Rugby greetings cards come in an assortment of colours: yellow, red and now pink or ‘bunker’, recently added to the referee’s palette.
The worry is: how big a role will they play in the coming WXV?
England’s men’s team have now learned that they will start the 2023 World Cup minus their captain, Owen Farrell, and their No 8, Billy Vunipola; two experienced players who hardly need reminding about how to tackle – or do they?
We can be sure that Alhambra Nieves, in charge of women’s rugby referees worldwide, is engaged in earnest conversation with all the officials appointed to take charge of the three tiers of WXV matches.
Their problem is to ensure safety as the first priority, while somehow not reducing the drama of a game by banishing one, two or even three people from the field at a time. The final of 2021 RWC was marred by a red card. It was correctlly awarded, but prevented the Black Ferns from claiming they had beaten a full-strength opposition. I doubt if they minded though.
The fear must be that too many WXV games will be disfigured by the frequent brandishing of cards. The less familiar players are with the niceties of the laws, the more likely they are to be on the receiving end from experienced international referees.
A Clash of Views
Brendan Morris, the boss of The Rugby Championship (Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa), has said: ‘…wherever possible matches must be a contest of 15 versus 15.’ As a result he favoured the introduction of the 20-minute red card (replacement of the offender with another player). Other authorities have stood firmly against any diluting of the punishment.
Now we have the ‘bunker’ card, where an off-field official can decide the merits of an onfield decision. So, for example, a yellow card might be upgraded to a red after careful review of the evidence. Look out for a referee holding up the yellow card, but with crossed arms, an indication that the off-field official (in the ‘bunker’) is asked for a considered opinion.
Best of all, let’s hope we don’t see that signal once through the entire course of the 27 matches.
How high’s your tackle?
World Rugby has been attempting to adjust the tackle law for years. Basically the aim is, the lower the better. One formal statement put it like this: WR’s Executive Board has recommended that Unions participate in an opt-in global trial of lowering the tackle height in the community game to below the sternum. That was 2018.
Lowering the tackle height makes it more difficult for the defending team to dispossess the ball- carrier, until she is forced to release it on the ground. The proponents of the change argue that will make the game faster and more open. Fine.
Then come the worries as the WXV unfolds. Will the coaches prove they have been able to eradicate imperfect tackle techniques from all their players? If they are less than 100% successful, those cards will be flourished like confetti. That is where the officials’ opinion will make all the difference.
Fears for the WXV
Disciplinary committees are all the rage. Law courts find leading counsel missing, dealing with more urgent rugby matters. With only three games to be played over three weeks, we must wonder how many players will be deprived of one or more appearances, after all the preparation they have gone through.
In my view, it’s far easier to sort out problems regarding the yellow card than the red. Not for the first time I must query the official view taken about the ‘deliberate’ knock-on. An extreme case concerned Kendra Cocksedge, the Black Fern now retired.
Near the start of the second tour match at Northampton in 2021, she was sent from the field when trying merely to tackle Leanne Infante as the scrum-half sent a scoring pass out to Lydia Thompson on the right wing. Her slight interception certainly deprived England of a try; a penalty try was awarded. To my mind that was sufficient punishment; no need for another ten minutes in the cooler.
The referee looks at the attempt of the defender to claim the ball; two hands or only one? Was it a simple slap-down? In the last two cases, off you go. In Cocksedge’s case it’s hard to prove her hands made any move at all towards the ball. All she did was deflect it.
Every player’s instinct is to claim the ball passing close to her. She doesn’t have the time to sit back and judge precisely how she will make the catch.
Just one more example: in the same game Sarah McKenna was hardly on the field as a replacement when she fell foul of the similar misdemeanour. Instantly she knew she was on her way. Would a player with a decade’s experience like her deliberately break the law at such a moment? No. It was purely an instinctive reaction to the game situation. The law needs adjustment.
You can tell by the reactions of all her team-mates that they don’t blame the individual in question. They probably feel ‘lucky it wasn’t me’.
The eighteen WXV nations include several with limited exposure to international rugby. One obvious advantage of playing regular high-class rugby is familiarity with the more abstruse laws – and even with the areas of the game individual refs react sharpest to. All eighteen will be intent on putting on a show over three brief weeks. The authorities must be anxious to avoid the dreaded card being on show too often.
In Tik Tok Six Nations Fantasy Rugby a dominant tackle earns you a massive five points!
