WHAT YOU SHOULD BE TALKING ABOUT THIS MONTH…
“Is rugby becoming one big grey area?”
IN RECENT weeks we’ve seen a red card rescinded because the officials wrongly applied World Rugby’s head contact process; criticism of how the breakdown was refereed in the Olympics; confusion over the citing process in the Lions series; copious clips on social media highlighting perceived acts of foul play. And that’s before you even get to Rassie Erasmus’s 63-minute video.
Rugby is a game of nuance; decisions can be subjective and it’s the shades of grey that often enrich the sport. Some people expect perfection, for every infringement to be spotted. Yet, as JP Doyle says on P42, the nature of the sport is that things will be missed.
So are people demanding impossibly high standards? Or are the laws and processes too complicated? When you have past and present officials from the highest level disagreeing on decisions there is clearly something wrong.
Take Cheslin Kolbe as an example. In the second Lions Test, Ben O’Keeffe sin-binned the Springbok for taking out Conor Murray in the air, citing the fact the scrum-half had landed on his back (he actually landed face first but broke his fall with his arm) as a mitigating factor. Nigel Owens said Kolbe was lucky not to see red given how dangerous the incident was. Citing commissioner Scott Nowland felt it didn’t meet the red-card threshold, however, with Dan Biggar’s positioning believed to have contributed to that decision. Three top officials, three different conclusions. No wonder fans are often left baffled.
There are ways that rugby can help educate spectators. The graphic issued by the RFU explaining how decisions on bans are reached was a welcome idea.
Sadly, amidst all the grey areas, what has become clear in recent weeks is that the oft-hailed rugby value of respect is losing its sheen.