Loose Pass

This week we will be concerning ourselves with memories, punishments, the price of fame, European adventures & smokescreens.

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with memories, the price of fame, punishments, European adventures and smokescreens…

A heartwarming story from Down Under this week concerned former All Black Shayne Philpott, a 14-match AB who played two World Cup matches in 1991 among his appearances, with the rest coming as midweek games.

It's safe to say Philpott is not one of New Zealand's favourite sons when it comes to rugby criticism. One website, halftimeorange.co.nz, listed him as number five in the list of all-time worst All Blacks, introducing the brief bio with the line: 'you don't qualify as being a utility just by virtue of being s*** at more than one position.'

When Radio Sport listed him as one of the all-time coaches' pets and his brother texted him to inform him of such, Philpott finally opted to take some action. He put his AB cap up for sale, citing his lack of pride and/or fond memories and the continued negative publicity as the reasons for his decision.

“I didn't ask to get picked for the All Blacks. I just played to the best of my ability and I got picked,” he said.

“You know you are going to get knocked from time to time. It comes with the territory and even the best players get it sometimes. You know you are going to get knocked from people who have never played the game at any significant level. They all have an opinion, as do I.

“I've tended to disassociate myself with the fact that I ever was an All Black, although I do get reminded from time to time.

“I'm more proud of the fact that I won two club finals with Burnside and played 113 games for Canterbury.”

Not so heartwarming so far I hear you say…

Well, having put the cap up for auction on ebay equivalent Trademe, Philpott found the ad eventually deluged with notes of support and encouragement from people hoping he would not lose the souvenir of his achievements for good.

Philpott was so encouraged by the notes that he withdrew the cap from sale on Monday to reconsider his decision.
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Less heartwarming is the latest twist in the troubled career of Gavin Henson, apparently sitting out an internal suspension for having a fight with some team-mates.

One can only speculate what happened, but we'll have a rough stab: Henson walks into bar. Someone passes comment on glory boy. Henson shrugs off the comments. Someone else passes comment about hair gel and fake tans. Henson begins to simmer. Someone else passes comment about ringing Church's bells. Henson's blood rises. Someone else passes comment about Henson's chances of making the Welsh World Cup squad being less than average. Henson loses cool and fight ensues.

He's done himself no favours in the past, but he has proved – since his return to action in Toulon colours – that he ain't all bad on a pitch. It's a shame that for a few weeks, he couldn't just play, the off-pitch shenanigans had to go with him.
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Other punishments that might have been less effective this week would surely have been the one-year bans from European competition handed out to Bourgoin and Newcastle for failing to fulfil a fixture in France, on a weekend when the snow fell and the ground froze.

Bourgoin's Top 14 goose has long been cooked while Newcastle are, in no uncertain terms, staring relegation and internal unrest in the face. Bourgoin have repeatedly been sanctioned for financial breaches – basically, they have breached zero on a number of occasions – while Newcastle are still bleeding players chasing bigger and better clubs and contracts, and slowly circling the Premiership plughole.

ERC wanted the game played the next day. So this is the scenario: a match already rendered irrelevant in terms of pool qualification between two teams, one desperately trying to avoid relegation and suffering financial hardship, the other already a sinking ship, is postponed for a day.

Neither coach wants more injuries, for a myriad of reasons. Staying the extra day for Newcastle entails a significant cost with absolutely zero practical return. The game has absolutely no relevance to anyone whatsoever. What, exactly are Newcastle to do? Sink hundreds of unaffordable pounds into keeping the squad in France for an extra day for a meaningless match? And what are Bourgoin to do, sink hundreds of Euros on changing the day shifts of matchday personnel for the stadium, not to mention the stack of other little costs involved in a last-minute change of date.

OK so the Pierre-Rajon is hardly Stade de France and it's hardly a massive-scale project. But to two clubs on the edge, it's a huge imposition for – and we stress again – zero return.

So in return for doing what's best for their clubs and simply giving up the game, ERC impose a EUR 25,000 fine on one team, a EUR 75,000 on another, and ban the teams for a year. The ban can be seen as a blessing in disguise for the clubs, who won't have to shell out a load of cash on three expensive away days next season, but the fines are plain nasty.

At some point, ERC need to wake up and realise that the financial gulf between Heineken Cup clubs and Amlin Challenge Cup clubs is significant, and start finding a little more empathy when it comes to sanctions regarding unplayed matches between teams who make a significant financial effort merely to be on location. Otherwise, they'll find themselves governing a competition played by clubs resenting being there, not a good position to be in.
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Debate rages on over the ban meted out to Mark Cueto, which has been backed by his so-called gouge victim. Is Christian Day's defence of Cueto a case of closing ranks between friends over an unfortunate incident? Nobody but the two of them will know.

But while all that goes on, we get reports of something in New Zealand to give us a timely reminder of the game's most fundamental discipline: A Wellington club second team player banned for life for punching a referee in the face – and that after he had been sent off for a headbutt. Savelio Sagato didn't even attend the hearing to face up to his actions.

“The actions of this player were completely unacceptable, hence the severity of the penalty. This course of action sends the strongest possible message to players, coaches and spectators that referee abuse of any kind, either verbal or physical, will not be tolerated under any circumstances,” said Wellington Rugby chief executive James Te Puni.

And so, a few choice words at the TV aside, say all of us.
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Finally, Steve Tew has had a big moan that Ireland are the ones currently responsible for the player drain from New Zealand.

Not the parlous state of the New Zealand provincial finances. Not the abundance of talent bursting the Islands'