‘Get rid of captain’s challenge’: Stuart Lancaster speaks out against ‘crazy’ law

Stuart Lancaster has joined the chorus of opposition to the captain's challenge being trialled in the Rainbow Cup as it adds to the amount of "dead time" during matches while further undermining both referees and the integrity of the sport.

“Get rid of the captain’s challenge,” is his first offering when asked what he’d like to see done with the game.

"I'm pleased you asked me the question, really. Because, I remember I was at a World Rugby meeting with England in 2014 and I remember this captain's challenge notion being brought up then and I remember thinking to myself: 'This is crazy. Why would we want to go down this route as a sport?' Anyway, I didn't hear any more of it and suddenly it's reappeared.

“I just think with the advent of TMOs, captain’s challenges, and a couple of other things, I think, one, it has created a lot of dead time in the games. Probably more importantly, maybe because there are no fans there, it has created integrity challenges about the game I think that I’m not comfortable with really. And I think it’s a distraction for the games.

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“I think we should trust the officials to do the job. We all take the rough with the smooth don’t we? We know it’s a subjective game and it’s very hard to referee, you just let the referees get on with it. We don’t want a game where it’s over two hours, but it’s two hours from start to finish.

‘Frustrating’

“If you take 40 minutes of the ball in play, which is good, a 10-minute half-time, that’s one hour, 10 minutes of dead time. One hour, 10 minutes where nothing is happening. It was a frustrating game to watch as a coach, it was a frustrating game to play in for players, equally I’m sure for you guys, it was a frustrating game to watch from home.”

As regards the integrity of the game, Lancaster said: “I’d like to see the players just concentrate on playing the game. This isn’t levelled at anyone in particular. Generally what it’s created is a sort of appealing mentality. As a consequence, there is definitely some issues there which are not in the values of the game.

“I’d rather players concentrate on playing rugby and the officials do their job. It’s been very difficult for the officials to manage this, they’ve not, to my knowledge, voted for it. I think it’s been very difficult to manage.

“With no crowds as well, there is a lot of noise from the sidelines trying to create the energy in the groups. We need a bit of a retake when the season finishes and just get back to accepting decisions, not appealing for everything and getting on with the job of playing rugby in a way that is exciting and fun to watch without so much dead time.”

When American football is used as a comparison, Lancaster said: “We don’t actually want rugby to become that way, do we? We don’t want six referees where we’ve got constant stoppages in play every time. It becomes a different sport. What’s the point in having a super aerobically fit team who can take a team to the end endurance-wise and win the game in the last 15 minutes if we’ve got constantly got stoppages in play?

American football

“I think American football is a different sport and it’s an extended period of time to get through an American football game, and I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with their support but that’s not the way that I see rugby personally.”

Remedies he’d like to see? First and foremost, re-enforcing two things in the tackle area and in the correct order.

“If we concentrate on getting the tackler away and asking the question, ‘is the jackaler legal’, that should be the order of events for me. Doing that bit really well would solve a lot of the problems and the speed of ball becomes quicker.”

He’d like to have seen the 50-22 rule trialled, whereby finding touch from one’s own half inside the opposition 22 is rewarded with an attacking line-out, as it is in Super Rugby.

“You’d have to have two in the backfield most of the time and that would free up space in the front line for less heavy collisions, if you like, more space to play rugby.”

He would also like to see “the relationship between the referee and the TMO is a fluid one within the game, almost like there is actually communication on the go rather than stopping the game”.

“I have got a few more, but that will probably do. They are the main ones for me.”