Drug abuse is far worse than Saracens ‘crime’
The two big words in rugby, at a time when the focus should have been on the start of the European competitions, have sadly been ‘cheating’ and ‘secrecy’.
Cheating is endemic in rugby, as it is in all professional sport, but the Saracens’ points’ deduction and fine is on a grander scale than we’re used to seeing.
Without getting all philosophical about it, when the No. 7 of ‘your’ team gets over the ball, trying to slow it down illegally, then it’s likely that you’ll find that form of cheating acceptable.
Similarly, when ‘your’ kicker steals a yard when he’s placing the ball for a penalty kick, then that probably doesn’t bother you, but if the opposition kicker does it then that’s wrong. So let’s start from the premise that the vast majority of us are tolerant when it comes to cheating in rugby.
The next level up from that kind of on-field cheating is probably drugs, recreational or performance enhancing. I’d take a very hard line on this – it concerns me much, much more than a bit of financial shenanigans, and I’d simply have life bans unless there are overwhelming mitigating circumstances.
However, that’s not the way that rugby has decided to deal with the issue, and after the appropriate ban, players come back into action, and even go on to represent their country at Test match level. That stinks.
I think drug offences are much worse than what Sarries have done. How is it different for one team to lose out because the opposition have sinned financially, as opposed to a player(s) in the other team having taken drugs? The answer is that it’s all a matter of opinion about which sin is the greater!
Saracens have been punished, and they’ve accepted it, but keyboard warriors are still banging on about what else should happen to the club. For me one of the most intriguing aspects of this season is going to be watching Sarries trying to win enough games to overcome the 35 points deduction, and if they manage to do that then good luck to them.
Saracens isn’t ‘my’ club, but despite their transgressions I admire hugely what they’ve built, and I hope they win enough matches to ensure their Premiership survival. Every other club’s supporters should thank them too for providing so many players to the Elite Player Squad, thereby earning their club a few bob!
Which brings us on to secrecy, also at the heart of the game. We haven’t yet seen the detailed report into Saracens’ alleged misdemeanours. Since the club have accepted the punishment I suppose the ‘alleged’ is redundant, but I’ll stick with it until I see what actually went on.
If you read in a newspaper that an individual had been convicted of an offence, and had been sentenced for that, you’d surely want to understand why the details were being kept secret, and that’s how it is with this case.
You and I pay our money into the game, through tickets, merchandise, BT and so on – we’re stakeholders – but on the biggest issue affecting the Premiership in some time, we’re not to be trusted with the details!
PRL have ‘previous’ on this: back in 2015, a secret settlement was agreed with an unspecified number of clubs, despite us being told that no breaches of the salary cap had been proven.
PRL looked stupid then, and they look even more stupid now. When we say PRL we actually mean the collective owners of the Premiership clubs plus Newcastle, so it’s ‘your’ club’s owner and his colleagues who don’t want you to know what happened. What have they got to fear from being open?’
Head coach of the All Blacks has to be one of the most desirable jobs in rugby, or is that no longer the case? We’ve known for a while that Steve Hansen was packing it in, but the NZRU doesn’t look to be doing a wonderful job of finding a successor, with high-profile candidates falling by the wayside.
Dave Rennie’s taken over at the Wallabies, Warren Gatland plans to honour his commitments to the Chiefs and British Lions, and Jamie Joseph has extended his contract with Japan.
Rugby in New Zealand is hardly on the crest of a wave and the All Blacks could find themselves appointing the last man standing! If you fancy a well-paid, high-profile, but high-pressure job, get your application in!