This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with simulation and the match ban system…
On dives and diving
Two top flight sporting clashes at the weekend. Two incidents. In one, a player petulantly lashes out at his opponent during a grapple for the ball, ending up with a sudden movement which looks like a right jab. Said opponent crumples to the ground and commando rolls twice, then lies there prone with hands to head and slaps the ground several times in evident agony. The crowd erupts. The aggressor is sent from the field of play. Replays show that in fact, the right jab was little more than a firm shove with an open hand, which under normal circumstances, you could quite easily ignore or quite plausibly laugh at. The atmosphere and balance of the game is irretrievably poisoned.
In the other, a player clashes with another player. He goes into a contest hard and unfortunately, his shoulder connects with the head of the opponent. The opponent’s head snaps back in evident agony and he claps his hand to his head before flopping to the turf, lying prone and awaiting judicial review. The crowd erupts. The aggressor is sent from the field of play. It’s a hard knock and at the speed it happens, could conceivably cause concussion to the other player. But a concussed player does not have the time and wits about him to do anything other than crumple in those moments. The clapping of hand to head, the deadweight fall conveniently broken by a conscious arm, none of those things hint at concussion. It’s contact that happens all the time. The atmosphere and balance of the game is irretrievably poisoned.
Version one was from one of the weekend’s FA Cup ties in the soccer. Version two, sadly, is from a Stade Francais v La Rochelle rugby match in the Top 14. It’s a thing we do not, under any circumstance, need to see.
Rugby has been pretty good at calling out potential divers. Nigel Owens memorably reminded Stuart Hogg that although he might be in a soccer stadium, he was in a rugby match and were he to dive like he had again he could return to said stadium in two weeks to play in a soccer match instead. Ollie Lawrence was called out roundly on social media this season for milking a head contact situation and ended up apologising publicly. A player in a Samoan club match was once the recipient of mirth from the stands, officials, and his own team-mates alike for collapsing to the turf after an opponent had tried to slap him and missed! The referee told him to get up and play on.
But Ronan O’Gara was also wrong to accuse Romain Briatte of simulation, as Luke Pearce recently pointed out (referring to the Lawrence incident) on The Good, The Bad, and The Rugby podcast. The problem is more nuanced: namely that of exaggeration. Briatte did get a knock to the head, just not the sort of knock that would send him to cuckooland, certainly nowhere near the sort of knock that Peter Lakai took from Hoskins Sotutu, for example.
Ronan O’Gara accuses France forward of ‘Neymar-esque’ simulation after Will Skelton sent off in ‘dark day for rugby’
Mr. Pearce suggested reversing penalties for exaggeration as a deterrent, but then we start to move away from objectivity to subjectivity; how exaggerated does it need to be? Who is exaggerating and who is not?
But yes, there needs to quickly be something. Exaggeration is the poisonous little cousin of simulation and just as unwelcome. Retrospective bans? Mandatory HIAs for players who make a meal of innocuous moments? Answers on a postcard please…
Ireland’s call
The above must have been properly answered in the Six Nations disciplinary HQ this week when Garry Ringrose‘s ban was deemed to have included a club match in between Six Nations tournament matches this weekend and Romain Ntamack’s was not.
There is barely an observer who believes that this has been handled fairly, and barely a universe in which there is an obvious reason for the discrepancy beyond some form of internal back-scratching or chicanery. Irish supporters are notoriously – and rightly – one-eyed when it comes to their team, but there has been barely a one who has publicly declared that the decision to let Ringrose use Leinster’s game between Six Nations weekends count towards his ban was correct.
We’re 30 years into professionalism here. 30 years. Still the disciplinary process is visibly flawed. Still the pock-mark nature of the calendar organisation makes consistency and integrity almost impossible. Still inexplicable governance decisions cloud issues. Still it is hard to see any reason other than some form of bias in decision-making.
This one is easy to rectify. For the good of the game and this year’s tournament, it needs to be, fast.
READ MORE: ‘Players are laughing’ at officials after World Rugby’s controversial law change as ex-England star calls for ‘greater’ off-field sanctions
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