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‘Hard cases make bad law.’ So said the American Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. He meant if we react to ‘some accident of immediate overwhelming interest which appeals to the feelings and distorts the judgment’ by passing a law, we often go too far. Fear can drive us to outlaw inevitabilities and trap us in new unintended peril.
Last week Irish hard man midfielder Bundee Aki was in Stellenbosch playing the reigning URC champion Stormers. His Connacht teammate Mack Hansen made a line break but then was isolated on the wing.
All 76 kg of defender Seabalo Senatla assumed the classic jackal pose, draped over the downed Aussie, with hands reaching out, supporting himself with the ball itself.
Aki came in steaming for the clean of the poacher, but as the referee noted later, “made direct contact to the head, with a high degree of danger.”
Indeed, Senatla is out of rugby for a long time; at least five months, which rules him out of End of Year Tour consideration (he had a shot).
Aki is out for two months on his third red card.
The judicial panel took four weeks off of ten because of Aki’s (later) “acceptance that he had committed an act of foul play, expression of remorse, apologies to both the opposing player and referee, and willingness to engage with his club coaching staff on a plan to address this issue.”
So, ten down to six weeks. But then, back up to eight, because of his two prior headhunting reds and his on field belligerence to the referee.
He badgered the referee, getting a bit too close to him, with: “Where do you want me to go? Where do you want me to clear?”
Of course, the answer is ‘nowhere’ and ‘take a step back from the referee.’
It is an odd verdict, really. A serial offender is given the max, his apology shaves off forty percent, but his instant reaction adds thirty percent back. What poppycock!
But back to the bad facts which could made bad law.
The Stormer wing had, in modern practice, won the space and could not legally be cleaned from a perpendicular position in time to avoid the whistle.
Or had he? His left hand rested briefly on the pitch before he went for the pilfer.
In days gone by, Senatla and Aki would have been outlaws.
Walking over the ball in concert, as your foes tried to do the same, whilst ploughing all and sundry beneath metal studs, was the bloody law.
Now, there is no hiking on backs; just jackling and smacks. On the neck. And head. Pick your poison.
But the incident spawned a wave of ‘outlaw jackling’ essays and podcasts.
The names of Sam Warburton, David Pocock, Richie McCaw and Francois Louw, all recipients of direct hits to their head and neck over their distinguished careers, were again evoked.
An irony is how highly intelligent and accomplished all four of those gentlemen are, yet much of the rhetoric implies they were ignorant victims of zealous coaches wanting the turnover.
What players they all were!
But why make the legal illegal again just to protect the Malcolm Marxes of the world?
Aki and Darcy Swain can just mind their manners, no? Don’t we want a greater contest at the ruck? Or are the days of the jackals numbered?
There are other ways, more nuanced, to approach this.
Our laws say you cannot join a ruck from an offside position and you are technically supposed to be ‘bound’ to another player, friend or foe, at the moment of contact. Preferably before contact.
But that is not enforced. Not really. I mean, not at all.
With rugby chasing an attacking shape, there is great leeway given cleaners.
Watch a Test from 1995. There are four times as many scrums as today’s contests, half the lineouts, and about half the time of ball-in-play. But you will realise: ‘there are so few breakdowns!’ About five times less, in fact.
That means there is much less space with very clear defensive shapes formed and ready. But rucks are more certain events. Create 150? You are thinking you’ll retain 145 of them. Or at least 94 percent.
But concomitantly, this has made that holy grail of attack, turnover ball in midfield, even more vital in deciding contests, with the set piece also almost automatic wins (90 percent plus for top teams).
So the biggest teams despise a turnover at all costs; whilst the fittest risk it more. Power teams (France, South Africa) now have a 4-5 ruck rule before they must break or kick. Phase merchants (Ireland, New Zealand) can go eight to twelve, more often.
What would happen to all this if upright ‘homo sapiens’ rucking returned? More drives over the ball, with more connected forwards, granting more space, right?
Get rid of the solo jackler, commit more lads to the breakdown, and voila! Space!
The flaw in that reasoning is to assume the rest of rugby could return to 1995. Nostalgism has that ill: it presumes too many things can recuperate history. Few can.
If the maul is the least popular rugby art form, imagine 50 of them (at least proto-mauls) with the ball ‘in play’ but not really even visible. An 80s mosh pit but with far bigger athletes and still the ability to run in at pace hunting ribs.
What does private equity prefer? A more continuous ruck-to-ruck no-contest breakdown, albeit with constant defensive organization and rush tackle lines?
Or a trench warfare for 80, giving backs more space but for less time?
In the last match of The Rugby Championship this year, the referee awarded 39 penalties. He could have blown ten more. Hell, if the TMO intervened a little more, we could have 60.
Would old school rucking lead to even more whistling? Does the danger of the jackal sort of inherently weed out the wannabes?
Senatla is not likely to stick his head in the wood chipper again soon. Marx will, though.
When we have tried to pass laws to create space in rugby, it has sometimes done the opposite.
The tryline dropout for the holdup has resulted in a backward maul taking a carrier over the line when he is not ready yet.
The 50-22 has clogged the trams, which used to be the only place to run free.
The incessant desire for more ball-in-play, when we have just seen the most drastic increase in that statistic over twenty years, is myopic.
Think of the best games you’ve watched recently, and you’d be surprised at how many of them had lower ball-in-play figures than duller affairs with more ball-in-play.
Rugby needs set piece reloads. Our power athletes are brilliant exponents of the game, but cannot run a full 80 without plenty of stops.
The jackal is now not just an openside. France, New Zealand, and Wales can get eight or more of their XVs over the ball.
Argentina and South Africa have hooker-fetchers; Ireland too. They are not just milking penalties. They want turnovers to run with.
Aki was out of line with rugby values in how he spoke to the ref, and out of control in how he speared Senatla’s head and World Cup dreams.
But don’t save Senatla by banning the jackal. Clean up the clean outs, and be a bit more honest on how the existing law of the ruck is enforced.
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.