Red cards, yellow cards, and refs who have done “beserk”. Robin Davey tackles the issue of the tackle and says rugby is in danger of becoming a mystery to those who are actually on the field.
The Six Nations is now but weeks away and squads are about to be named for the most prestigious, most popular tournament in world rugby.
Yet there is a very real fear it’s going to be overshadowed by hugely unpopular refereeing decisions, the result of new directives ordered by World Rugby after a series of concussion incidents, George North being the most high profile.
The governing body became increasingly anxious at the number of such incidents, so, at the beginning of this month, they issued those directives to referees to clamp down heavily on any tackle basically above chest level.
As a result we’ve seen a whole series of cards, some yellow, some red, which wouldn’t have been contemplated just weeks ago.
They have left players and fans at best bemused and at worst downright angry, many questioning just where the game is going.
Jonathan Davies, for example, has labelled it all a joke and has said inexperienced referees have gone berserk in their handling of the new regulations.
He was hitting out after incidents at the weekend, the first under the new law interpretations. That saw Jake Ball and Sam Davies rather absurdly yellow carded while Ulster suffered defeat against the Scarlets after a high tackle was deemed to be worthy of a card and a penalty try. It was a tackle that almost certainly would not have been given a second glance the week before.
Ospreys chief Steve Tandy has slammed the new high tackle rules as unreffable in the wake of the Davies yellow while Jonathan Davies has further said that with so many guidelines and letter of the law decisions we are only talking about incidents in the game not the rugby.
England back row forward Tom Wood, likely to be involved in the Six Nations, has gone further. “I wish the game would go back to the wild west when you policed it a bit yourself and the marks on your back were like badges of honour,” he said.
That may be going a bit far and clearly we’re not going back to those days, but you get his drift. Players don’t know where they stand, often penalised when they tackle an opponent around the chest, for example, and when the arms happen to slide higher because the opponent ducks a bit. The result now is a yellow card.
It all prompted a certain Austin Healey to declare that if he was playing today he’d run close to the ground with the ball next to his head! He’d do that in the certain knowledge he’d either earn his side a penalty or get an opponent yellow carded, maybe even red!
No wonder words like unreffable, joke and berserk have been used.
In recent weeks and months rugby seems to have been dominated by a range of events that have little to do with the actual playing of the game.
We’ve had debates on structures, a new document on the way produced by Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Martyn Phillips, including new ways in which the game will be financed at elite level.
We’ve had the furore surrounding the Rodney Parade pitch at Newport, we’ve had talk about Newport Gwent Dragons possibly being taken over by the WRU if new investors can’t be found for the ailing region.
Now, it’s all about high tackles and yellow and red cards. As Jonathan Davies has said if there is a controversial incident like the ones we’ve seen in the domestic game which might, say, decide the outcome of an England-Wales game there will be ructions. Who said there’s never a dull moment in rugby?
Having said that, the Six Nations will soon be launched amid the usual blaze of publicity. But it can’t afford to be hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons.