Sanzaar sets an ugly precedent

COLIN BOAG

You’re off: But SANZAAR Laws don’t protect the welfare of our players

PICTURE: Getty Images

Sometimes things happen in rugby that simply beggar belief, and one of them is the incomprehensible decision by SANZAAR to have another trial of the 20-minute red card.

Even more disturbing is that, apparently, the Unions in Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, are said to agree with this – I wonder if they really do?

Let’s not beat about the bush: this is a dangerous and disturbing decision, and SANZAAR’s statement that it ‘stands alongside World Rugby‘s important work on managing foul play and player welfare’ is simply weasel words.

When a player commits a serious offence, one that merits him being removed from the field of play, then that should be it – he’s off for the rest of the game, he then faces a disciplinary panel, and his team play with 14 players. Instead, in the Rugby Championship if a player knocks someone out – either accidentally or deliberately – and removes the opposition’s star player, then after 20 minutes his team are back to full strength as he can be replaced.

The point about a red card is that it’s meant to be a deterrent, with coaches making it clear to their players that committing such an offence is unacceptable because the team will suffer, and it might cost them the game.

The 20-minute version is just madness, because it says that punching a player, stamping on them, or hitting them high enough to concuss them, is on a par with two technical yellow cards – hands in the ruck or persistent offside. How can that be right?

The clue as to why this is happening is because, in SANZAAR’s words, ‘it protects the contest of fifteen on fifteen, which is what our unions, broadcasters and fans are telling us is important’ – even more important than concussion? I very much doubt that fans are demanding this change, and it’s simply the Unions kowtowing to television demands.

There is also the ridiculous assumption that a red card in some way ruins the game. Have the Aussies already forgotten the first Test against England when their 14 men won the game? Sometimes a team that’s missing a player really turns it on and that makes for a cracking spectacle.

However, one thing is certain, and that is that the kind of tackles that currently attract a red card may not ruin the game, but they have the potential to ruin a life, and anything that can be done to deter them has to be applauded.

Apart from the obvious, that this goes against the current drive to eliminate high and dangerous tackles from rugby, there is another serious aspect to this.

International rugby can only work if there is a common set of Laws that everyone accepts, and in recent years the differing interpretations of those Laws has been worrying. It has seemed to me for a while that the commitment to banishing head shots isn’t as strong in the southern hemisphere as it is up here, and this latest move seems to substantiate this.

This goes alongside what I perceive as their more lenient stance on forward passes, and on offsides. The aim seems to be to keep the game flowing, even if that stretches the Laws to breaking point!

Whither World Rugby in all of this? They seem to have found themselves between a rock and a hard place, coerced into allowing this ridiculous trial go ahead, while having overall responsibility for a common set of Laws.

However it’s dressed up, this is SANZAAR sticking two fingers up to the game’s ruling body, and it’s particularly insensitive that it should happen in the week when the news broke that former players, suffering from dementia, are planning to initiate legal action against World Rugby and some Unions.

What a poor signal this sends to the rest of the sporting world.