World Rugby may as well put Test rugby in the bin. Saturday’s farce at the Aviva Stadium was a conflux of some ill-fitting laws, applied willy nilly with a canyon-sized variance in interpretation, by match officials who are frequently left aghast and slightly traumatised as they walk off, often to a chorus of disapproval. Presiding over a rugby match is akin to trying to herd cats. Watching it bears the frustration levels of trying to untie a Gordian knot.
The contention in officiating that bubbled away throughout the November Tests finally erupted in referee Matthew Carley’s Dublin card extravaganza in which he brandished seven yellow cards, one rescinded when RG Snyman was recalled to the pitch, and one, in the shape of James Ryan, upgraded to a 20-minute red.
Carley may henceforth be known as ‘The Croupier’, but flippancy aside it seems risible to suggest that there probably should have been two to three more. This in a game and possibly the only field sport in the world in which a referee effectively offers in-game, running advice/coaching to players.
South Africa won, deservedly so. A superb team and the best in the world, so they will care less. Ireland lost and will therefore hurt more. But what supersedes the feelings of the protagonists is the collateral damage to the on-pitch shenanigans, the sport, whose reputation is being tarnished on a weekly basis in the eyes of a paying public, struggling to figure out what they’re watching.
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It’s hard to blame them. Take the card that got away. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu tucks his shoulder and strikes Tommy O’Brien, contacting the chest/jaw/head of Ireland’s right winger. It’s reckless, it’s dangerous and most importantly, it’s illegal. It’s a shoulder charge and not a tackle. No arms. The only thing to be decided was the card colour.
Not so fast. The television match official Andrew Jackson volunteered as he discusses the incident, “most of the force is in the chest, there is slight head contact.” Carley clarified: “On to the shoulder and moves up to the head,” before having a brief conflab with his assistants.
What happens next is where the sport goes down a poorly lit cul-de-sac. Carley said: “We have a decision, we are not convinced that it is a no-arm tackle.” Just pause here for a second and let that sink in.
Just shy of 52,000 people at the Aviva and the millions watching on television could see that Feinberg-Mngomezulu strikes with a tucked shoulder and no arm wrap. It’s not a legitimate tackle. A phrase the coaches hate but one which is enshrined in the laws, “the player is always illegal” in his actions.
Tadhg Beirne to Franco Mostert to Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, three actions, three different adjudications; two absolved in disciplinary hearings. One didn’t get a card. Ryan’s yellow, upgraded to a 20-minute red card, is a straight red card six match days out of seven. Dan Jones in the bunker relayed the bad news.
Carley explained the review had found that the yellow should be upgraded to red card because “it was high danger, and the actions were always illegal”. What’s the difference between two incidents in which the perpetrators’ actions “were always illegal?” World Rugby alone might be able to answer.
Ireland can’t quibble with the other four yellow cards, Sam Prendergast, paid for accumulated team transgressions; Jack Crowley, played the man/ball in a ruck while lying on ground; Andrew Porter, was marched for a series of scrum and maul offences; and Paddy McCarthy, for two successive scrum issues.
O’Brien avoided one for head contact in a tackle on Canan Moodie – he misjudged the gap and is slightly blindsided by a team-mate – because the officials adjudged that “the player is extremely passive and although he makes head contact, both players are dipping”. A similar collision gets a card eight times out 10.
Ireland conceded a penalty try on half-time. It is universally a double whammy offence. Someone gets carded to go with the gift-wrapped, seven-point present. Springbok Eben Etzebeth appeared to suggest as much to Carley but was quickly shooed away as the English official couldn’t countenance reducing Ireland to 11 players.
The biggest bugbear for the coaches, players and spectators is the lack of consistency, of which there were many examples in a game that took 132 minutes to complete from start to finish, equating to an additional 52 minutes of faffing around.
World Rugby is facing something of a crisis. Laws need to be simplified and consistently applied because not to do so would be a disservice to the game’s constituents. Saturday must be a watershed.
