Were Wasps right or not? Actually, I don’t know, I never will, and I think I probably don’t care any more. There’s been a lot of spiky comment from both Sale and Wasps fans, and some truly bizarre hair-splitting in PRL’s statement, but whatever we say isn’t going to undo what’s already been done. So we may as well accept reality, however unsatisfactory, and move on.

The bigger question in my mind is where this unseemly mess leaves the game of rugby union? The problem is that responsibility and authority have become impossibly confused. There appears to be conflict between the IRB’s regulations and the RFU’s. In the end, when the chips are down and one side says “Play”, but the other side says “Don’t play”, who has the authority to make the final decision?

Surely it has to be the referee? He is the arbiter during play, so how does it make any difference if he is also given the responsibility to decide whether or not play can start? He is an experienced, neutral official trusted to oversee many other safety-critical aspects of the game, whether it is almost two tons of muscle colliding head-on in the scrum, or a lineout jumper propelled 12 feet into the air.

However, he needs to be backed strongly. A referee being told “Well, we don’t want to play but, if you make us and one of our players is injured, we’ll sue you” is in an intolerable position. It may well be a bluff- how would you know if an injury occurred because of the conditions- but if I were a referee would I want to take that risk? So PRL and the RFU have surely to support their referees properly. The match officials have to know that, if they make a decision and something goes wrong, their Lords and Masters will stand behind them, not make scapegoats of them, as seems to have happened to David Rose. That includes legal, financial and insurance backing, so threat of a law suit is neutralised, and it also means that PRL and the RFU need to find the backbone to put the support in place.

Allowing “player safety” to be some sort of trump card is a recipe for anarchy. Too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, grass too long, where might the excuses end? Player safety is a concern; it must be, but in the end, the decision to play or not has to be a matter of judgement and the referee is the person best placed to make that judgement. I am proud to have played the game of rugby, and proud to follow it, but right now it’s a shambles. So sort it please, RFU, before the game becomes even more of a joke!

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