Beirne’s histrionics are just a sign of the times
‘IF HE HADN’T GONE DOWN, IT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN LOOKED AT’
THERE has been much fallout and debate over Tadhg Beirne’s theatrics at Murrayfield last weekend.
You get the feeling it wouldn’t have bothered Beirne or Munster too much. As Michael Corleone said in The Godfather: ‘It’s not personal. It’s strictly business’.
The Munster lock has been compared to Neymar, the Brazilian king of histrionics, in the wake of his supposed dive against Edinburgh.
The hosts were leading 13-10 in the 68th minute and had a penalty advantage at that stage. They were looking at a six-point cushion and a place in the European Champions Cup semi-finals. That was until their loosehead prop Pierre Schoeman decided to give Beirne a little nudge off the ball. Regarded as one of the best breakdown technicians in Europe, you’d imagine Beirne and his blue scrum cup are top of the agenda during opposition team meetings every week. Hindering his progress and obstructing his path to rucks is drilled into players. David Pocock regularly gets the same treatment. He was constantly complaining to the referee during Ireland’s three-Test series in Australia last summer. He was being held in rucks, having his jersey pulled and hit off the ball, anything to keep him away from the breakdown, or slow down his progress.
Schoeman saw an opportunity to take Beirne out of the game and he took it. Incidents like that happen all the time in the modern game, and most players get away with it. Beirne ensured Schoeman’s indiscretion would be picked up by officials. The net result was a penalty reversal and the rest is history. A few minutes later, Keith Earls would be racing over in the corner and Munster had a 14th European semi-final to look forward to.
All that has been overshadowed by the reaction to Beirne’s actions in that moment. Brian O’Driscoll was one of the most vocal critics, saying it’s not a ‘good look for our game’.
We hear a lot about the spirit of the game and the values that rugby extolls, but this is top-level competition
and cynicism and gamesmanship are realities of this era. Conor Murray rightfully pointed this out this week.
‘We’re aware there’s a bit being made of it, ex-players have talked about it but maybe if he didn’t stay down the ref might not have gone back and had a look at it,’ the Munster scrum-half observed. You need to fight for every inch on the pitch these days. Beirne, mindful of the fact that he had been spent 10 minutes in the sin-bin during the firsthalf, saw an opportunity to get an advantage and he took it.
Former England lock Ben Kay offered his thoughts on the incident earlier this week as well. Kay alluded to a regular occurrence in matches when a player has his leg held in a ruck. The player who is making the offence usually gets away with that indiscretion. The speed of the modern game means those little shenanigans are rarely picked up. As Kay argued, it is usually the player being held who ends up getting penalised for kicking out at his opponent in order to free himself, a natural reaction. In that case, you can see why players ham it up when they are singled out for special treatment.
Gamesmanship happens in rugby all the time. Maybe not as blatant and cynical as Beirne’s actions against the Scots, but teams and coaches are always trying to get an edge.
Players are now being coached to trap opposition players on the wrong side of the ruck.
You’ll regular hear referees penalising players for ‘failing to roll away’. On a lot of occasions, they simply can’t. The net result is a penalty and an attacking lineout deep in opposition territory.
All kinds of trickery occurs at the scrum. On that subject, when was the last time you saw the ball fed in straight?
Kickers constantly steal an extra few metres when taking a shot for goal or finding touch. Players are coached to run blocking lines when chasing box kicks. This is the mindset of the modern player.
Going back to the incident, you would have wondered what Richard Cockerill made of it all. Edinburgh’s head coach saw his side’s European hopes dashed by a blatant act of gamesmanship.
Perhaps there was a hint of karma about the whole thing. Cockerill was on the bench when Leicester faced Munster in that infamous Heineken Cup final back in 2002.
The Tigers were by far the better team that day but that Cardiff finale will forever be remember for Neil Back illegally swiping the ball out of Peter Stringer’s hands as he sought to feed the ball into a Munster scrum. Leicester would hold on for a 15-9 win.
As several Munster players pointed out in the years that followed, if one of their lads did the same thing he would have been feted for his quick-thinking. And that’s exactly what Beirne did last Saturday. Edinburgh shouldn’t take it personally.