Shrewd Venter puts one over on Jones as Italy ruck tactics scramble England at scrum
The quote of the past weekend came from a referee. Romain Poite, surrounded by England players remonstrating with him over Italy’s tactic of not engaging at the ruck and being able to loiter with intent in the English backline, looked at James Haskell and said simply: “I’m a referee, not a coach.”
This may have further confused the English players.
Rugby referees have been coaching players for years. Few sporting officials talk to players more than in rugby, directing the offsides line with a pointed finger, leaning over and telling that naughty Richie McCaw to leave the ball alone, again, and giving them the hard glare when they come in at the side of the maul. Rugby players like to be coached. Eddie Jones likes to coach rugby players. He likes to shout at them. While they waited for a news conference after the Sharks had beaten the Jones-coached Reds 69-15 in Brisbane in 2007, hacks smiled as they heard Jones tell his players they were as “soft as sh***”. They ended bottom of the Super Rugby log that season. Jones called the officiating of Matt Goddard “just outrageous” when the Reds lost 6-3 to the Brumbies in their third match of the 2007 season. “I can’t understand the [penalties] when our scrum was the dominant scrum. That poor refereeing is not up to the standard of Super 14. We were definitely the stronger scrum in the first half, and we get penalised for collapsing the scrum. Work that one out. It is disgraceful. Whatever fine I have to pay [for criticising the referee], I am prepared to pay twice … it’s not good enough. It’s not good enough for rugby. The stronger scrum is getting penalised … well, that doesn’t make sense.”
Jones had to pay a fine of 10,000 Australian dollars. He only paid it once. And he had to send a written apology to Goddard. After everything had died down, Goddard had a return dip at Jones, saying the match was “the worst game of professional rugby that I have been involved in” and suggesting Jones had been deflecting from the poor performance of his team.
“Rugby does have a problem with law complexities which hopefully can be rectified in the near future with massive law changes aimed at taking the referee out of the equation,” said Goddard.
He also suggested that “smart coaches such as Jones would probably find other ways to ‘play just outside the scope of the law’.”
Brendan Venter is a smart coach. He can sometimes be a smart aleck.
In 2010, while head coach at Saracens, he was fined €25,000 for criticising Heineken Cup officials after a loss to Leinster, suggesting that they had not adequately prepared referees to interpret the new breakdown laws.
Two weeks later, after another Heineken Cup match, he was inspired by the comedy movie Mike Bassett – England Manager to give a mickeytaking, post-game interview to Martin Gillingham of Sky Sports.
Gillingham: “What were you happy with about your side?”
Venter: “Happy? Everything. Very good, very happy with my team.”
Gillingham: “But you didn’t win, did you Brendan?”
Venter: “No, well, we didn’t win. It’s true.”
Gillingham: “Why didn’t you win?”
Venter: “Good question that, very good question. It’s important to win, it is. We must try harder, absolutely, yes.”
It was funny, bizarre and quite brilliant. Gillingham had no idea he was being stitched up. He turned around to see the jaws of his camera crew on the floor.
Venter had given nothing quotes and taken a little stab at the administrators.
It was Venter’s idea for Italy not to engage at the ruck. They called the tactic, “The Fox”, because it was a cunning plan.
Venter, Italy’s defence coach, made England and Jones look daft, as they stood there confused and unable to adapt.
Jones said the tactic would “kill rugby”, an exaggeration to deflect from an average performance from his team.
Italy’s biggest mistake was to employ the trick too often, and when England found the open space, they eventually romped home. Before the Test, Jones said Venter had revolutionised English club rugby, calling him an “agent of change”.
England captain Dylan Hartley said he would be buying a book of rugby laws.
Poite would tell him that is a step in the right direction.