Cut out the goading Maro, it’s just not classy
In the Glasgow v Saracens match Champions Cup match, Maro Itoje let himself down badly. I detest the mocking of opponents that’s becoming prevalent in the game – a player drops the ball or knocks it forward, and gets patted on the head by an opponent. It’s done in the hope of riling him and maybe getting a reaction that will result in a penalty, and it stinks.
The sight of Itoje leaping around in mock celebration, knowing the Glasgow try was going to be disallowed, demonstrated nothing other than a lack of class.
Shame on ref Mathieu Raynal for not awarding a penalty against Saracens, as Nigel Owens did in the Saints v Clermont match when Sebastien Vahaamahina mocked a player who dropped the ball close to the line.
We keep hearing that the game’s values need to be protected, more referees following Owens’ lead would be a good start.
With one hand tied behind his back because of injuries and suspensions, Eddie Jones has announced a training squad that I’m sure wasn’t what he planned.
And you can have any odds you like that not all of those 36 players will be fit enough to travel after this weekend’s Champions Cup games.
With the RWC less than a year away, Jones is staring into the abyss, with plenty predicting England may struggle to escape from their pool, so although his job is surely safe until after the tournament, his reputation is firmly on the line. While there are eight uncapped players in the squad, you have to wonder whether he’s not been a touch conservative in sticking with so many of his old guard?
Danny Cipriani is the notable omission and while Farrell and Ford are understandable picks, surely Jones hasn’t forgotten Cips’ bit of magic that saved England in the final Test of the summer at Newlands. He’ll need Cipriani in Japan.
Week out, on the Premiership clubs’ supporters’ forums there are complaints about decisions made by referees. But if you watched the performances of some of the non-English refs in the Champions Cup, you’ll realise just how lucky we are. By and large the French refs were good, but some of those from the Pro14 made a few mystifying decisions.
For me, by far the worst was Andrew Brace and his team managing to miss no fewer than two red card offences in the Bath v Toulouse match. The first, Jerome Kaino’s tackle on Jamie Roberts, split opinion, with some arguing that it was a legal tackle and that a yellow card was harsh – at the disciplinary hearing it was ruled that it should have been red, and Kaino got five weeks off, which just goes to show what a baffling mess the disciplinary process is.
The second incident involved Lucas Point ud leading with his head as he dived into a ruck, three or four metres away from Brace. I don’t know anyone who thought anything other than a straight red, but it was allowed to pass. How this could have been missed by the ref, his assistants, and the TMO is a total rugby mystery.
Every ref makes mistakes, but the fact is Toulouse should have been down to 14 men for the whole of the second half, and then to 13 for the final 30 minutes. Would that have affected the result? My guess is that it would, and Freddie Burns’ dreadful moment of madness would have been irrelevant.
There were other examples: Gloucester had a try disallowed on the basis that a player who was cleared out wasn’t part of the ruck. That was by an Italian ref, but it would have stood in both the Premiership and the Top14.
I lay the blame for this 100 per cent at the door of World Rugby and EPCR. Why can’t we have one consistent set of rules for how the game’s Laws are applied?
The Champions Cup deserves the very best officiating. Consistency is a word that’s bandied about by everyone.
When refs from different leagues see things in very different ways, that’s a worry, and it needs sorting out.
Justice that’s applied four days after the match has sometimes results in the wrong team winning, and to quote Nathan Hughes, ‘What a joke’.