Loose Pass: Tackling inconsistencies and time zones

Adam Kyriacou

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with tackling inconsistencies and competitions aligning over time zones rather than hemispheres…

Thresholds of danger or of poor technique?

Perhaps it’s the mocker Gods returning from a well-deserved spring break, but no sooner does Loose Pass pen a few lines about referees getting things consistently correct, than a weekend pops up riddled with high-profile inconsistencies, all backed up with a juicy piece of agency from one of the game’s most influential figures.

OK, granted one was actually from last weekend. But how much difference is there really between any of these tackles: Sam Skinner against Faf de Klerk, Ulupano Seuteni against Romain Ntamack and Luke Northmore against Siale Piutau?

Not a single shred, in our view. Yet two of them lead to red cards, the other one is deemed legal?

You can argue if you like that Northmore does not make direct contact to Piutau’s head, yet the tackle is absolutely the same in almost every respect to Seuteni’s on Ntamack: the heads are pretty much at the same height, there is little in the way of stooping from the tackler, both times it is the tackler rushing in and dictating the terms of the contact. Fortunately for Piutau he does not go the way of Ntamack, but take the two tackles together and it’s far more by luck than design. If Northmore didn’t deserve a red card, he certainly deserved to be penalised.

Less comparable is the red card shown to Skinner, who wraps his arm as De Klerk falls into it. It’s not a good look and it was careless not to foresee what was happening to an extent (more on that in a moment), more so not to stoop into the tackle. But here’s the point: this is supposed to be a crackdown on both outcomes of reckless contact technique and reckless contact technique itself. If Skinner has partly fallen foul of being nearly nine inches taller than his opponent, he has also fallen foul of being a little careless and unaware of what was happening. It didn’t happen that fast.

For Rob Baxter, who is often present with some well-thought diplomacy, to assert that Skinner’s contact was not reckless (nor that of Dave Ewers earlier) and not discipline-worthy is disregarding of what the crackdown has been trying to achieve, even more so is the decision not to even penalise Northmore for what could have been an extremely dangerous tackle.

Yet, Mr. Baxter does have one point: Skinner was not in control of the contact. De Klerk fell into his arm as well as him swinging it. That was absolutely not the case in either of the other two tackles: both Seuteni and Northmore were instigators of the contact with all the momentum.

There is much noise about that fact that the crackdown is nothing more than a PR battle, that concussions are prevailing in the sport as much as ever. There is much statistical evidence to back this up. But there is little hope in winning either the PR battle or the concussion battle while the officiating – and specifically that of the contact area on replay – continues to betray the principles of good contact.

No longer north v south

South Africa’s probable protracted exit from Super Rugby has begun in earnest, as has their teams’ attempts to establish themselves in European – and therefore both more lucrative and more time-zone friendly – competition.

If honest, Loose Pass is looking at the United Rugby Championship (who comes up with these names?) and the thought of a European quarter-final between the Bulls and La Rochelle with a mixture of scepticism and excitement; the former because given the bloated nature of the schedule, we really don’t need more teams, the latter because it would put some aged arguments to bed.

But the real concern is, what happens next? Let’s assume the pandemic is gone in two years’ time and we can all travel again. The current arrangement leaves South Africa’s teams playing a European season and the Springboks playing a southern hemisphere season, something clearly not appropriate to player welfare.

Would South Africa step out of SANZAAR completely? Would it be able to join the Six Nations? Is that at Italy’s expense if so? Do more teams from Argentina fill the SANZAAR void? Or does the status quo return?

SARU have committed to the Rugby Championship to 2030, but notably not Super Rugby. For how long their hybrid existence with Europe will continue is going to be extremely interesting.

Loose Pass compiled by Lawrence Nolan

 

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