‘Fondlegate’ and the other sideshows took gloss off a good game
Saturday’s match at Twickenham probably will not be remembered as England’s 46th win out of 52 home Six Nations games; it will be dominated by “Fondlegate”, Manu Tuilagi’s red card and Eddie Jones’s comments about referee Ben O’keeffe. This is a pity, as there was much to enjoy in the game, which England should have won by a greater margin.
We will return to the controversy, but England’s penchant for fast starts in games meant they registered a winnable margin in the first half and had it not been for poor discipline Wales would have struggled to get on the scoreboard before the break.
It was a lead that they never really looked like surrendering, not even when the Welsh took advantage of England being down to 13 players later on. England’s tactical superiority was shown in their first two tries.
The inside ball to Anthony Watson and the deep ball that led to Elliot Daly’s try were executed precisely, when, in contrast, the Welsh scores were products of spontaneity; thrilling but, nevertheless, unstructured – and that is not a criticism, it is an observation.
Owen Farrell has to take some responsibility for the example set. His push on a prone Wales player was, in reality, much ado about nothing, but that is the point. I fully understand that there are times on a rugby pitch when you see or have something happen to you that makes you lose your temper and you whack someone. If you do, you have to take the consequences.
If you argue that your act amounted to almost nothing, then why do it in the first place? He should be aware that by now his reputation is going to mean that opposing players are going to milk any situation that involves him, which the Welsh players duly did.
England had just registered a heroic goal-line stand to deny
Wales a try and instead of getting a five-metre scrum with their own put-in, they found themselves standing under their posts, while Wales kicked a penalty.
The ensuing melee involved a lot of the usual playground pushing and shoving but also saw England prop Joe Marler reach out and fondle the groin of Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones. This act prompted former Wales captain Gareth Thomas, to say on air: “If they had been doing that in my day, I’d never have retired.”
Thomas is gay and he was clearly joking but the almost hysterical reaction to Marler’s act and Thomas’s comment has to be framed against the serious, non-rugby issues of Harvey Weinstein, the child sexual abuse inquiry and general and unacceptable sexual harassment at
work. The on-field act was one of mild, yet strange, provocation of a former Lions team-mate, which Jones confirmed in his post-match interview. Jones knew what it was and its context, but I suspect Marler is going to be hearing from the disciplinary panel again. It will make the point that it is not an acceptable act, however intended, and that in a game seen by millions and accounting for the wider social context, it should not happen.
What the panel should also do is remember that it was not done in the street, and that makes a difference.
The Tuilagi red card was, for me, a yellow/red, but there is an anomaly in World Rugby’s justified attempts to cut out high tackles – when a player is diving for the try line, how do you stop him when it is almost impossible to get low enough to make a legal tackle? What you certainly cannot do is, like Tuilagi, not use your arms in the tackle, which would at least be a legitimate attempt. Had Tuilagi done this, I would had much more sympathy with him and Jones, and you could have claimed that the correct decision would have been a penalty only.
Where England got lucky is that Wales were not awarded a penalty try because it is very arguable that but for the illegal tackle, George North would probably have scored the try.
For Wayne Pivac, we saw a determined response from his team at the start and end of the second half. Wales are still not operating with the necessary tactical acumen and will have to be far more precise if they are going to play so much rugby in defensive areas of the pitch. They are not far from putting together a complete performance but until they do they cannot expect to win against good teams such as England.