Play-acting or feigning injury is hated in rugby ... as I know to my cost
ALEXIS SANCHEZ was ridiculed for his play-acting in the closing minutes of Wednesday night’s Arsenal victory over Leicester City. His delayed collapse, holding his face after being hit on the shoulder by a ball thrown at him deliberately by Christian Fuchs, was the latest in footballers pretending to be hurt. After the match Sanchez showed fans a pictures of a cut lip he suffered in an earlier clash with defender Robert Huth. England’s rugby union World Cup winner Ben Kay used social media to post Sanchez’s picture next to one of Worcester’s Nick Schonert who suffered an horrific cut to his face. Here, Kay’s World Cup team-mate and Mirror columnist Matt Dawson explains the difference in cultures between football and rugby... RUGBY takes a dim view of gamesmanship – as I learned to my cost many years ago.
I was playing for Northampton against Wasps and took a quick tap penalty. Simon Shaw ever so slightly ran across my path, we bumped shoulders and I went down like a sack of potatoes. The ref gave us another 10 yards, but there was utter disrespect for me from the entire Wasps team – a real look down their nose as if to say “you absolute plum”. I immediately felt guilty. It’s not like there was some sort of foul play and I’d exaggerated it. There wasn’t any. I learned a lesson that day. I never did it again. In football, it seems to have become more widespread from the time when it only happened in and around the box to try to get penalties. Now it seems to happen everywhere and is often seen as an opportunity to get an opponent booked or sent off. I think that’s what upsets fans the most. Rugby is not wholly innocent. France wing Yoann Huget and South Africa’s Bryan Habana have both been involved in incidents of feigning or exaggerating injury. But Huget was immediately issued with a formal warning for an “act contrary to good sportsmanship”, while Habana (below) quickly and publicly apologised. “Sportsmanship and integrity are key factors to what makes rugby so special,” he said in his statement. “I let myself, the fans, our opponents and the game down.” In its effort to clamp down on simulation, World Rugby has ruled that “any player who dives or feigns injury in an effort to influence match officials will be liable for sanction”. Bryan was right – as are the blazers. Sportsmanship and integrity ARE qualities which make rugby special. We must never forget that.