I AM IN a distinct minority in Scotland – I had few complaints with referee Craig Evans' display in the Glasgow Warriors v Leinster match on Saturday. OK, he wasn't perfect, but no referee, not even “The Blessed Nigel” ever has produced the perfect performance.
When the Celtic League was first formed, the Scottish sides knew, even as they got on the coach for those tedious trips down the M6 to some God-forsaken place in the South Wales Valleys, once they got there, they would be royally shafted by match officials whose home town decisions would have shocked even the boxing public in Boston, Mass., where sporting history tells us, the visitor has to kill their home-town opponent to get a draw. Then the Irish RFU and the league high heid yins decided to inflict John Lacey and George Clancy on us.
Still today, visiting clubs to Wales, take the field, well-aware, they might be on top form, have a first-class referee and a really sharp TMO on-duty, but, they are still facing 17 men, because the Welsh touch judges will jump on every minor indiscretion by the visiting side, but, be struck blind when the home team commits the same felony.
So, leave good, young referees such as Evans alone – concentrate your righteous indignation and anger at the correct target – Bill Beaumont, John Jeffrey and The Old Farts of World Rugby.
Recent incidents at the Rugby World Cup and elsewhere have strengthened my long-held belief:
RUGBY UNION'S LAW BOOK NEED A REWRITE
I don't mean a cursory browse through the existing book, followed by a quick switch around of the legal deckchairs; I am talking here of root and branch reform,with some old favourites needing to go, and most, if not all of the Laws requiring some degree of updating. However, right at the start, we – the wider Rugby Union Community – MUST INSIST, on the same respect for the Laws and their application as we see in Golf. Let's start with the basics:
Get the tackle line in the professional game down to where it is in the club game.
Make putting the ball down the middle of the scrum tunnel obligatory, squint scrum feeding has become a plague we need to obliterate.
Eradicate the growing problem of squint lines-out feeds.
And while we are at it, insist on hookers standing behind the touchline to throw-in.
These four steps could be taken without making any other changes, an easy win for the Old Farts. The problems might come when they moved-on to other difficult topics, such as:
When did the scrums become a means of winning penalties rather than a means of restarting play after I breaks down?
Answering that single question and making certain it is never asked again would go a long way towards speeding-up the game and making it more entertaining. The scrum, particularly at the top end, really is the Game's bastard child. The difficulty with how to change the scrum is, when a scrum does go down, quite often Grand Masters of the Dark Arts such as Brian Moore and David Flatman are left perplexed as to how or why a scrum was not completed.
If they are scratching their heads, pity the poor old referee. Very few at the top end have ever been in a scrum, far-less in the front row, so, let's be honest, sometimes, they are guessing as to what just happened – we need to try to take the guesswork out of scrum adjudication.
I have, for instance, long felt – at the top end of the game, each match has a 'spider-cam' in operation. I accept, Health and Safety might not like it, but:
Why not position the spider-cam directly above the two hookers' heads at each scrum? That way, the TMO would at least be able to decide if the props were pushing straight – which is a good place to start.
That's maybe enough about the scrum for now – but, I will return to it later. Now for the scrum's unloved brother: “The Breakdown.”
Back in the 1980s, the “Ruperts and Nigels” watching events on “Billy Williams' Cabbage Patch” not forgetting the Cassandras and Joan Hunter-Dunnes” on their arms, would get terribly upset as sheep shearers from Taranaki and Otago, not forgetting sheep shaggers from all parts of Ireland, the Welsh valleys and across the Scottish Borders, clambered all over stout English yeomen in the anything went world of real rucking.
So over time, Britannia once again waived the rules, they got real rucking outlawed and the day of the jackal arrived – to the detriment of Rugby Union.
Nothing will do more to save rugby from itself than a return to real rucking. If a player is on the ground he's out of the game. I warrant, nothing will keep them on their feet and in the game than a return to real rucking.
Real rucking will ensure faster ruck ball, and a faster game, with ball carriers running at less-structured defences. It will also do away with a wee tactic which our Irish friends have become particularly talented at in recent seasons – sealing-off to deny the opposition the chance of a fair contest at the breakdown.
Of course, a return to real rucking aint gonna happen any time soon. With governing bodies' primal fear of “Health and Safety” the game's high heid yins are shiting themselves at what they perceive as a free-for-all for M'Learned Friends to get involved and take their percentage. I can, sadly, see no way whereby we will see real rucking any time soon – more's the pity for the future of the game.
Still on the subject of the breakdown. Even if we accept, we are not going to see a return to real rucking and play the ball with the foot; might World Rugby at least consider a definitive offside line being (figuratively) drawn at the breakdown? And while they are at it, get the Assistant Referees to take a leaf out of their footballing cousins' book and adjudicate on ruck offside. If they are supposed to do this today, not a lot of them pay attention to the instruction, from what I see.
That will do for starters, but, believe me – there's more, a lot more, we could sort-out.
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