Fiji Drua coach Mick Byrne has slammed a flaw in the framework of the rugby law after his side were forced to go down to 13 men late in their match against the Waratahs.
The former Wallabies and All Blacks assistant, who won two World Cups with New Zealand, also hit out at the unfair challenges his side face in Super Rugby, after one of his players was last week declared to have failed his Head Injury Assessment but only because he couldn’t understand English.
Trailing 31-17 against the Waratahs in the 68th minute, the Drua copped a blow when replacement hooker Zuriel Togiatama was shown a yellow card following multiple team penalties.
But in a double dose of pain, the Drua were forced to play the next 10 minutes with 13 men after not being able to field a fit pack to contest a scrum following injuries to two front-rowers.
“For those who like me think what an absurdity that you should lose two players just because of a yellow card, the rules are there to encourage you to not get a yellow card,” former All Blacks star Andrew Mehrtens said in commentary for Stan Sport.
“They infringed, they got a yellow card, they can’t replace it and so an extra man down. Play by the rules or you’ll get penalised.”
Fiji Drua head coach Mick Byrne was left livid in Melbourne following a technicality that left his side down an extra man Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images
Former Wallabies vice-captain Morgan Turinui explained the law was in place to ensure teams didn’t take advantage of a circumstance.
“It also guards, of course, against coaches,” he said.
“If we can say this as diplomatically as possible, tactically seeing their scrum under pressure five metres out and miraculously having a ‘deadwood call’ where a player goes down and you go to uncontested as a tactical option. It is a harsh penalty the Drua will pay now.”
Mehrtens added: “Especially when they’ve got to put eight in the scrum, which only leaves five defenders, including the halfback.”
After a long delay in the play, Fiji put their playmaker Caleb Muntz in the scrum.
The No.10 comically adding before putting his head in the scrum: “No pushing, no pushing.”
The Waratahs scored two quick tries, including one to teen sensation Max Jorgensen directly after the long delay.
Byrne slammed the law in his post-match press conference.
“It’s an indictment on the game,” he said.
“You’ve got a law to stop coaches cheating. We go down to 13 men because we’ve got an injured hooker, we’ve got an injured prop, we can’t physically contest the scrum and we’ve got to go down to 13 men.”
Mick Byrne says his side was impacted by not being able to speak English during a Head Injury Assessment process. Photo Peter Meecham/Getty Images
Adding to his frustration was that Frank Lomani, the excellent Fijian international halfback, was forced to leave the field to undergo a HIA despite not having any symptoms. He was later cleared to return.
But a week earlier, Byrne lost one of his props to a HIA, which resulted in him being stood down for 12 days under World Rugby’s new concussion policy, because he could not understand English.
“Last week we had a HIA where the doctor spoke in English to a player that doesn’t understand English, and he didn’t get the question right because he didn’t understand the question and we had to stand him down for 12 days,” Byrne said.
“There’s challenges for us. I’m not hiding away under excuses because we came out today and we went hard at them. It’s just a challenge for us.”
Asked whether he would formally raise the concern with Super Rugby officials, Byrne said he hoped the matter would be addressed and fixed going forward.
“Last week was an issue for us,” he said.
“A player was asked in English what stadium he’s at? Unfortunately for our boys, he didn’t have a clue where he was.”
After being forced to be on the road for much of last year, Byrne said he was excited for his team to play in front of their home fans.
“We’ll get back, we’ll recover. We’ll get on our flight, we’ll get back there, we’ll recover during the week, and we’ll be looking forward to waiting this week for a team to come over to us and not have to get back on a flight,” he said.
“That’s exciting. Our fans will be there and we’re looking forward to welcoming the Crusaders. You saw the crowd that was there with the Chiefs last year and they’ll be there yelling and screaming next week. “I just feel really proud of what our guys did in that first half and the first few minutes of the second half.”
Brendan NH Fan
Roar Rookie
Places like Fiji and Georgia I understand but soccer is able to do it with alot more languages. Its the refs desire to explain the rules that causes problems. Ref should just say collapsing scrum with the action. Its not like French and Spainish aren't widely spoken.
piru
Roar Rookie
The solution is simple - neutral medical staff
Geoff Parkes
Expert
True, I doubt that's the solution. Not fair putting the onus on refs as to who is genuinely injured and who is foxing.
jeznez
Roar Guru
Geoff, I’m open to ideas. The worry is anything else I can think of is making it a referee judgement call. I don’t think we want that either.
Dean
Roar Rookie
I agree with that sentiment. A law can be introduced for good reasons while still having unintended negative consequences. There are enough negative instances of this law now that there is no reason why it should not be reviewed and an alternative solution considered.
Geoff Parkes
Expert
Yeah, I get why it's there, and nobody wants coaches deliberately manipulating a situation for unfair gain. But surely there has to be a better way? To be forced to man up 5 v 7 at a scrum, all for a line-ball YC, is way out of whack.
LuckyPhil
Roar Rookie
Yes, even at U13s last year we had a team ask for uncontested scrums because they didn't have enough front rowers. We had to agree (otherwise it was unsafe or there was no game), but makes it hard when they have 5 loosies on the field.
jeznez
Roar Guru
Geoff, I'd say it's a very neccessary law at the levels I've coached. The number of teams going uncontested on us and then sticking extra backrowers on in place of props made it very difficult. Seeing it play out here due to what to me looked a pretty harsh yellow and doubled up with injury means I wish there was a commonsense measure to deal with it. I just don't know how you deal with the bad actors and then not overly punish a side like the Drua where it was obvious they weren't manipulating what was going on.
jeznez
Roar Guru
I feel for the Drua. They had been playing brilliantly, their defensive effort was one of the best I've seen. Such a shame the game got taken away from them due to not being able to field a scrum. As I said on the live blog, I get why those laws exist but hate seeing them put in play like that. As for the failed HIA due to language barrier, that's appalling. Surely there has to be language taken into account when assessing a player.
Geoff Parkes
Expert
Bang on, soapit. Fix one problem, create another. The punishment far outweighs the crime.
soapit
Roar Guru
doesnt have to happen tho, they only decided it was necessary a year or so ago. considering how often people were actually accusing others of going to uncontested tactically the solution has created more problems than it fixed
Big A
Roar Rookie
Interesting how the game of rugby is supposed to be played by blokes who uphold the spirit of the game and yet alot of the rules are designed to penalize against cynical play - there's a disconnect somewhere and I have to say that yesterday's ending to such a willing contest was tragic - imagine that happening in the 65th minute of a tight RWC knockout match and a team goes down to 13 players - back to the drawing board I say - the game is run by technocrats that don't understand the fabric of the game - we need to dismantle some of these rules - it seems like every scrum now ends with a penalty advantage - every contested ruck ends with a penalty advantage - we should go laissez-faire and if you win the scrum it's play on - same with the ruck - that bloke refereed the Tahs off the park in that first half - even that no arms yellow card for the tackle on Swinton he initially gave a penalty to Drua before reversing. Some of those attacking penalties for not releasing were really pedantic - you never seem to see them against the Kiwi sides - it's all perception and these refs are ruining the spectacle
Paul D
Roar Rookie
The issue last week around the HIA assessment to a player in English is a problem. But the 13 men yellow is just what it is. It was either last year or the year before the exact same thing happened to the Tahs. None of us like it. It’s just what happens.
PeterK
Roar Guru
Not many quality refs speak Fijian, and at intl level you can't have a ref from your own country. In practical terms make sure the captain speaks english and he can translate. The refs MUST give time for this to happen though.
TC
Roar Rookie
This comment isn't just for The Dura..Please coach players to stop doing Anything to stop momentum of Attacking teams..The first and only warning from the Ref should be in the sheds before the game..Same for Scrum Height..Blights on the game
Brendan NH Fan
Roar Rookie
Rugby is to English focused. Plenty of non English countries complain their players don't understand the refs. Always comical when the only English speaking player must explain to the rest of the team the refs instructions. Surely the team doctor should have been able to do the HIA. Italy had a similar thing happen with 13 men. NZ didn't against Ireland.
Tez
Roar Rookie
Stiff shit mick .... you know the rules