Coach Smith ‘frustrated’ with the state of rugby

Former All Blacks and Blacks Ferns coach Wayne Smith revealed he turned off the rugby in favour of “an animal documentary” after being frustrated by the state of the game currently.

It was the Highlanders’ clash with the Western Force that had Smith so annoyed by the game that saw five yellow cards handed out by referee Nic Berry.

“His arm is out the whole time”

Speaking on the All Blacks podcast, he openly revealed his frustrations around the number of infringements in the clash and in the game in general at the moment.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m getting frustrated with the game,” Smith told the All Blacks podcast.

“Not the players, I’m frustrated with the game.

“I watched the game that Nic Berry refereed the other day, and his arm is out the whole time. Every single play, there’s an advantage.

“I turned off for the first time in my life at halftime. I actually put on a program on the Lions in the Serengeti. I watched an animal documentary.

“I was so frustrated with it. I don’t know if it got any better in the second half. It probably did. But I just thought it’s not the sort of game I want to watch at the moment when it’s like that.”

Set-piece focused game

The high frequency of infringements means that the game is so often played under advantage where the team with the ball has a free attack, and if that fails, they can lean on their set-piece to generate more penalties.

“We’re going to go seven, eight phases, and if it goes nowhere, we’re going to come back and it’s going to be a penalty.

“Then, 30 seconds to kick the ball and another 40 seconds for the lineout to happen. It’s going to be a drive that’s going to collapse, and It’s going to be an arm coming out.

“It’s going to come back to another penalty. Kick to touch, another drive. Then a yellow card comes out because they do it again.”