Red cards are saving the game
THE FIRST instinct is still to feel a sense of outrage at the prospect of another game being wrecked by a red card. But then comes an acceptance that it has to be this way. There is no choice.
Danny Cipriani was sent off in the first half of Gloucester’s Heineken Champions Cup clash with Munster in Limerick on Saturday — harshly by any reasonable measure. Cipriani was standing upright as Rory Scannell carried the ball into him, and was more passive than aggressive when the collision occurred, but his shoulder connected with Scannell’s head.
The playmaker knew what was coming. Cipriani was duly sent off and instead of raging at the injustice, he just checked that his opponent was OK and jogged off.
The response was to his credit, as rugby’s inner turmoil over this divisive subject was already rearing its head as a result of the incident.
England No 8 Billy Vunipola, watching the match on TV, tweeted: ‘Another game ruined! Unlucky everyone who bought tickets.’
Shortly after Cipriani was dismissed, his team- mate Billy Twelvetrees escaped the same fate despite what appeared to be greater intent as he hit Joey Carbery high.
This is the main problem: a lack of uniformity in what is supposedly a zero-tolerance crackdown. Over in France, meanwhile, Castres No 8 Maama Vaipulu was sent off for a shoulder smash to the head of Luke Cowan-Dickie and that decision was utterly justified.
It must be hoped that the judiciary find a glaring distinction between Cipriani’s offence — which his head coach Johan Ackermann understandably lamented as an accident — and the unacceptable behaviour of Vaipulu. But there has to be a shift in attitudes across the board. It’s just going to take time to take effect.
The sport is being ruined and saved at the same time. It is shortterm ruin for long-term salvation. It is reasonable to lament the first part of the process and rejoice in the second. The irony is that the players themselves may be the ones who take most convincing that this process is required to diminish the shadow of concussion.
Vunipola’s response was reflective of a consensus among the game’s protagonists, who embrace and relish the physicality of their profession. Players may find a safer and sanitised version of rugby less appealing but so be it. Fewer of them will be forced into premature retirement or suffer life-long health consequences.
It has to be this way. Go low and stay on.