MIDWAY through the blizzard of red cards that carpeted the Premiership last weekend, one of the commentators was heard to say that the clampdown on dangerous play at the tackle area was being driven “not by the referees, not by the coaches, but by the players”.
It begged a question: namely, who were the ones doing the dangerous things, if not the players? The ground staff, perhaps? It can’t have been the hot dog vendors, because hot dogs have gone the same way as supporters during the pandemic.
There are undoubtedly elements in the playing community who are calling for sensible reforms in an effort to reduce the collateral damage associated with what we jokingly call the modern-day “ruck”.
But in the interests of getting real, we must also accept that there are individuals in every team who think nothing of smashing some poor, stationary, blameless opponent into the middle of next year with malice aforethought.
While much of the current carnage is caused accidentally and falls into the category of the “rugby incident”, the rest must be filed under the euphemistic heading of “something else entirely”.
Rugby has always been a perilous pursuit. The cheap-shot merchants who make it more hazardous than it has to be are playing fast and loose with the sport’s future.
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