Tuesday’s Rugby News this week is about red cards that shouldn’t have been, broken arms that are, an excessive use of the word “official” and an upset that’s been coming for a while.
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Fall Guy Exonerated
‘Fall Guy’ noun, a scapegoat.
Well, well, well, what’s in a name?
French full-back Benjamin Fall has had the red card handed to him on the weekend expunged. In a move that many have said has come too late, it at least clears the player’s record and means they are free to play in this weekend’s third test in Dunedin.
The World Rugby judicial committee made up of Adam Casselden SC, David Croft and John Langford were at pains not to blame referee Angus Gardner for making an incorrect decision stating “In reaching that conclusion, it is important to record, that no criticism is made of the referee nor, in our opinion, would any be warranted”. Going on to describe the realities facing the referees at venue compared to the judiciary’s more overarching view of the incident, “we had the benefit of all the video footage, which showed various angles of the incident”. The statement also referenced the pressure put on referees having to make decisions relatively quickly (compared to the judiciary’s, in this case, 2-day decision making timeframe). “Unlike the referee we had the luxury of time to deliberate and consider, in private, the incident. In contrast, the referee was required to make his decision in a matter of minutes in the full gaze of the public and without the benefit of all the relevant material”.
The decision was based on All Black outside centre Anton Lienert-Brown having made contact with Fall in the moments before the incident, causing him to deviate from his initial trajectory both inhibiting his ability to contest for the ball and stopping him from pulling out of the contest all together.
It does bring to light the negative impact that blockers can have on kick-chasers and it will be interesting to see how World Rugby’s referees approach it this weekend.
“Accordingly, the red card is dismissed and the player is free to resume playing rugby immediately. We direct World Rugby to expunge the Ordering Off (red card) from the player’s disciplinary record.”-some folks eventually getting it right.
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Injuries
It was, without hyperbole, a bruising encounter on the weekend (told you it was without hyperbole).
It’s ruled out Sanchez Genia for six weeks, and left Adam Coleman with a shiner to rival James Horwill’s.
Whilst the Genia incident may have described as a “king hit” by Wallaby coach Michael Cheika there has, so far, been no word from the citing commissioner.
“We ran the play down the front, Willy’s the decoy around the back, and he got king hit from the side. It looked like a shoulder,” Cheika said.
It’s doubtful that anything will come of it given the seemingly unintentional and awkward contact.
Genia’s place in the match-day 23 will go to the only other recognised scrummie in the squad, Brumby Joe Powell or new-comer Jake Gordon who was since joined the Wallaby squad. It’s unlikely to be a straight swap though, with the 63-test experienced Nick Phipps odds on to pull on the 9 jersey while Powell or Gordon to slot in on the pine.
While Genia’s season is falling apart like an Optus livestream the news is better on the Coleman front.
Scans clearing the Rebel of any facial fracture and he travelled with the team to Sydney. Coleman left the field early in the second stanza following a head clash with Folau and failed a head injury assessment at the time, but if fit, should be named for this weekend.
While there are a number of locks putting their hands up should Coleman be ruled out it’s probably fair to think a lot of Australian fans are worried how the team will perform without the experienced and dangerous Genia marshalling the forwards and steering the backs.
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Aussies Officials Set to Meet with….err….Officials
Wallaby officials are set to sit down with match officials ahead of the third and deciding test this weekend in Sydney.
Ireland shut down the scoring threat that Folau posed in the first test as attacking kicks were routinely fielded by the Irish without the high-flying Wallaby full-back there to disrupt things.
Speaking of their tactics, Wallaby attack coach Stephen Larkham wasn’t apportioning blame but rather put the onus back on themselves to bring the situation to the fore with the match officials,
“It’s in our hands, it’s something that we have to sit down with the referees and discuss”. Further adding they need to “bring it to the referees’ attention just to make sure that everything is legal there”.
The gripes of Larkham extended beyond just impeded chasers, he also touched on Ireland’s work at the breakdown which saw Pocock’s influence greatly reduced compared to the first game.
“I think Ireland did a fantastic job at slowing the ball down and again you’ve got to look at their tactics and say: is it something we need to bring up with the referee?”
As mentioned earlier, it will be interesting to see how World Rugby treats players mooching about in front of contestable kicks.
The meeting isn’t without precedent, the Wallabies were spoken to between the first and second tests after a few off-the-ball incidents drew the attention of the officials.
Officials.
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Has the Giant Awoken?
For years there’s been talk of the “sleeping giant” that is United States Rugby.
A cursory google search for the phrases yields thousands, nay Millions, nay BILLIONS, ok thousands of results and it’s easy to see why. Often the discussion has centred on the production line of ready-made athletes being pumped out by the staggering American college football system that don’t get picked up by the NFL who then find themselves in their early twenties, fit as a mallee bull and without an outlet for their talents; and rightly so. The problem hasn’t been raw talent, it’s been getting that raw talent into the systems that will turn them into international rugby players.
Aside from the wording, the pathways to top level rugby have become a little clearer with this year’s launch of “Major League Rugby” (it’s League OR Rugby, not both) featuring seven teams from New Orleans to Seatle and a further two teams to join the ranks over the next two years.
Whether this will bring results for the Eagles is yet to be seen. They’ve certainly had a mixed bag of results on the world stage. They were, at one point, defending Olympic champions (a position they held for 96 years before Fiji finally wrested the title off them) and yet unable to qualify for the 1995 World Cup, a tournament where their seven appearances have only yielded three wins.
In spite of all this, the Gary Gold coached Eagles managed their first win over a tier 1 nation in nearly a century as they defeated Scotland 30-29 in front of a rapturous crowd in Houston.
Gold was full of praise for his team but also aware of the challenges they face. Speaking after the game he said, “Really, really happy and satisfied that we can go toe to toe with world class teams. The issue is now that we have to do that consistently. We have to continue to get better and better. We have a plan, when we stick to the plan and there’s clarity in the player’s minds in terms of what we need to do, then you take the pressure off their shoulders and they can go out and do what they need to do.”
Has the sleeping giant woken? Only time will tell.
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