Loose Pass: TMO stuff and World Cup dreams

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with TMO stuff and the tension in Marseille…

A fine line

It’s a sign of how far England have come that, despite an injury list longer than Brodie Retallick’s line-out arm, both their matches against the top two teams in the world this November have been one-pointers, both decided in the final moments by a TMO call.

Against South Africa, as we documented last week, England were extremely lucky. This week, England were less lucky. You win some, you lose some. Literally.

There are a lot of factors. Primarily, when looking at Courtney Lawes and his purported break of rank, we have to consider when the ball is actually out. TJ Perenara – like a phalanx of other scrum-halves these days – spends a good second with his hands on the ball before lifting it to kick. During this second, an extra clean by an All Black forward nudges the rearmost foot of the ruck back half a yard. Lawes, with his focus intently on the unprotected Perenara, is the only one not to retreat that half-yard.

The act of the scrum-half touching the ball used to be enough for a ball to be out, and there’s no clear definition in the laws beyond that the ruck ends ‘when the ball leaves the ruck’.

So nowadays, the consensus among referees on forums around is that when the entirety of the ball is outside all of the feet of the final man in the ruck, meaning in layman’s terms, usually when the scrum-half has actually picked it up and removed it. This was also the practical upshot of a meeting between coaches and referees last week. So in this case, looking at the replays, Lawes probably did jump the line a tad – or rather, that extra clean probably did jump Lawes a tad – and the decision was probably right. So one can moan about TMO interference all one wants, but we got the right decision.

However, there is also a law, these days rarely implemented as the practice has been eradicated, which states that a scrum-half must not dummy a removal of the ball from the ruck, something the little whippersnappers used to do to try and draw fringe defenders offside.

They don’t do it any more. But goodness do they do a lot of things which are weird. How many scrum-halves this weekend spent seconds with their hands on the ball for no apparent reason? How many scrum-halves, presented with perfectly clean ball at the ruck, spent a couple of seconds nudging it slightly back into the ruck with their toes (presumably to make sure it was still ‘in’), or heeling it back towards the ideal pick-up position? How many scrum-halves in general go down to the base of the ruck looking like they are about to play the ball, but instead put their palms on the ground for no readily apparent reason?

Many partisan fans are acidic about TMO interference and referee indecisiveness, but we reckon here that there is a lot of scrum-half shenanigans going on at many a ruck which needs to be looked at by the lawmakers, and which might make far more difference to the game than vilifying a brace of officials for making the right call on a difficult day…

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The day of livelihoods

Germany and Canada were winners of their first matches in the four-team repechage play-off in Marseille on Sunday, meaning that this Saturday’s clash between the two is almost certainly set to be a straight do-or-die final.

In more ways than one. Both teams headed into the repechage on the back of internal ructions. Canada’s decline over the past few years – they were 13th in the world as recently as 2013 but now sit 23rd – recently came to a head when their sevens players went on strike, incensed at a cost-cutting measure which saw the fifteens and sevens players combined under one administration, thus reducing the sevens players’ compensation. The national union has been forced to cut costs for some time as their funding from World Rugby has dropped.

Failure to qualify for the World Cup – the first time Canada would have failed to do so – would likely cost the union a seven-figure sum in future funding annually and have a catastrophic effect on the entire shape of the game in the country, not least the high-flying ladies’ team, ranked fourth globally.

Failure to qualify in Marseille will likely send rugby in Canada into an abyss for a while.

Germany’s situation is little different. Failure to qualify will lose the ‘Schwarze Adler’ (Black Eagles) their funding from private juice drinks billionaire Hans-Peter Wild, who has spent around €20m over the past ten years assembling a team of administrators, coaches, players and facilities to move the game forward in Germany.

But a fight with a union administration labelled as ‘amateurish’ by Wild led him to pull his funding around a year ago, upon which his players were no longer available to the union. The dream seemed over.

Then a back door opened when Spain, Romania and Belgium were all punished for fielding ineligible players and Germany were given the remaining repechage spot. Wild coughed up €300,000 “to give (the players) the chance to fulfil their dream”. Some of the money was spent on a short-term contract for Mike Ford.

Wild has also promised to continue his sponsorship to the tune of €2m annually if the administration can find three other sponsors who will do the same. World Cup qualification would greatly ease this process of course, but failure would likely see the end of it all – meaning the assembled administrators, coaches, players and facilities would all be made redundant and Germany’s rugby would be set back a decade, at least.

Livelihoods, dreams, and millions will all be on the line in Marseille on Saturday. Perhaps, of all the games this weekend, this one will be the most important.

Loose Pass compiled by Lawrence Nolan