Loose Pass

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with the November internationals and disciplinary consistency…

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with the November internationals and disciplinary consistency…

Two head cases, so to speak, to talk about this week, one settled, one pending, both involving international hookers.
Dimitri Szarzewski will miss a staggering ten days of rugby for bringing his forehead into swift, sharp contact with Toulon hooker Jean-Philippe Genevois – that verdict coming on a day when Keven Mealamu was cited for his impression of a torpedo hitting Lewis Moody.
We'll give you the power of observation for them, and give you a couple of discussion points as well…
– Mealamu –
– Szarzewski –
Now, you may remember some big lumbering oaf in green and gold doing similar to Mealamu some time in early July and having the book reasonably well thrown at him, so we'd be expecting the same to happen to Mealamu, even if his previous is not quite as extensive as Bakkies'.
But then a head-butt is a head-butt, so you'd be rather expecting the same thing to happen to Szarzewski as well…. ten days?
See, while Szarzewski's misdemeanour was less forceful, from less distance, less everything in fact than Mealamu's, the fact remains: it was a head-butt. Giving a player a ten-day suspension for that is setting an unwanted precedent for Mealamu to use and get off lightly.
Is it too much to ask for just a mite of consistency in disciplinary measures?

Still, the disciplinary body that meted out the smacked wrist to the French hooker could also simply not have been concentrating on the matter at hand due to extreme hysteria brought on by the play-acting of his victim.
Watch that clip again and watch for the whole soccer Italia package, the late recoil from the glancing contact, hands on face, rocking and rolling on the ground. And watch, as he rises, for the complete absence of any mark, cut, bruise or any other form of palpable injury whatsoever.
We begin the motion now: can we get players cited for play-acting too? Nip this in the bud maybe? It's why we DON'T watch soccer after all…
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Otherwise, November is taking on an all-too-familiar routine of Northern teams being gallant losers and southern teams winning with a renewed air of pragmatism conspicuously absent from the Try-Nations this year.
So it's definitely advantage South heading towards the World Cup. But looking at the games, you have to say that this year more than any before there seems to be something mental blocking northern teams from doing better. All of the hosts were within ten points of their visitors, yet only Ireland ever looked like they might have a little je ne sais quoi that could eke them out a result.
So what is it? The burden of history? Tactical thinking on the pitch? Fitness? We welcome your opinions…
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Dummies of the week: The chaps 'working' on behalf of the IRFU to sell tickets and get bums on seats while making the necessary bundle of green at November's internationals.
Here is a message for you: The people of the real world – with a few exceptions in high up places – are squeezed for every penny at the moment. People might loosen pockets to treat themselves for a one-off international, but 55,000 people simply cannot afford £300, nor can they afford the time and beer money to get to Lansdowne Road for three Saturdays in a row and get through the ten-hour chaos that is an international matchday.
Why on earth sell these tickets in three-match bundles? What happened to selling plain, simple common sense-priced single match tickets? Has the IRFU gone completely mad?
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Finally, a word to the motivational.
When Warren Gatland took charge of Wales, his first match was a trip to the French, who were running riot. Wales were not. If you were a Welsh fan, that match was set to be a nasty defeat, according to the pundits.
Gatland told the team not to read the papers or watch TV, and instead told the squad a Vietnam story for motivation which runs as follows:
“The story goes something like this,” Gatland told MeetTheBoss.tv.
“Four soldiers were driving through the jungle when they came across sniper fire. The Sergeant in charge said 'we've got three choices. We can go our own separate ways through the jungle and try and make it back to camp. We can jump back in the Jeep and try to drive through the sniper fire.' He said, 'Or we can grab the Jeep, pick it up, turn it around and drive back to camp.'”
“The four soldiers thought the third choice was best. Pick the Jeep up, turn around, and drive back to safety. So the Sergeant said, 'Do you think we can do this?' And they said, 'Yes.' He asked them, 'Do you believe we can do this?' And they said, 'Yes.' And on his command, they jumped up, grabbed a corner of the Jeep each, turned it around, and drove back to camp.
“When they got back and told people what had happened, well, no one believed it. There's no way you four picked up a corner of the Jeep each and turned it around. Now these are four pretty proud soldiers, so eventually money started to change hands. And they get the Jeep into the parade ring, four soldiers, everyone gathered around saying, 'There's no way you can do this. You can't do it.'
The four soldiers on the Sergeant's command got up, they grabbed a corner of the Jeep, and what happened? They couldn't lift it. All of a sudden, the negative influence of everyone else when they got back to the camp and parade ring had a psychological effect on them.”
For the record, Wales did lose in the last minute, having led for much of the game. But it's a good story.
Loose Pass compiled by Richard Anderson
See the full interview with Warren Gatland on MeetTheBoss TV here