NZ blueprint could be an option for Welsh regions
WALES’ four regions could follow a blueprint put in place by New Zealand with a domestic battle amongst themselves to get rugby up and running again this summer.
Welsh Rugby Union chief Martyn Phillips hinted the derbies could take place in a competition involving Cardiff Blues, the Ospreys, Scarlets and Dragons as doubts continue about the Guinness PRO14 starting up again.
Phillips says a decision on the PRO14 needs to be taken within a month, although Scottish officials have already stated it would need to be a truncated league at best.
But New Zealand yesterday announced a model that other unions could copy, as they press ahead with plans for a domestic competition for their five Super
Rugby sides as early as next month.
The tournament would see reigning southern hemisphere champions the Crusaders do battle with the Blues, Chiefs, Highlanders and Hurricanes in what has been dubbed ‘Super Rugby Aotearoa’.
The five teams would meet each other home and away in behindclosed-doors matches to determine the champions of New Zealand.
The WRU know it is far too early to put any such planning in place in Wales, but Phillips admitted in an interview with the BBC that something similar has been discussed behind the scenes here.
By playing against one another in a round-robin sequence of games, the four Welsh regions would be able to avoid any travel to Ireland, Scotland, Italy or South Africa.
It is reported Ireland could stage their own mini-league, with Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connacht battling it out against one another.
The situation is more complicated in Scotland, though, with only Glasgow and Edinburgh as professional teams.
South Africa have also pencilled in a possible domestic tournament where its two PRO14 sides, the Cheetahs and Southern Kings, would meet the four Super Rugby outfits – the Bulls, Sharks, Lions and Stormers.
Phillips is reported as saying: “If you do get back to playing, do you play [Welsh] inter-regional games first, inter-provincial games in Ireland? It looks to me as though that is the first port of call.
“We have been talking a lot about the international game – but equally, in particular, the regional game is important, and players do need to play at some point and coaches need to see them back in their environments. They are finely-tuned athletes and need to play.”
The rugby unions know any resumption of the sport can only take place once the authorities have given the green light and travel restrictions could prohibit what happens in the PRO14.
Scottish rugby boss Dominic McKay, who is a PRO14 board member, said: “We are still looking at scenarios that might see some way of potentially finishing the season if restrictions allow in the back end of the summer/beginning of autumn. And that will definitely be a curtailed end to the PRO14 season.” It could be, however, New Zealand have pointed the way forward with the tournament where their five franchises will meet each other.
If their domestic competition proves to be a success, it could prompt the likes of Wales and Ireland to follow suit, provided Government guidelines permit that.
“For our fans, our players and everyone involved in Super Rugby, we are thrilled that the Sports Minister has given the green light for professional sport to resume at level two,” said New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson.
While the matches would be behind closed doors, it is reported down under that fans around the world will be able to tune in to see some of rugby’s biggest names back in action.
IN a long history, rugby has had its fair share of controversies. Sometimes the tensions boil over and, on other occasions, a scandal can grip the nation.
From red cards to punch-ups and everything in between, here, we look at the most controversial incidents to have taken place.
BLOODGATE
OF course, we must start with the scandal that called into question the very values of the game.
Harlequins architected arguably one of the darkest days in rugby history when they tried to circumvent the blood-replacement law in their Heineken Cup quarter-final match with Leinster.
On April 12, 2009, with Quins trailing by just a single point, and ravaged by injuries, late on in the match, they had no recognised goal kicker, with Kiwi Nick Evans having been substituted earlier in the match.
However, full-back Tom Williams was handed a blood capsule, bought from a fancy dress shop in Clapham, London, and took a knee before biting into it.
It allowed Evans to come on as a blood replacement and take a drop goal, which ultimately failed, with Leinster emerging eventual victors at The Stoop.
In the aftermath, Williams was banned for 12 months, physio Steph Brennan got a two-year ban and was struck off, a decision that was later overturned and Quins boss Dean Richards was banned for three years.
Club doctor Wendy Chapman also landed in trouble after it emerged she deliberately cut Williams’ mouth after the match in an attempt to cover up the wrongdoing.
THE LIONS’ INFAMOUS ‘99’ CALL
A strategy which split rugby fans right down the middle.
Legendary Lions captain Willie John McBride in 1974 took it upon himself to create a method by which his side would show solidarity and fight, quite literally, in the face of a Springboks side baying for blood.
McBride was hellbent on fighting fire with fire and, in doing so, concocted the ultimate ‘one-in, all-in’ policy, the now infamous ‘99 call’.
The basic premise was, if any Lions player on the pitch heard the number bellowed, they had to thump the nearest South African to them.
The call needed a buy-in from every player, the logic being that the referee couldn’t send every Lion off if they all threw a punch en masse.
It was utilised a couple of times during the 1974 tour, but most memorably in the third Test at Port Elizabeth, during which the iconic Wales full-back JPR Williams legged it half the length of the field to spark out Springbok second-row Johnnes van Heerden.
TANA UMAGA ON BRIAN O’DRISCOLL
THE ugly opening salvo in the opening Test of the 2005 Lions tour of New Zealand soured the occasion for almost all who witnessed it.
Just moments into the first Test, Brian O’Driscoll, the Lions’ lynchpin, skipper and one of the greatest players in the world at that time, had his tour ended by a ghastly, egregious incident.
Tana Umaga and Keven Mealamu’s premeditated spear tackle on the Irishman, tainted what, for many in this part of the world, is deemed the greatest event in the sport’s calendar.
The fallout, too, was unsightly. O’Driscoll was wheeled out for press conferences and Lions coach Sir Clive Woodward was apoplectic with rage, given the All Blacks pair were not punished for the act.
The All Blacks then held a somewhat extraordinarily, defiant press conference of their own, which saw the entire squad bizarrely flank Umaga and coach Graham Henry.
The pair have since said that they have buried the hatchet, but it will still go down as one of the most unsavoury incidents in recent Lions history.
MIKE PHILLIPS SCORES WITH THE WRONG BALL
THE scrum-half was the sort of player Wales fans loved to have on their team, a bruising No.9 with pace, power and a win-at-all-costs mentality.
Those three certainly came to the fore during Wales’ Six Nations showdown with Ireland back in 2011.
With Warren Gatland’s men trailing 13-9 when Jonny Sexton sliced his clearance kick into touch on the full outside of his own 22, Phillips sniffed an opportunity for a quick burst.
He instructed hooker Matthew Rees to fire the ball to him before he blazed past the Irish defence, leaving Tommy Bowe trailing in his wake before touching down in the corner to take the lead, which Wales would ultimately cling on to.
But it was soon highlighted that the ball Rees passed to Phillips was a different ball, thus, in accordance with rugby’s laws, making a quick lineout illegal.
Jonathan Kaplan, the referee, consulted with his assistants after the Irish players were up in arms over the incident. But touch judge Peter Allan, wrongly, assured Kaplan it was the same ball.
TREVOR BRENNAN FIGHTS FAN
IN one of the more shocking incidents of recent times, Trevor Brennan became embroiled in a fight with a fan before a match between Toulouse and Ulster back in 2007.
Brennan, who was playing for the French outfit at the time, was being ribbed by a cluster of Ulster fans before the game, supposedly over the quality of the pub he co-owned, De Danu.
At first it was said he played along with the 1,000-strong Ulster fans, taking the chanting in jest. However, something seemed to flip and he charge into the stands before repeatedly smashing supporter Patrick Bamford in the face.
Brennan’s club came out in defence of the forward, saying the chorus of chants were personal and aimed at the player’s mother.
Brennan, who was capped 13 times by Ireland in his career, was later fined £17,000 by the ERC and banned for life from rugby at the age of 33.
The ban was subsequently reduced to five years following an appeal.
SAM WARBURTON SEES RED
ANOTHER massive moment in World Cup history, which many believe sealed the fate of Wales in the 2011 semi-final.
Just 19 minutes into the showdown with France, diminutive wing Vincent Clerc went full steam into Wales flanker Sam Warburton, who adminstered a clumsy tackle.
Clerc’s legs swung up high such was his momentum, while Warburton lost grip of his opposite number while attempting to ground him.
At the time, it was widely acknowl
edged, by the on-air commentators no less, that a yellow card would be sufficient for the degree of danger to which Warburton had subjected Clerc.
But referee Alain Rolland brandished the red card, much to the dismay of many onlookers, which meant Wales had a man disadvantage for more than an hour.
France won the match by a single point, 9-8, and it meant Wales missed out on a golden opportunity to earn a spot in their first Rugby World Cup final, a feat they are still yet to achieve.
DUNCAN McRAE RAINS DOWN FISTS ON RONAN O’GARA
ANOTHER Lions tour, another ugly, violent incident.
When the Lions met the Warratahs back in 2001, the red mist seemed to descend over Duncan McRae.
He rained down 11 punches to the head of Ireland fly-half Ronan O’Gara, when the Lions man was grounded following a ruck, leaving his face bulbous and bloodied and fans wincing at their TV screens.
O’Gara, dazed and wounded, trudged off the field with his eye crimsoned with blood. McRae, meanwhile, rightly saw the crimson of the referee’s card as he was given his marching orders.
The Waratahs full-back was slapped with a seven-week ban for the incident. He was rumoured to have received death threats from the Irish public and was subjected to fiery public confrontations when he was spotted in the streets thereafter.
O’Gara’s eye, initially swollen closed, required eight stitches. Then Lions coach Graham Henry branded the incident “a bad day for rugby”.
SCHALK BURGER EYE GOUGE
IT is arguably one of the most sickening videos of our time. Certainly not a watch for the faint-hearted.
It is yet another uneasy incident which sits among the many on recent Lions tours, this time the trip to South Africa in 2009.
Schalk Burger was the perpetrator this time, in the first minute of the second Test in Pretoria, when he gouged Irish winger Luke Fitzgerald in plain sight on the fringes of a ruck.
The biggest bone of contention was that Burger received only a yellow card for the act, from which Fitzgerald later complained of blurred vision.
The Springboks emerged victorious by virtue of a last-minute penalty from Morne Steyn, from 54 metres, to seal a series win for the hosts.
But it was marred by that horrendous incident, which Burger later claimed was never intentional, issuing no apology to Fitzgerald.
NIGEL OWENS SENDS OFF MONTGOMERY FOR ASSAULTING REFEREE
FORMER Springbok Percy Montgomery was hit with a hefty two-year ban and £15,000 after Nigel Owens sent him off for shoving touch judge Peter Rees back in 2003.
Montgomery, playing for Newport at the time, took umbrage with Rees during the game against Swansea at St. Helen’s, and was ultimately found guilty of ‘assaulting a match official’. The fallout, though, was ugly. Eighteen months of the ban was suspended, meaning only six months of actual game time would be missed by the full-back, and the Welsh referees’ society reacted with fury at the leniency of his punishment.
As a consequence, Montgomery missed the 2003 Rugby World Cup with South Africa owing to the ban.