Ref's immortal words sum it all up

At least Italy knew the Laws

"I can't say. I am the referee not the coach." The words of referee Romain Poite, during the England v Italy match, in response to a combined appeal by Dylan Hartley and James Haskell for clarification on this "ruck thing," deserve to be immortalised in rugby union folk lore. Totally bewildered by Italy's ploy of not committing players to the ruck, after an England player had been tackled, thus removing any offside line, England had appeared, especially during the first half, to have no answer when Italy's defenders stood alongside their bemused attackers as they attempted to pass the ball

Law 16 tells us "A ruck is a phase of play where one or more players from each team, who are on their feet, in physical contact, close around the ball on the ground." Very few players would be able to recite that, which would have helped them work out that Italy were doing nothing outside the Laws of the game; they also carefully ensured that they did not supply a player who would have converted the tackle into a ruck; so, there was not an offside line to be broken. Whilst appreciating that the eighty minutes were never destined to develop into a memorable spectacle, I totally disagree with the thousands who will have complained about the tactics employed by the Italians. Yes, it spoiled the game, but give credit for the practice which must have gone into the tactic; applaud, too, their consistency in not permitting a player to carelessly rush into the tackle situation and quickly ruin a cleverly orchestrated method to prevent England from reaching fifty points.

If the home side's players were baffled by it all, what of the spectators? As someone who had a little sympathy with Jim Telfer's recent controversial observations on the Twickenham crowd’s ignorance, I would love to know how they reacted when they first recognised that something was going wrong. I have said before in these columns that, unless you have to (e.g. the referee), who would go to the trouble of trying to unravel the many other complexities in the laws? Monsieur Poite had a good game amidst all the chaos, not quite like the referee who, after making a howler in a National League Three game a while back, covered his error with "Well you can't be expected to know all the laws." Not much hope for the masses at HQ then.  

I have been a big fan of Eddie Jones but was disappointed by his handling of interviews after the Italy shambles. The beleaguered visitors, on the back of an absolute thumping by Ireland, regularly hammered in the press and earmarked for swapping places with Georgia should relegation ever materialise, kept to the scheme with relish. Jones' jibes about fans asking for their money back would have been better directed towards why his players hadn't got a clue what was going on and why it took until half time to put it right.

28 February 2017