Points arising from the Light Failure in Lille
The consequences arising from the abandoned game in Lille range from international level to the personal
International:
England retain their top spot in world rankings. Simon Middleton expressed his bemusement that they would have relinquished it to New Zealand if they had lost; NZ haven’t played for nearly a year. But that is to overlook the systems by which rankings are assessed. England’s failure to beat a nation ranked fourth would inevitably mean a loss of points. NZ simply retain theirs. Italy suffered that penalty when they lost to Ireland: Australia and USA moved above them again despite not having played for yonks.
It’s as if playing more matches than your rivals constitutes a handicap. But then we return to the unforgiving presence of a pandemic: many nations have had match-plans abandoned. Even so, Australia’s position does seem undeserved when they have paid only lip-service to the 15s game since the last World Cup.
The chance fact that 62 minutes had been played was crucial to those rankings. An abandoned match that has lasted 60 minutes shall be awarded to the team in the lead, say the Laws of the game. England had crept ahead by two points thanks to a Zoe Harrison penalty. By such narrow margins…
National:
The premature end was a deep embarrassment to the FFR and the club. Such occurrences were commonplace in the days of flimsy power systems, but these days they are a rarity. The FFR’s first reaction was to demand an urgent explanation from the ground authorities for what went wrong. Then to assure the public that nobody was in physical danger. That was fortunate, because the lights might have failed at a much riskier moment: a high kick, a defender under the ball, an onrushing tackler.
It was most unfortunate that the incident took place in Lille. That northern city remains an outpost of elite rugby in France. The home club, Lille Métropole RC Villeneuvois (LMRCV), are proud of their achievements in advancing rugby in a region dominated by football. They had built up a fine team that included the Ménager sisters. It was an irony that Romane returned to her native club after switching to the champions Montpellier, while studying in that southern city.
The French do like a late start to their sport. Here it was 9 pm and they paid the penalty. The game might have been played in early afternoon, but would France 4 television have accepted the offer? No, the timing would have affected their viewing figures.
England: they have now won four consecutive games in France, an achievement that used to be as rare as hens’ teeth.
France: they will feel the whistle went against them once again. A whole number of incidents were read by the three onfield officials differently from them, for example, off-side at collapsing scrums, collapsing scrums not penalised and off-side after an English knock-on. Once again, the inequality of language worked against them: Gaëlle Hermet attempted clarifications from the referee just like Sarah Hunter; but she had to use a second language, Hunter didn’t.
Both: you have to wonder if both staffs will be looking at another rematch. The French had seen this game very much as a farewell fling, but only 7s tournaments and holiday plans stand in the way.
Personal:
Another set of chance events: which replacements had the luck to be called on to the field before the axe fell in that 62nd minute? Certainly not the two uncapped English youngsters, Flo Robinson and Merryn Doidge, the first development players to be included in an England 23 this calendar year. Whether Middleton would have risked introducing them into such a cauldron is open to question. Last Saturday Claudia Macdonald was left unemployed. In Lille she had just scraped on to the field in time, so gained another cap.
The term ‘anti-climax’ barely does justice to what happened. France can feel robbed of the chance to bring an eight-match losing run to an end. Yet another crunch was on a knife-edge. Any luck on offer went firmly in favour of the English.
