The witching hour approaches. World Rugby (WR) will be in session very shortly. It is perhaps the most critical get-together since 2009, when several major game-changing experimental laws were rejected by council.
Inevitably there will be huge focus and debate on the 20-minute replacement red card. We are told persistently that the referee can still award a straight red, and that should satisfy our concerns, our worries. But how can it when this sort of thing continues to happen:
A recent Super Rugby Pacific match saw Reds beating the Blues for the first time in five years. Blues winger Mark Tele’a delivered an old fashioned spear tackle on opponent Tim Ryan. Lifting the latter’s legs way above the horizontal, Tele’a completed the action by driving Ryan into the ground. Good fortune decreed that while Ryan’s head broke his fall his neck remained intact.
Will Leinster be the only Irish team in the URC knockouts?
The referee didn’t bother, not even for a nanosecond, to consider if a straight red card was necessary. He didn’t take responsibility, just handed out yellow and passed the buck. It was upgraded to a 20-minute card, the maximum allowed by the off-pitch review. If that type of tackle is not a straight red then the idea promoted by lobbyists that such a card will still exist is nothing but misleading pie in the sky. World Rugby’s council should not buy it.
Of huge interest are the outcomes of WR’s specialist group studying the breakdown. It’s now an impossible area to get consistency of decision making, with so many players off their feet. Their conclusions will be critical to the future shape of the game.
Following the recent debacle, when Munster were incorrectly reduced to 14 men, the URC have issued a statement. Importantly they have said that the referee Andrea Piardi was not dropped because of what happened, it was concerning that he might have been scapegoated. But what they are blaming is a malfunctioning tablet and app.
The reasons players leave the field are entered into the app. It is programmed to inform the officials of the correct next steps to take, but apparently it wasn’t working. That’s something of a cop out, the officials overseeing replacements only had to use old fashioned pen and paper to come up with the same answer as the app. But maybe they just didn’t know their business.
Hollie Davidson is the best referee in Scotland, by a country mile too. She is also easily in the top half of the other practitioners on the circuit.
Connacht finished their tour in South Africa with a solitary bonus point for their efforts. They were accompanied on their travels by Davidson, and fellow Scot Sam Grove-White. He handled the first match versus the Stormers; with Davidson in charge on the high veld, where Connacht were put to the sword by the Lions. I’ll bet the westerners wished the appointments were reversed.
Grove-White has been around for a long time, and I won’t be alone in remaining completely unconvinced by his performances. Critical scrum penalties against the tourists were impossible to agree with. He chatted merrily, dishing out instructions, but some of his verbals seemed meaningless, with players looking genuinely bewildered.
Davidson, on the other hand, was good. Impressively taking ownership of her decisions, she cut out the need for the TMO on several occasions, “I’ve seen it, no foul play.” Davidson also called an excellent penalty for a foot trip – she saw it, she gave it – no hesitation. More referees might consider trusting their own eyesight.
In line with the law trial outlined here last week, shenanigans by the Lions saw an obviously planned move result in a crooked throw to the front go unpunished. This hopeless trial needs to be binned before the lineout goes the way of the scrum.
Munster went to Cardiff. The home team played very well, the visitors did not. The latter’s malfunctioning lineout drew attention again to the very odd arrangement of sharing a specialist coach with the Ireland women’s team. Two yellow cards and a penalty try put paid to Munster’s chances, the defeat may prove very costly in the final analysis.
There can be no complaints about the yellow card to Fineen Wycherley, but the yellow and penalty try “against” Jack O’Donoghue are worth a long look. Referee Gianluca Gnecchi took over four minutes to reach his conclusion that O’Donoghue had played the Cardiff ball carrier, Liam Belcher, while the latter was in the maul.
However, it seemed clear that Belcher had already broken away, leaving just one remaining question – whether or not the Munster man was offside as he made contact with Belcher. It was minimal, hardly material. But once replays come into the equation decisions become microscopically forensic.
While all the focus was on O’Donoghue none of the officials thought of taking a look at the maul after Belcher had left it. If they had we might well have seen a penalty to Munster for obstruction. It was the first potential offence which needed checking in the sequence of events. Cardiff could hardly have complained. Talking about cards, James Botham should have copped one for the home team. He, and Cardiff, were oh-so lucky to escape with a penalty only when his hit on Craig Casey was definitely in yellow territory.
There are only two rounds remaining to decide if more than one Irish team will make the knockouts, and, crucially, qualify for next season’s Champions Cup. Leinster’s defeat by Scarlets has given the Welsh team an unexpected important leg-up. A result which has certainly not made things any easier. Nervous days ahead, but it’s not over yet.
