Canny ref message from London Irish amid glut of Premiership reds
Declan Kidney has got no hang-ups about the high number of Gallagher Premiership matches that London Irish have been involved in this season that have featured red cards. Heading into this weekend’s round 21 fixtures, 18 red cards have been brandished so far across the English league and six of those sending offs have happened in games involving the playoff-chasing Exiles – three reds for them and three for the opposition.
Incredibly, Irish head into Saturday’s near sell-out fixture at home to Northampton having seen referees show a red card in their last four Premiership games. They were twice on the receiving end of going a man down while they were numerically advantaged in two other matches when Bristol and Worcester each lost a player.
There is no exact science surrounding the red card glut. Look at how Adam Coleman had his mid-February red versus Saracens rescinded at his resulting midweek disciplinary hearing while Curtis Rona was banned for three weeks following his early March 12 bath at Leicester.
It would be understandable if Kidney had a moan about Irish being involved in so many matches with either his own or opposition players lost to red cards, but the bigger picture of the game’s safety is most prominent in his thinking. “The referees have a responsibility to bring safety into it,” he told RugbyPass.
“A lot of the red cards have come due to high tackles. In our case, we have had two (recent) red cards but one of those was rescinded because even though it looked like it [a red card] and it was a difficult one for the referee to judge when you are 60, 70 metres away from a big screen, but as it turned out it was our player that was knocked out.
"…my first six months here I was getting absolutely battered set-piece wise."
After exiting Super Rugby @londonirish Wallabies prop @omdhoskins only started truly learning the dark arts in @Champrugby and it was a steep learning curve, writes @heagneyl https://t.co/k3nVwzI7uy
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“Referees are having to stick at it because the world we live in now, they are the adjudicators of what goes on. It is a difficult task that they have and we just have to work our way around it. There is no point backing off it [the clamopdown] now otherwise we are not going to encourage kids to come into the game.”
Coping with a red card isn’t something London Irish specifically train for but they have a strategy regarding the loss of a player to a ten-minute yellow card. “We have a way of adapting should we have a yellow card. If it is 14 we adapt our style of play. We don’t stop playing, there is a just a few nuances we change around but if you practice for a red card it’s a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy then.
“We don’t go out of our way to do it but when something happens at training for whatever reason and you are down to 14, the players adapt to it and that is part of the plan that we have tried to get the players to understand, to adapt.
“Not to any given situation because then you are trying to artificially create every situation that comes up but what we do is we practise imperfection if you like. If there is a loose ball in matches you play on and it’s how you adapt to that and we do put a good bit of effort into that side of play.”
What Kidney has enjoyed is the defiance his Irish team have shown when a red-carded man down. They won both games against Saracens, in November and again last month, while they gave Leicester a rattle despite Rona exiting just before the 30-minute mark. “If you are lucky enough to work with players that go like that that is always your ultimate goal as a coach – to work with players who have that desire.
“If they have that then everything else can be worked on but the one thing you can’t coach is attitude and our lads’ attitude is top class so they are all ambitious, they all want to do as well as they can, to work hard and see where it brings us. That is the fun of being with London Irish, the expectation isn’t there, people would be maybe waiting for us to fall down but we are not worried about that.
“We are just concerned about doing as well as we can in each match and see where we end up at the end of the season and enjoy each other’s company. I’m not big into fancy names but Exiles is a good name for us, We have about 13 different nationalities here. We are an English club funded by Ireland in an English league so it’s enjoyable… the lads seem to be enjoying their game and for me, that is a very important side to it, that the lads are looking forward to their matches.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
29 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
29 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
29 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
29 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
29 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments