RUGBY MATTERS
More red cards only way to stop clear-out madness ruining game
SO two rounds into the 2021 Six Nations and already we can reflect on two red cards for illegal, dangerous clear-outs, which frankly is one of the more predictable outcomes in this year’s tournament.
First we had Ireland flanker Peter O’Mahony trying to wipe out Tomas Francis when Ireland visited Wales and then last week Scotland’s Zander Fagerson took a long run and took aim at Wyn Jones. Being a Wales prop these days is clearly a hazardous business.
Nobody in their right mind seriously disputes either sending off although Hamish Watson, in the heat of battle, did sound off straight after Scotland’s disappointing defeat only “ta think again” the following morning and wisely retract his defence of Fagerson.
What absolutely staggers me though, reviewing the incidents again this week, is that in both instances the respective referees – Wayne Barnes in Cardiff and Matt Carley in Edinburgh – seemingly had perfect real time views of both clear-outs and waved them on. Indeed Barnes seemed to get a little shirty with Wales players for voicing their concerns over O’Mahony’s challenge.
Happily, in both cases, the TMO stepped in and alerted the refs that they needed to come back and look at the incidents. Justice was done but it was a close-run thing.
Now, of course, referees are human and they can miss stuff but clear-cut reds for foul play right in front of your eyes?
Perhaps they have been insidiously, subconsciously sucked into the unspoken conspiracy that anything and everything must be allowed at the breakdown to facilitate quick possession.
This has become the Holy Grail of the modern game, the mantra that mesmerises everybody and sidelines common sense. Almost anything is permissible in the name of quick quick pill and continuity. These same offences often go unpunished at club level – particularly in the Premiership where Barnes and Carley ply their trade – as officialdom turns a Nelsonian eye to obvious wrong doing. For the greater good seems the unspoken message.
Now there are nuances here. I concede it can be a little tricky judging in real time, in the demonic fury of action, whether illegal contact has been made above the shoulder line or just below it, or whether initial contact was in fact legal but then, with the erratic movement of bodies, slipped into illegal territory.
But what remains blissfully simple is judging whether the potentially offending player was bound on when he took his long run up and launched himself at the ruck like a heat-seeking missile.
Rugby’s laws – and referees are our custodians of this – state quite clearly that the player making contact at ruck or maul must be bound on. There is no grey area in this. It’s not negotiable or something that should be quietly coached sotto voice by indulgent ‘matey’ refs wanting to move the game on at a lick. It’s a straightforward automatic penalty, regardless of outcome.
Both O’Mahony and Fagerson had already committed offences even before they made contact with Francis and Jones as the Welshmen lay prone and vulnerable in the ruck. Neither made any attempt to bind on. That is surely what should have been picked up instantly, regardless of whether any further damage was done and the exact height and nature of the contact.
So that’s a concern, but then you also wonder exactly what is being coached at club and Test level these days. We are never allowed to observe a full-on training session of significance so frankly we are not quite sure.
The laws also state quite categorically that you can’t go off your feet when entering a ruck or maul yet you see it all the time while the same laws categorically state that if you are off your feet you can play neither the ball nor the man. You are out of the game. It’s the first thing you get taught at school, yet that seems almost the preferred position these days for those looking to effect the crocodile roll.
Seb Negri – Italy’s best player by a distance last week – got away very lightly for his hugely damaging crocodile roll on Jack Willis. He was flat out on the ground at the time. Until he got up on his two feet, Negri should have been out of the game. He was illegal regardless of outcome.
Ultimately it’s all a matter of mindset. A few seasons back there were howls of indignation as the game went after those making lazy, late, ill-timed, clumsy and dangerous challenges for the high ball. I would add in passing that I’m struggling to remember a really bad injury from such situations whereas there seems to be at least one a week – ranging from concussions to wrecked ligaments and broken bones – at the clear-outs. But the potential for maiming injury was clearly there.
Initially, with the highball challenges under close scrutiny, there was a rash of yellow and red cards as players yearned for their old licence to just pile in and cause a bit of carnage, but very quickly everything has changed.
Professional sportsmen adapt at speed when they have too – when their careers and wages depend on it – and they soon got the message and now tend to challenge only when they have a genuine 50-50 chance of winning possession. The ugly challenge for the high ball, if not quite a thing of the past, is most certainly well on the way out.
If the will existed to eradicate the illegal clear-out at rucks and mauls they would be gone within a year or so because there would be such a torrent of cards and penalties that matches and careers would be on the line.
Does the game currently have that will? We’ll see. The Six Nations has made a good start, let’s see if it continues in a similar vein next week.