By Lucky Vince Pienaar
A week ago, Jake White contested the red card given to David Kriel in the Bulls’ match against the Ospreys, and that decision was overturned.
This week, Johan Grobbelaar was red-carded in the match against Scarlets – a match the Bulls lost by one point.
It looks like this time the decision will stand (the decision hasn’t been announced yet), and White makes it clear that he doesn’t think the Bulls’ loss was because of the card.
But his comments about cards highlight the real problem.
He says when a player is malicious and it’s off the ball, then that’s a red card.
“The red card was put there for that exact reason because of incidents that are dirty and because it’s malicious and because it’s premeditated,” he is quoted on Planet Rugby.
“If you start with ‘Is it foul play?’ which is the way it is currently done, then you’re going to get a different outcome.”
Of course, player safety is the most important consideration, as everybody agrees with varying degrees of sincerity, but head contact is never malicious. If it is, then that’s a headbutt – and that’s worthy of a red card.
Jake White must always be very careful of what World Rugby will do to him if they think he hasn’t been respectful enough (read: kissing … something). John Kirwan, however, doesn’t face that same peril. On the New Zealand programme The Breakdown, he makes the most important point of all.
He says 80,000 spectators pay a fortune to go to the World Cup final to see the All Blacks play the Springboks and, “Sam Cane is sitting on the side of the field!”
“You talk about making it a spectacle, then you send players off the field. You penalise the fans!”
Kirwan is very often wrong, but this time he is exactly right when he says it’s about the spectators. How difficult is that to understand?
Tim Cocker of Eggchasers says: “Rugby is a game of 15 versus 15.” He’s right.
Rugby is a very difficult game to officiate. Even the best refs get it wrong. And every time World Rugby makes a new revision of the rules, they force the ref to make more complicated decisions – and the consequences become more critical.
And finally, to quote Jake White, let the ref start with the right question. He mustn’t start with, “Is it foul play?” He must start with, “Was it deliberate?” And once more, how difficult is that to understand?
Pictured above: Blue Bulls.
Source: Blue Bulls/X
