Legitimate play has become illegal based on the outcome rather than the act - Scotty Stevenson
In a game of contestable possession, laws must never act to remove the contest. The high ball kick is designed to be contestable, and must always remain so.
According to All Blacks winger Rieko Ioane, the scariest moment for any backfield player is when they leave the ground to take a kick receipt. It’s an assertion that makes perfect sense when you consider human beings weren’t designed to fly – the sight of Beauden Barrett crash landing on Saturday night after falling over French fullback Benjamin Fall the current case in point – but it is also part of the job description.
Receivers are coached to jump and catch, and have been for years. Elevating oneself above the oncoming player is naturally the best way to gain an advantage, which is why the ‘turtle’ bag comes out at training and many hours are dedicated to perfecting the play. But it comes with risks. Good kicks are designed to be chased, good high kicks are designed to be regained, and that means there will be a contest for possession, which is the very essence of the sport itself.
What happened to Barrett on Saturday night in Wellington was lamentable. No one wants to see players hit the deck like that, least of all Benjamin Fall, the man who was subsequently given his marching orders for what can best be described as ‘not jumping’. As trite as that sounds, that is ostensibly his crime. He chased well, didn’t take his eyes of the ball, was checked as he attempted to climb for the catch himself, and collided with Barrett who was already four feet in the air.
Ask yourself: who or what is in control of anything at that point in time? Not Barrett. Not Fall. Not even gravity. It is, as All Blacks coach Steve Hansen rightly surmised, “a dynamic part of the game” and as much as the end result was sickening to watch, the true impact of that moment will reverberate much farther than just around the inside of Barrett’s noggin.
This is not really about a catch, it’s about a catch-all, a set of laws that have been written with the right intent, but adjudicated with no genuine feel for context. A player can leap into anything these days, with very little instinct for self preservation, and feel confident that they will draw the foul. I put it to you that a guy who doesn’t leave the ground has just as much right to catch the ball as a player who does. The law seems to say otherwise, and that’s a dangerous precedent, an unravelling of the very fabric of the game.
This is not the first time the law has conspired against the very game it is designed to protect. Over the last four years the ‘intentional knock-down’ law has been bastardised to effectively remove the defensive intercept from rugby. Whereas once upon a time the law distinguished between a fair attempt and a negative act (and still in theory does) referees have now concluded that any failed intercept attempt is a penalisable offence. That is not right. Not by any measure.
A player in defence should be entitled to have a crack at the ball and most intercept attempts of this nature start with a single hand reaching out to cut off a pass. It is anathema to the spirit of the sport to penalise the player who fails to regather that attempt. If you aren’t good enough as an attacker to time your pass to beat the man, then suck it up and work on your own play. In defending these rulings, more than one referee says they view it as a ‘risk or reward’ scenario. If you end up catching the ball, then all power to you. If you don’t, well, expect to be penalised.
The irony here is rich. Under this guiding philosophy, a legitimate play becomes illegal based on the outcome rather than the act. Which is daft. As was the red card for Benjamin Fall on Saturday night. The laws, and the adjudication of them, must be revised with a mind to protect the sanctity of the eternal contest. That is something we should all be jumping up and down for, regardless of how hard the landing might be.
In other news…
Comments on RugbyPass
Let’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to comments