By ChrisC
May 12 2014
It has now degenerated to the TMO being a sort of assistant TV director; screening various excerpts from play so that the referee can pose in the middle of the pitch watching TV with the rest of us and reach his own conclusion, the TMO merely being required to confirm the referee’s decision – a sort of sycophantic, electronic rubber stamp.
The sport is becoming a joke, a grumous mess of indecision, procrastination and buck passing, leading to repeated longueurs, except there’s no humour in the situation unless your predilection is for high farce.
If we really must have a TMO his involvement should return to advising on the act of scoring a try and no more – no going back through phases and passes and the only question asked should be “is there any reason why I should not award the try” for if the referee has asked for help surely he must be of the opinion that a try has probably been scored.
The referee is, or at least should be, the final arbiter of law on the pitch, if he or his two assistants miss some act of foul play then the Citing Officer can deal with it at half time or post match. I do however think that a system where the team captains have the right to have an issue reviewed on the same basis as used in tennis would be worth testing. The captain would have three opportunities to appeal in each half of the match. The review would be undertaken by the TMO and the referee. If the appeal is not upheld then the opportunity is lost but if it is valid then the number of outstanding appeals remains intact.
I would though want to see more stringent application of the protocol that the only players permitted to address the referee are the respective captains. It may just stop all the shouting and histrionics directed toward the match officials that’s, soccer like, infiltrated the sport.
Would it, I wonder, be too much to expect that the laws of the game are enforced next term? Put ins to the scrum, after a short interregnum, are once again being fed to the scrum half’s team without sanction. Throws to the line out are usually direct to the thrower’s team. Players are routinely unbinding from the scrum, tackling opposition players off the ball at the breakdown or seemingly stravaiging while in truth interfering with play.
Penalty tries, up until the final weeks of this season, have been harder to extract from referees than an impacted Wisdom Tooth then, suddenly, the law was enforced to the letter and sanction applied for the first offence, even though on occasion the decision itself was palpably wrong (qv: captain’s right of appeal). This is but one example of the random application of the laws. And of course we have the chaos surrounding what once an immutable element of the sport – the forward pass.
A positive from this season: BT Sport. When I watched European matches with the terminally tedious Miles Harrison, who appears not to want a nanosecond of silence so witters endlessly on and on, and the hopelessly pompous and partial Stuart Barnes, it served to underline the excellence of BT Sport’s coverage. What a tragedy that these two Sky inadequates are to curse some of the RCC broadcasts with their presence – I suppose one can’t have everything!
Now that Lawrence Dallaglio has broken free of the clichés that bedevilled his early efforts (maybe too much exposure to the BBC?) I’m pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying his commentary and analysis much as I do that of Austin Healey and especially Ben Kay. The only real disappointment has been Matt Dawson, ironically the member of the BT Sport team with the most media experience but who seems to have studied at the knee of Miles Harrison in developing his technique. Nick Mullins, Radio 5’s Eykyn, Martin Bayfield and Craig Doyle I have no strong feelings about. I don’t much like the silly social media wall but that’s an age thing I expect.
One last bit of reality. This season I’ve read a lot about the serious decline of Tigers, how they can’t compete with the all singing, all dancing offloading game espoused by Quins, how their coaching team, led by their know nothing, Neanderthal Director of Rugby, cannot compare with the general wondrousness of Bath and yet, and yet, what do we have here? How can it be that Tigers finished the season in third place with Quins behind them in fourth, while Bath, for all their big spending on high profile signings, didn’t even manage to qualify for the knock out cup. Who’d have thought it eh?
After a season riven with long and short term injuries Tigers are, for the tenth consecutive season, in the knock out cup but whether they’ll progress further is another question.
In spite of bumps acquired in the last match against Saracens the received wisdom from Richard Cockerill at this point is that none of the injuries are of sufficient seriousness to preclude the afflicted players from this Friday’s trip down the M1 to Franklins Gardens, where on Saturday Saints gave Wasps a right royal going over. I’m not sure that it told me anything I didn’t already know about Saints who were given free rein to run riot against a pretty depleted and unmotivated Wasps side, their club’s focus firmly on their matches against Stade Francais for a place in the inaugural Rugby Champions Cup.
Saints for their part have the final of the European consolation cup, for teams that were unable to make the cut for the knock out phase of the Heineken Cup, still to contend with against Bath who were put away by Wayne Barnes and Quins last Saturday. I don’t somehow think that Mallinder’s men will be focussing on anything other than Friday’s match when they’ll have another opportunity to exorcise the hex that Tigers have lately had over them.
Marcos Ayerza didn’t get the rest planned as he had to come on to replace Stankovitch before the spectators had put down their beer and the Argentine will be at the forefront again come Friday facing fourteen times a Wallaby Salesi Ma’afu. Ex of ACT Brumbies and Western Force, he’s a tough nut, not a plaudit often handed out to Wallaby props..
I wonder if Alex Corbisiero will make his first Premiership start since the nineteen all draw at Welford Road at the beginning of October. It’d be tough on Alex Waller who’s had a superb season on the Saints’ loose-head were it the case. Either will represent a major challenge for Tigers’ Mulipola who’s also had a marvellous season standing in for Dan Cole.
Tom Youngs should be back and will relish playing in front of the Saints’ supporters who love to malign him even though he has some of the best line out stats in the Premiership. I don’t much like the supporters of any club, including Tigers, who denigrate players to further the claims of their own. Such behaviour seems an intellectually bankrupt approach to the sport.
With Dylan Hartley injured twenty-two year old Under 23 international Mike Heywood has come to the fore and Koree Britton has now arrived from Gloucester on loan to offer support and will be hoping that the move will be a permanent one that ends his unhappy time at Kingsholm where he had little game time. He is a feisty character who clashed with Ryan Lamb when they were both sent off in an “A Team” match at Kingsholm for fighting when Lamb broke his hand on Britton’s head. Britton, in spite of pleading not guilty, got a four week suspension for his trouble and Lamb’s own absence presaged the summary end of his Tigers’ career!
With the absence of Hartley it would, theoretically, look to be advantage Tigers at the scrum and with J P Doyle rumoured to be slated for the match there’ll be no nonsense brooked at scrum time.
At lock for the hosts I can’t imagine that Saints will field anything other than the Christian Day and Courtney Lawes partnership that has served them so well.
Lawes has, this season, added to his reputation for attracting Yellow Cards this term garnering a further three for his collection, including one in the nineteen all draw at Welford Road and another in the further nineteen all draw at the Recreation Ground earlier this month. Maybe he’s a fan of Paul Hardcastle!
He is though a great athletic specimen and superb operator and it should be a cracking contest between him and Ed Slater while hopefully Geoff Parling vyes with Christian Day to be the most successful in reading the line out runes. The locks look well matched, even if Deacon appears instead of Parling, and with line out throws now routinely failing to be straight I expect this set piece to be very even.
If Tom Croft, blessedly recovered from his latest long term injury, plays he’s a World Class operator at the line out but will probably be up against American Eagle Manoa who for me is the best player both in the Saints’ squad and elsewhere outside of Welford Road, so even here it’ll be a tight contest and both are forces of nature in the loose.
After his recent displays I think it’s fair to assume that we’ve seen the last of Thomas Waldrom until he trots out in an Exeter shirt and that one of Tigers’ stand out players this term, Jordan Crane, will be in the number eight berth battering away for supremacy with Manoa for the provision of go forward ball. Yet another area that’s bound to be close fought with the centre ground keenly contested.
Tom Wood is likely to be in his best position on the open side with Clark on the blind side for the hosts. Salvi will have enjoyed his week off and seeing Matera do a fine job in his stead against Saracens. If the match officials actually understand what open side forwards are supposed to do (as opposed to what they imagine they should do) then I can see Salvi getting the edge at the breakdown.
Overall I expect the scrum to slightly favour the visitors whereas the hosts may gain an advantage at the line out where their rolling maul is fearsome weapon.
Ben Youngs was another Tiger given the weekend off for the Saracens’ match and if Mele is counted out by injury then Sam Harrison will be on the bench whereas if, as I think, Dickson starts, Samoan international Fotuali’i will be back up. Dickson and Ben Youngs are in good form at the moment and both will need to get their box kicks away with speed and accuracy, giving the game their full concentration and not be sidetracked into shouting and waving their arms at the referee.
Of the more mature fly halves in the Premiership Stephen Myler is surely the most improved this season, Saints suffering mightily from his absence when Tigers turned them over at the end of March. Myler’s a much more rounded player these days thanks to the influence of Alex King.
The league convert from Widnes may be opposing the most improved young fly half around in the form of Owen Williams but Tigers have the experienced Toby Flood waiting his chance for a final pop at the old enemy and I’d not be disappointed were he to start. Whether it’s Flood or Williams they’ll need to have given their kicking boots a thorough tune up as Myler rarely misses and must surely be a candidate for a trip to New Zealand this summer.
Tigers’ connections will have spent the last couple of weeks with everything crossed that Tony Allen is fit to marshal the troops as any chinks will see Luther Burrell bursting through onto flat pop passes from Myler. The England star is in compelling form and will surely be reunited with another Samoan international; the dangerous George Pisi, in a hard charging, skilful combination.
Tigers, for their part, have the elemental force that is Manu Tuilagi determined to prove that Burrell is a mere pretender to the England outside centre spot and if these two clash it could be seismic given their propinquity.
Tuilagi, even now, still gets a little over excited and tears out of the defensive structure so all the more reason to hope upon hope that Allen is fit to play to keep the integrity of the Tigers’ defence intact as well as weaving those little bits of magic in wriggling though any interstices in the opposition bulwarks.
Northampton will have George North lurking around ready to pounce but then Tigers have Nikki Goneva doing likewise so the coherence of the respective midfields is key in both attack and defence.
I hope that the admirable Jamie Elliott is selected by Mallinder as his presence and consistently high standard serves to remind us long time rugby followers that the sport still has room for this type of player. Not starry, not puffed up by the media as “the next big thing”, just a fine, fine young player.
Tigers do have choices for the other wing berth for even with Camacho and Benjamin still injured they have Morris, Thompstone and Scully to choose from. For me it’d be another American Eagle; Blaine Scully but in truth it could be any one of them as they each have different attributes but with Myler and Foden likely to be sending kicks as high as the adjacent “lighthouse” Scully’s excellence under the high ball gets him the nod from me.
The lubricious Foden and Tait will be also running the ball back at pace and representing lethal force in open play with both in good form after injury.
This is an incredibly hard one to call. Northampton have the undeniable advantage of playing at home and on a Friday night at that. The weight of history suggests that home sides prosper on these occasions although Saints demolished an over confident Saracens at the same point last term as did Tigers do for Gloucester further back. Also Tigers do not however have a happy record when playing on Friday evenings which, uniquely, they are obliged to do this week.
Against that Saints lately have a poor record against Tigers.
.
Too close to call really but as it can’t be a draw I should make a forecast.
Although Saints are obviously favourites and may just edge it I’m a one-eyed Tigers’ supporter so I’ll go for Tigers by a single score. But neither side will be scoring seventy-four unanswered points in the process.
This may be my last article of the current season which has been another that’s found me roaming through the cobwebbed attic that passes for my brain as I’ve talked about all manner of things over the past nine months, from painting bathtubs, to dancing, courting, family, driving, being driven, childhood, playing sport, watching sport, restaurants, critics, music, travel, pets, career, houses, girls and I’ve even fitted in a bit of rugby here and there.
Were it possible I’d conduct one of those modern day rituals where a sportsman, performer or the like applaud their audience to thank them for coming and watching, listening or in this case reading.
In my laudatory circuit there’s particular applause for those, not only from the Tigers’ fan base but elsewhere who’ve been kind enough to make favourable comments about my offerings. It’s appreciated.
So imagine, if you will, my standing in my office overlooking the Peak District, where the hawthorn is spread like snow across the hedgerows, acknowledging your staying power in joining me as I’ve rummaged through the shelves of recollection for the last nine months and indeed during all the years before.
And if you’re really out of luck I’ll, Frank Sinatra like, be back for another farewell performance next week – the pain would be worth a Tigers’ victory wouldn’t it?
View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.
Quote:It is a pain in the bum that Tigers always seem to time there rise to form to perfection.
Quote:Duncan Keene
Massive thanks Chris and hopefully one more to come.
Jon, your analysis misses an important factor, BT and Prem rugby concocted this 7th place play off malarkey as part of the champions cup. Having been given the rights to wasps he leg they needed to fit that in to the schedule so were no doubt delighted to free up the original Sunday slot!
With any care from BT at all then both semis could have been on Saturday as they have 2 sports channels, one could have been on football all day.