Ref Watch: The Tom Curry red card
As England kicked nine goals to grind out a win in the style of Will Carling’s team from the early 1990’s, French referee Mathieu Raynal was for much of the contest little more than an interested spectator rarely required to get above a jog.
Desperately poor Argentina lost to 14-man opponents through their repeated ability to shoot themselves in the foot, cough up possession, take wrong options and concede needless penalties. In truth their heads were gone and they lost all shape and playing pattern long before the final whistle.
Once he got beyond a dramatic opening ten minutes which saw England flanker Tom Curry red carded by the ‘bunker’ replay official for his reckless challenge on Juan Cruz Mallia then Argentina no.10 Santiago Carreras see yellow for his late hit on George Ford, Raynal probably had his easiest 70 minutes of test match officiating.
That said, you can only referee the game in front of you and the only French whistler at their home tournament – a big contrast with the four who made it to Japan 2019 – did a competent job in one of the pool stage’s defining contests.
England’s Discipline – 1
Let’s get the bad bit out of the way first. Curry became the fourth England player to receive a red card since March and the first in Rugby World Cup history for the head-to-head consequences of yet another entirely avoidable upright tackle.
Like Owen Farrell before him, the Sale flanker failed to bend at the waist after chasing a high ball and as a consequence became a hostage to fortune when catcher Mallia’s body position and timing did not entirely match the picture that Curry had in his mind as he approached the contact.
As I wrote in yesterday’s ref watch column on the France v New Zealand opener: “I couldn’t help but wonder if England’s players were watching as two of the world’s leading four sides went through 80 minutes without a hint of a high tackle – perhaps it isn’t as hard as it seems Owen?”
Clearly they weren’t!
It defies belief to me that this message is not getting through since – as my former Sports Editor at the Coventry Telegraph used to often say – ‘these are not stupid people.’
The need to be macho, assert yourself, hit harder and with more defensive line-speed than anyone else is clearly dominating England’s thinking to such an extent that they cannot see the consequences that sometimes follow living on the edge in this way.
If four red cards since March doesn’t cause a rethink nothing will – and let’s be honest limited, unambitious England lose to every other top 12 side on the planet when playing with 14 men for 77 minutes – and that list usually would include Argentina.
Raynal’s decision to refer the Curry decision to the TMRO (to give the man in the bunker his official title) underlined my comment yesterday that almost no red cards will now be shown on field.
That said, it is clearly preferable to keep the game moving (although this contest rarely moved anywhere in a hurry!) and allow the replay official eight minutes to make the decision rather than rush it onfield, so I have no issues with this.
Santiago Carreras’ Yellow Card
Although the challenge looked bad in real time, Carreras’ mis-timed charge-down only made very minor contact with Ford and almost none with his head so could have escaped with just a penalty.
Of course, under the current directives he was out of control of his body and therefore liable for the consequences of the late challenge once there was an iota of head contact, but to me there was no question of a red card.
England’s Discipline – 2
Now the positive bit…
From the end of a first quarter during which England gave away three penalties and a scrum free kick they only conceded one penalty in the next 50 minutes and three more in total.
As ITV’s match summariser Ugo Monye noted they were at times extremely clever in deciding how hard to compete on the ground and showed huge discipline on the defensive offside line.
With their front row also gaining a clear edge despite centre Manu Tuilagi often packing down behind Dan Cole or Will Stuart in the gap left by Curry, they were unrecognisable from the side that regularly shipped 15 to 20 penalties – including many in needless situations – per match under Eddie Jones.
From a refereeing perspective this makes life very easy. Raynal’s interactions with Courtney Lawes were very occasional and rather than continually seeing England players trying to push the laws to their limit and beyond it was instead Argentina that struggled to stay on the right side of Raynal, with the breakdown where they conceded six of their 13 penalties being a real issue.
If England can keep this disciplinary clean sheet through the tournament it will hugely enhance their prospects – now they just need to find an attacking game…
Sir Clive Woodward
Back to another favourite hobby horse – bad TV punditry.
Saturday night’s prime time ITV audience will doubtless have included many very occasional rugby watchers. They therefore need the station’s pundits to have real authority and understanding of the events they are analysing.
Sir Clive is so far from grasping World Rugby’s attempts to make the sport safer and the causes and consequences of their war on head contact that he must have lived on another planet for the last five years.
How can he fail to understand that intent is NOT now a consideration when the officials consider any form of head contact or that the defender entering a tackle upright hugely compromises the safety of the ball carrier.
Mull these thoughts over when reading his latest contribution to “the game’s gone” club uttered during his half-time analysis…
“I think it (the Curry incident) is a yellow card in the rules today. Was it vindictive or done on purpose? No – it’s an accident, a rugby incident.
“I feel so sorry for Tom Curry, there is no way that should be a red card, the game’s getting into very dangerous areas here.
“That’s not a malicious tackle, it’s a sheer accident and not a red card in any way shape or form.”
His use of ‘rules’ rather than ‘laws’ probably says it all…
Comments on RugbyPass
The 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.
1 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
3 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.
3 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
3 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 commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to comments