Prem rugby was like long lost child
Ienjoyed the Autumn internationals more than I thought I would, and that’s largely due to the proximity of next year’s RWC. Although the matches themselves were as meaningless as ever – who really cares about the Cook Cup and its like? – it was a chance to benchmark the prospects of each of the northern and southern nations.
That said, come Sunday afternoon when the televised game was Leicester Tigers v Saracens, I breathed a sigh of relief – it was like when your grownup child comes back for Xmas, and you realise just how much you miss them when they’re away!
The rugby was perhaps marginally less good, but it mattered so much more. I have no problem with the sell-out crowds at Twickenham and the Principality, but the reality is that there were so many funny hats and ‘face-painters’ among them that you had to doubt whether they were there for the rugby or just to get themselves on the big screen!
At Welford Road it was a meeting of the faithful, turning out to see ‘their’ boys, and it all seemed so much more authentic.
There are a few lessons to take away from the international window, and the first involves refereeing. Every game seemed to have its contentious decisions that made the headlines and split opinion.
That’s a worry even in games that don’t really matter, but if a country crashes out of the RWC on the back of one of those then that’s a very different matter – remember Scotland being deprived of a semi-final place in 2015 when Craig Joubert seemed to lose the plot? There has always been the potential for such things to happen, but the mess surrounding the tackle area has made it so much worse. World Rugby have around 300 days to get a proper grip on this or there’s a real danger of the tournament being devalued.
The other thing that became clear is that, despite the timing of the Autumn internationals, and the way they disadvantage the southern sides, there is a real resurgence in Northern Hemisphere rugby. The Irish are clearly on the crest of a wave and Welsh supporters will be ‘bigging up’ their team on the back of a run of nine wins, while England showed the real depth that the Premiership has.
Finally, here’s a question that might seem ridiculous at first: will there be an Australian Rugby Union side competing at the top level in five to ten years’ time? Things are bad on so many levels right now, and it goes far beyond the debate about Michael Cheika as head coach.
The competition from League and from Aussie Rules is as strong as ever, and, the Waratahs apart, the Australian franchises were pretty dismal in Super Rugby. The billionaire-funded Rapid Rugby is in its very early days, but I can see it being attractive to fans and broadcasters – your average Aussie can turn like a snake when his team disappoints. How much more humiliation will their Union supporters take?
We all have memories of great Wallabies sides, and to some it will be bordering on sacrilege even to suggest this, but if things go badly at the RWC I can foresee a mass exodus of the current Australian squad in pursuit of European mega-bucks. If that happened, is there sufficient depth to the Union infrastructure to allow whoever the head coach I is to rebuild? f you ever wanted an example of why the TMO is so important in the modern game, Stuart Barnes made it perfectly when commenting during the England v Australia game last weekend.
It looked as though the Wallabies had scored, and referee Jaco Peyper awarded the try – Barnes was in quickly with ‘not even a TMO – there are far too many [referrals] in the international game’: it was a proper old school comment, and, as it turned out, a pretty daft one! The replay showed that there was a stonker of a forward pass that both Barnes and the referee had missed, but thankfully the TMO managed to get the message through just in time, the score was reviewed, and the try quickly disallowed.
Barnes then made the tenuous point that perhaps in the olden days the ref would have spotted the forward pass, but officials are now inured to relying on their assistants and the TMO! No, Stuart, the game’s just quicker now and therefore much more difficult to referee.
Every try has to be referred – if there’s nothing to object to the score can quickly be confirmed, if it takes a bit longer, it’s because there’s some doubt. This ensures we get the right results.
“Welford Road was meeting of the faithful and it seemed so much more authentic”