pointed shoulder contacting with a head passed the red card ‘pub test’ 99.9% of the time. Hair pulling and forearms across the throat, not on.

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Hardened fans and importantly first time viewers alike usually got it right. If it looks like foul play and smells like foul play it is foul play.

A system of ‘on report’ should also be introduced. Yes, that’s what they do in rugby league and yes, it’s better than what union does now. Why slow the game down anymore with slow motion replays from every angle imaginable viewed by TMOs who appear to have never played the game.

In other words, if a TMO sees something that the ref has missed during the game which is dubious, don’t stop play and rewind eight phases for anything other than deliberate foul play. Simply put it on report and on the citing commissioner’s radar.

More fundamentally, rugby needs to approach the issue of concussion in a balanced and sensible way that safeguards the fabric of the game as well as the player’s welfare. This is not soccer. But it isn’t the NFL either.

No doubt I’ll get the same responses I did a year ago, “if you don’t protect players, you can’t protect the game”. But that proposition can and should be flipped around too.

A year from now, during the Rugby World Cup, I hope I’m not saying “I told you so” again.

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