Loose Pass: Knock-ons, Italian woes and French lessons

Adam Kyriacou
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This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with further odd knock-on material, the Italian job, referee language and France’s exposed fragility…

A knock or not a knock

Question: when is a knock-on not a knock-on? The answer of course, is when the ball is knocked out of your hand by an opposition player.

This was the ruling by referee James Doleman, ably assisted by his TMO, in Saturday’s match between the Crusaders and Chiefs, as Brad Weber tackled Richie Mo’unga. Under Law 11.5 (b) it is not a knock on if a player knocks the ball from an opponent and the ball goes forward from the opponent’s hand or arm.

So far so good. The problem, as flagged by all the TV commentators, was that Weber did not actually touch the ball, he only barged into Mo’unga’s hand as he was making the tackle. And so, as all the commentators claimed, this should actually have been a knock on as Weber did not knock the ball itself and the only person touching the ball was Mo’unga.

An interesting anomaly, particularly in the wake of Gauzere-gate a couple of weeks ago. But in this instance, we’d actually say that the officials called this right in context. It wasn’t just that Weber knocked Mo’unga, it was that Weber swung the weight of his arm into the back of Mo’unga’s hand as the latter was in the process of delivering a good backward – or lateral – pass.

Does it really matter whether Weber touched the ball or not? It was not as if Mo’unga had the ball dislodged from his grip by Weber’s contact, nor was there any appearance of Mo’unga struggling for control of the ball. The entire momentum of the ball’s movement as it left Mo’unga’s hand was generated by Weber, even if Weber did not actually touch it himself.

To listen to common sense or the letter of the law. Refereeing hey? Who’d do it.

How to solve this one?

We’ve stoically resisted joining the chorus of calls for Italy to be cut adrift from the Six Nations thus far, and we will continue to do so, but something does need to change, or at least be examined in the context of change.

The Azzurri were blitzed by France in the first game, but in the matches against England and Ireland they were competitive for long periods and seemed many times to be just one or two moves away from being competitive on the scoreboard as well.

This was not the case on Saturday. Wales cruised for most of the second half and Italy showed nothing. And it surely raised the question: young this Italian team may be, capable and eager to learn it may also be, but how useful is a five-game streak of 50-point defeats to their development really? Especially when there is little or no subsequent Test rugby to back it up after, and/or try out the learnings?

The problem is not that Italy are in the Six Nations per se, the problem now is genuinely becoming one of the detachment to the teams in the level below, to which, certainly in the case of Georgia and possibly also to Romania and Russia, Italy are now closer than to the Six Nations.

There is little doubt that casting Italy out of the Six Nations would take Italian rugby to financial ruin and undo all the progress that has been made – and there has been plenty. It is simply not feasible to do that to a nation simply because it did not meet the standard. However, the fact that the gap is not narrowing, coupled with the fact that it is closing from below, is starting to look very poor.

Perhaps there needs to be a solution whereby relegation is simply not so catastrophic and where instead of casting Italy adrift, it pulls other nations further towards the big five?

The status quo is becoming bothersome – by the time we get to France 2023, it could be a big problem.

Communication problems

We had a feeling it caused a problem in the Wales-England game, a feeling now backed up by communications in the Scotland-Ireland game: Why are two French officials communicating to each other in English?

In Cardiff, it may well have led to a poor decision regarding Louis Rees-Zammit’s knock-on. While it didn’t affect the game in Edinburgh so much, it was clear that neither Romain Poite nor Alex Ruiz are totally comfortable communicating in English, and especially not when they could sort their queries to each other out in French, taking half the time and with double the accuracy.

Surely if we really really want to hear the officials, we should be the ones learning French, rather than they? I’m sure they are under more pressure…

Getting involved

Mr. Poite took his involvement in games to new levels on Sunday. Twice knocked to the floor, and a fine piece of defensive maul positioning to make sure that Ireland had indeed scored their try. Would you have gone where he did to make sure he got that call right?

Will fitness tell for Wales?

However fortunate they might be to be in the position they are in, the Welsh have proven in this championship that they are nothing if not fit. Standing now between them and a highly improbably Grand Slam are France who, for all their pizzazz and joie de vivre and jeu beau and such, looked decidedly jaded as the game rumbled into its final quarter on Saturday.

The French will undoubtedly look to blitz Wales early, as they have most teams this championship, but if the Welsh can dig in and stay in touch late in the game, fitness might prove to be the deciding factor.

Loose Pass compiled by Lawrence Nolan

 

Chiefs