Tuesday 18 July 2017

Lion Hearts

I know it's after the event and the glorious summer of sport is moving on, with Federer's remarkable resurgence, the England-South Africa cricket series poised for the Oval decider and the Open at glorious Birkdale this week, but the achievement of the Lions in New Zealand was sport at its best.

With refereeing making a positive contribution to the series and the game at last taking action in the moment against dangerous play, we got a wonderful finale and a tied series that some (but not me) found an anti-climax. As a scratch team against the best team in the world the Lions showed that northern hemisphere rugby can compete and perhaps can look forward to the 2019 World Cup after the ignominy of having no teams in the last 4 in 2015. And maybe I can move on - and the game itself can - after the notorious spear tackle incident from the previous Lions tour of New Zealand 12 years earlier. Mind, the backwash from that was still very evident, with Clive Woodward, the Lions coach on that occasion, finding himself on stage being interviewed with Tana Umaga, one of the two All Black culprits, before the first test last month. "Lots of hugs, handshakes and smiles 12 years after it all got a bit heated on the 2005 tour, especially over one incident. We all moved on years ago...."* Well, Clive, I think you're an old softie and the game is actually only just moving on with the realisation that foul and overly aggressive play has to be dealt with. The referee from that game in 2005 took no action at the time but has finally admitted his mistake. "It should have been at least one red card, maybe two. We didn't see it so didn't sanction it. When I reviewed it at the hotel I was very unhappy. If we have to give a red card, even if it's against an All Black in New Zealand, we give a red card." Except, as Martin Samuel, also writing in the Daily Mail, said "no they don't" as at that time, before Sonny Boy Williams was sent off in the second test, that had only ever happened twice and never in New Zealand.

But the referees were up to it this time - though the television match official, having drawn the on field referee's attention to the challenge, described as "thuggish" in reports, bizarrely tried to dissuade the on field official from showing the red card.

As a result we not only got a thrilling test series - I expect the result would have been 3-0 to the All Blacks if Williams had stayed on the field - but rugby could become a better, safer sport.

I found the picture of the two teams mingling after the match with the trophy, sat in rows but inter-mingled and chatting away rather than posed, heartwarming. But there's never been a problem in rugby after the match, with teams taking a 'what happens on the pitch stays on the pitch' attitude, however 'tough' things got during the game. A game for hooligans played by gentlemen they always used to say, contrasting it with the behaviour of soccer players. And yet dangerous challenges in soccer produce the most amazing media uproar, even though they don't usually have anything like the potential of Sonny Boy's sickening direct hit on Lion Anthony Watson's head. I've always found this contrast bizarre and hypocritical.

It's not a matter of rugby being a "man's game", the phrase often used to excuse appalling challenges and off the ball assaults. The even more physical game of American football, for example, has absolutely no truck with play considered dangerous, let alone fighting. The officials take immediate action, though in that sport penalising teams by yardage penalties is enough to ensure the offences are rare. Soccer is a very different game - when the 10 yard sanction was applied for dissent or not retreating it didn't work, as territory is not as important and free kicks too close to the goal aren't easy to score from.

So I enjoyed what I saw of the Lions tour and maybe, if rugby continues to evolve in a positive direction, I could feel comfortable about youngsters I know taking up the game in the future. I don't think the game is there yet, but maybe at last attitudes to reckless play are changing, though I've still to see that change for deliberate foul play and sly play, the kind rugby fans seem all too ready to tolerate in the "man's game".

*Clive Woodward's column was in the Daily Mail, 27 June 2017

No comments:

Post a Comment