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Ref Watch: Adapt or die, Aki's red and Tadhg Beirne's next level rugby IQ

By Paul Smith
PA

Ref watch: Ireland’s Bundee Aki, for a brief period, became the latest international player to earn a red card at the hands of Guinness Six Nations officials, against England in Dublin yesterday.

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This time it was another French pair – referee Mathieu Raynal and TMO Romain Poite – at the helm, and they went carefully through the protocol with which we are now all so familiar before finding no mitigating factors with which they could avoid giving the Connacht centre the second red card of his international career following his upright tackle and subsequent clash of heads with Billy Vunipola.

 

Anorak Corner – 1
England’s first half struggles against Ireland were largely caused by their inability to secure scrum ball, with the hosts winning two penalties and a free kick plus two pieces of clean possession from six set-pieces.

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After conceding a free kick in the sixth minute for an early push, Kyle Sinckler was again singled out for the same offence eight minutes before the break. Initially Raynal signalled a free kick, but quickly corrected himself and upgraded to a full penalty based on it being a second (and therefore in law a repeated) technical offence.

Adapt or Die
Much was made of England’s work with Wayne Barnes and Matthew Carley ahead of their win over France, but again they failed to adapt on the hoof to the referee’s demands.

Raynal is accurate but pedantic in some areas – the early scrum push or marginal offside by a lineout lifter being two obvious examples – but he is also consistent and given the amount of analysis which goes on, surely Eddie Jones’ team should be better at staying on the right side of the referee.

The penalty count ended 12-14 in Ireland’s favour, but this is not representative of the contest. Looking purely at the 53-minute spell either side of half time during which Andy Farrell’s team built a match-clinching lead, Raynal found in the home side’s favour to the tune of 4-13 – a huge factor in England’s defeat.

Quarter 1Quarter 2Quarter 3Quarter 4
Pens against Ireland3126
Pens against England1454

Anorak Corner – 2
The restart claimed by Maro Itoje at which Sinckler took an accidental finger to the eye saw outstanding Ireland’s Tadgh Beirne show a fabulous ability to use the laws to his advantage.

The Munster back-rower’s pursuit of the kick-off got him to Itoje and his support a split second ahead of teammate Tadgh Furlong. Appreciating a maul was not formed – because law requires the ball carrier to be joined by one player from his own side and one opponent – Beirne quickly re-routed his running line to join from the England side and in the process secure a crucial turnover.

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Scotland vs Italy
Referee Pascal Gauzere was at the centre of attention in his first outing following the two big errors which allowed Wales to score first-half tries against England.

Taking charge of Italy’s visit to Murrayfield he had an excellent overall game – albeit in a low octane encounter where the result was never in doubt.

It was interesting to note the very pointed change made to how he dealt with a near-identical situation to that which created Josh Adams’ controversial score in Cardiff. After asking Luca Bigi to deliver a 32nd-minute general warning to his team, Gauzere this time paused theatrically before checking with the Italian captain: “Are you ready for the restart.”

Anorak Corner – 3
One or two heads will doubtless have been scratched late in the first half when Gauzere stopped play following Scotland’s attempted quick throw-in.

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Stuart Hogg had possession of the ball in touch and threw it to Scott Steele who was also off the field. The home no.9 then proceeded to take a quick restart at a point around five metres behind the line of touch as marked by the touch judge.

Law differentiates between a quick throw-in and a lineout taken quickly – and this was the former – since it took place between the mark and the home goal-line rather than at the point where the ball went out of play.

As a consequence, Steele was not required to throw the ball in straight, but did have to use the same ball that went into touch before anyone else had played it. Hogg’s earlier touch contravened this fine point of law, meaning the quick throw-in option became unavailable to Scotland’s scrum half.

Quarter 1Quarter 2Quarter 3Quarter 4
Pens against Scotland3315
Pens against Italy3354
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Jon 3 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 6 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

28 Go to comments
A
Adrian 8 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

28 Go to comments
T
Trevor 11 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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