Another day, another fusillade of red cards and slow motion replays. London Irish would probably have struggled to beat the Stormers anyway but playing more than half the game with 13 men made such debates academic.
Irish remain winless in the Champions’ Cup pool stages and can forget about progressing further in this season’s tournament.
It was all a bit of a shame because this should have been one of the glitzier games in the Exiles’ calendar: a top South African side, sprinkled with some proper Springbok talent, on a nice clear winter’s afternoon in west London. Instead, once again, everyone left talking about head contacts and disciplinary interventions rather than thrilling rugby and breathless drama.
In retrospect both Ben Loader and Ciaran Parker, sent off after 17 and 42 minutes respectively, will wish they could rewind the clock and take slightly more care in the contact situations which cost their side dearly. With no fewer than five red cards shown over this Champions Cup weekend, however, it is clear there are more complex issues at play than simply blaming players for being sluggish learners.
Declan Kidney, London Irish’s director of rugby, has now had four of his players sent off in a month and believes television’s role needs careful scrutiny. “There is an awful lot of trial by TV on these things now and that is part of sport,” said Kidney, adding that he would be taking “a good look” at the latest incidents. “There was a time before TMOs came into it when you had to make instinctive decisions over foul play and what was a collision. Is the game safer now as a result? It probably is.
“But on the one hand we are asking TMOs not to intercede and speed the game up. On the other, once you break something down second by second, the way it looks can be substantially different. We have a balancing act to do there.
“There’s no doubt some [incidents] get more attention than others. You must balance the ones that are highlighted against the ones that have slipped by. There are others that are not picked up. The game of rugby is a high-octane sport. Lots of things happen in every facet of play. How much do you go looking for them and how much do you not go looking for?”
It clearly remains vital that rugby is serious about protecting its players from repeated head injuries and any potential later consequences. In Loader’s case, however, there was at least some degree of mitigation. The Stormers’ fly-half Manie Libbok would normally have passed the ball to his wing at least a couple of strides earlier but delayed doing so because his teammate Angelo Davids was in front of him. Not only did it mess with Loader’s timing and stop the full-back withdrawing from the collision but it also turned a potentially routine contact into a nasty head collision which led to neither player taking any further part in the contest.
On another day dialling the sanction down to a yellow might have been a possibility, with Loader also appearing to make initial contact with Libbok’s body before the clash of heads. There was less excuse for Parker, other than the fact the prop had only been on the field for a couple of minutes. He was clearly trying to look keen by hitting an early second-half ruck, only to catch Deon Fourie with a high shoulder which left the French referee, Ludovic Cayre, with little option but to show his carton rouge for the second time.
The Stormers coach, John Dobson, was not about to complain about facing 13 men but even he wondered aloud if the game’s safety blitz is becoming problematic in terms of the image of the product. “We do have a problem with rugby. It was a cracking game of rugby until the numbers went down,” said Dobson, whose side led 28-0 at one stage before a gallant Exiles flurry massaged the fine scoreline.
“It wasn’t the product we were looking for to grow rugby and [to promote] South African participation in the competition but we’ll take that outcome every day of the week.”
Victory in their final pool game at home against Clermont will also now guarantee Dobson’s continent-hopping squad a home draw in the last 16.
