There are a lot of different takes on Ireland’s defeat by France last weekend. One more would be that Garry Ringrose was unavailable at outside centre and Ireland were missing a player who aggressively plays that position the way he does.
Apart from the attacking aspects of the Ringrose game, his ability to defend and marshal the outside lanes and fringes would have been helpful even with Ireland a man down on two occasions.
It was the Irish centre’s speed in getting up to the tackle that got him into trouble with a 20-minute red card against Wales and a subsequent suspension that kept him out of contention for last week’s match.
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The overarching question this week was, what was ‘Tackle School’ going to teach a seasoned international player with 66 caps and would it drastically change the way he defends for Ireland, or take the edge off the way he plays the game, subconsciously erring on the side of caution.
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“It is kind of situational. The incident itself, there was no malice or intent behind it,” said Ringrose.
“It was just something that didn’t go right at the time. I guess it’s just an experience you go through. Good, bad or indifferent, at 13 you get thrown loads of pictures and training against Bundee [Aki], Robbie [Henshaw] and Stuart [McCloskey], that happens quite often.
“Even training against Jordie Barrett, you get thrown pictures back at Leinster and you are always trying to learn. I guess that’s something that Ben Thomas did [show a different picture]. That was a picture I hadn’t seen before and didn’t react accordingly . . . as I said it’s the nature of the beast, split-second decisions, high-pressure moments so it’s trying to react as best I can going forward.”
The change of law, which was introduced for this championship, says any act of foul play which is deemed not deliberate or intentional will be punished with a 20-minute red card rather than the permanent sending off that would have happened before. Ringrose’s tackle was deemed accidental, so Ireland played with 14 players for 20 minutes until Aki replaced him against Wales.
Still, he became the second senior player to be sanctioned in this year’s Six Nations, along with France’s Romain Ntamack, who was suspended for two weeks and was available to play at outhalf against Ireland.
The original suspension for Ringrose covered three weeks, a United Rugby Championship game against Cardiff on March 1st, Ireland against France on March 8th and Saturday’s game against Italy in Rome.
However, players are given permission to apply to take part in World Rugby’s Coaching Intervention Programme, which will, when successfully completed, replace the final match of the sanction. They call it Tackle School and it’s aimed at modifying specific techniques and technical issues that contributed to the foul play.
Ringrose completed that, which allows him to be available for the match in Stadio Olimpico.
“Something I haven’t thought about too much,” said Ringrose of the change. “Playing 20 minutes with one man down is a tough thing to do so I guess . . . there’s a bit of grey area . . . maybe that’s not the right word but in some incidences where as a matter of interpretation it can be interpreted as a yellow or a red, the degree of danger, any mitigating risk factors. So I guess it’s probably a good thing to catch those ones in the middle . . . I thought it was going to be a yellow card.
“But then reviewing, and going back into the disciplinary process, [I] was pretty keen to admit that it was act of foul play, that it was something that happened, that you don’t want to be happening consistently in the game. And then I kind of made my points, explained exactly what was going through my head to the panel in that split second or the two or three seconds even, some of the mitigating factors.
“When it came down to the conversation, they were quite open to hear my perspective. I was just open and honest with them about exactly what I thought happened. They did take that on board, but then ultimately decided the red card.”
The matter couldn’t end without a small twist in the tail. When the vote was taken last year on whether the 20-minute red card would apply to this year’s Six Nations, two countries voted to oppose it – Ringrose and Ntamack’s respective governing bodies, the IRFU and French Rugby Federation.
