Loose Pass

This week we will be concerning ourselves with video refs, exports, job applications, troubled clubs and a quick giggle at the RFU…

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with video refs, exports, job applications, troubled clubs and a quick giggle at the RFU…

News broke earlier this week that Paddy O'Brien et al would be looking carefully – to the extent of trialling – at the scope of the video ref over the coming year.

Television match officials currently can only rule on incidents in the in-goal area. The new protocols would likely extend their authority to the field of play, allowing them to advise the referee of foul play or forward passes in the lead-up to a try.

Hmmm… the jury's out on this one, but it looks as though we are heading to an NFL scenario whereby every single score will be routinely fine-checked, even the steaming obvious.

This is, in essence, not a bad idea. But there is a caveat: how far back do you go? In the NFL, every scoring play is analysed as standard, but that's the equivalent of one phase of rugby only. Do we go back one phase only? Two phases? To the start of the last set-piece? Or is this going to be another undefined area, thus open to abuse from the defending teams to air the grievance they felt about a forward pass early in the movement?

This has to be defined if this principle is to work. But in general, this would be a good common-sense development. As long as it stays this far only.

There are some rugby exports that make significantly more sense than others. Wasps-Quins taking a – relatively – meaningless LV= Cup match to the developing rugby Emirate of Abu Dhabi makes sense.

London Irish heading to the Irish cultural capital of the developing USA for an Aviva Premiership match makes sense (although they'll need to pick their times if they want to use Fenway Park as mooted, baseball's season is a busy one and it starts early in spring).

The Crusaders playing the Rebels in a Super Rugby warm-up in Singapore makes sense too, with Asia clamouring for more and more and embracing the game with open arms.

The common themes? Ambassadorial work for the game in new markets, bringing in new faces and fans to the game, possibly not absolutely the biggest matches of the season.

But Saracens' decision to take their Heineken Cup tie with Biarritz to Cape Town still rankles. It's not as if South Africa needs more rugby, nor is it that new faces and fans will come to the game. It's a huge game too, one that will go some way to defining both clubs' seasons, and one that has been made considerably less accessible for Biarritz's notoriously vocal travelling fans, never mind Saracens'.

Is this really a business decision in the greater interests of the game? Or is it merely a quid pro quo arrangement concerning the number of South Africans Saracens have enjoyed the services of down recent years, or concerning the development partnership between the Stormers and Sarries? Whatever it is, it does not hit the notes of curiosity value or fanbase expansion the other ones do… it mostly smells of making it as difficult as possible for a fierce Heineken Cup contender.

So now the dust has settled, it appears Peter de Villiers is not quite at the 'end of the road' he talked about in the aftermath of South Africa's World Cup exit and he is to re-apply for his job.

It's an odd turnaround, although the predictable is generally pretty far away from what PDV says or does.

But was it his decision? Or has he perhaps been nudged by someone higher up who, having realised that all the best candidates for the job have ruled themselves out of contention one by one bar Allister Coetzee, who does not entirely represent the tactical progress South African rugby looks to need, reckons re-employing PDV might be a case of better the devil you know?

Watching that storyline unfold is going to be fascinating over the coming weeks.

Europe's clubs are now back in action and replete with World Cup warriors, but the two stories to watch over the coming weeks up north are at Wasps and Perpignan.

It takes a grim situation indeed to make a servant of 14 years walk out on his final club contract, but Simon Shaw appears to have done just that with his signing at Toulon from Wasps. Shaun Edwards is gone also, also strangely in the middle of the season.

Rumours are rife of internal unrest at the club, personality clashes upstairs in the boardroom, confusion over the long-term vision. It truly looks to be the end of an era at the moment.

Meanwhile, Perpignan's struggles from last season continue apace. Winless in five, smashed at home by Clermont, in the throes of an injury crisis, no Heineken Cup… it probably wasn't what James Hook envisioned getting himself into when he put pen to paper.

Word is that Hook has been welcomed with open arms by the Catalan faithful as a potential saviour, with his display in defeat against Toulouse on Saturday doing little to alleviate that hope. But the fans in general are extremely restless, which in Perpignan equates to volatile. Coach Jacques Delmas, who ultimately paid a price for Biarritz's fall from grace over the past three years, must feel like he's out of the frying pan into the fire!

Finally, it's difficult to suppress a grin at the state of the RFU at the moment. Martyn Thomas' last act as Chairman, CEO and a myriad of other positions, was to fail to convince the Professional Game Board (PGB), a hitherto unknown council of powerbrokers, of the need for an externally-conducted review of England's World Cup performance. The PGB got all stubborn because Thomas went ahead without their ratification.

Thomas thus cut across some contractual obligations, ploughed through some procedural fine print… basically, he got all decisive and others' egos got trampled on as a result.

We've heard that one before about Thomas, just as we have also heard the one about Rob Andrew doing extremely little. Yet he is likely to be the one tasked by this new PGB with the review, unless the RFU council looks elsewhere, whereupon there'll be a fallout, resignations, back-stabbing, new committees formed. And the new committees will look outside the box for a new leader, whereupon Rob Andrew will probably present himself… goodness knows how it will end. You couldn't write it.

Loose Pass compiled by Richard Anderson