David Campese exclusive: Wallabies legend calls for ‘simplicity’ after ‘unedifying’ Six Nations controversy

As controversy reigned at the end of two recent French games, versus both Scotland and Italy, the referee systems used by World Rugby have come under criticism, more so for the process and structure than the performance of the individuals concerned.

What can rugby do to remove these points of contention and thus simply an incredibly complex game? Planet Rugby’s James While caught up with all time great, former Wallaby winger David Campese, to get the perspective of one of the sport’s finest entertainers.

“It’s quite interesting that if you go back in time because the amateur game made things very easy. You’ve never had any controversies like those we get now because so much complication has been added with the TMO, slow-mo impact replays and the intense scrutiny of social and traditional media,” Campese said.

“I mean, no one plays rugby in slow motion. You can’t go and show slow motion tackles or impacts as they’ll look a lot worse than the actual real-time incident and I believe that’s creating an issue.

Entertainment business

“World Rugby have to realise we are in the entertainment space and in that business if you don’t entertain in a simple and compelling way, especially in countries like Australia where we got four football codes competing for eyeballs, you’re toast.

“People go elsewhere and that’s not good for us in Australia. I believe New Zealand is struggling too with the competition from American football and basketball. There’s more availability of choice for the watcher now and I just think that we need to entertain to get those fans watch them today. And as part of that, I think the laws are too complicated.”

With Scottish voices still frustrated about the closing moments of the Six Nations match against France where it looked for all money that Sam Skinner had crossed the line and touched down, Campese believes that the complexity of the law and the communication between TMO and on-field team relies too much on protocol over common sense.

“I don’t think there’s many that don’t believe that Skinner didn’t score, and I was amazed at the verbal oscillations between the TMO and the on-pitch team. The first shout was yes, try. Then the TMO changed his mind and the referee interjected, but this was all down to fulfilling the protocols of the questions asked for World Rugby,” he said.

“At no point was there any application of common sense or rugby logic. We ended up with a protracted debate that was unedifying and took away from the drama of those wonderful last few minutes.

“For me, the referee needed to take some more responsibility there and I think that it’s easy to abdicate the on-field call for the opinion of someone standing miles away watching a screen. As an official you’re a metre away from the action and every bit of rugby logic told us that was a score.

Italy penalty

“You then get the chaotic scenario a round later with Italy and the tee situation. Firstly, the field was littered with ‘waterboys’ and this is becoming far too regular occurrence. Get rid of them off the pitch; the ref was blindsided at one point because of one of the carriers and that didn’t assist him, although I want to caveat this by saying Christophe Ridley had an exceptionally good game outside of those last moments.

😱 An agonising finish to an eventful #GuinnessM6N clash! #FRAvITA pic.twitter.com/R6MlXpafCt

— Planet Rugby (@PlanetRugby) February 25, 2024

“We then end up with shot clock pressure and a controversy about the charge down, two things that can easily be removed from the game. We talk about attracting new watchers to the sport; imagine telling your Mum that there’s different charge down situations for a penalty or a conversion!

“Just make it the same for both, one way or the other, and remove complexity from the situation. With regard to the shot clock, again we’re adding ANOTHER law in where you don’t need one – simplicity is all!

“Personally, I’d allow the charge for both a penalty and a conversion – it adds drama. People talk about the Cheslin Kolbe moment against Thomas Ramos in the France v South Africa match, it was theatre, and very intelligent rugby from Kolbe who clearly knew Ramos’ routine from playing with him at Toulouse and against him with Toulon. But by allowing it for both, you simplify the laws, which is what we need to do.

“Let’s get consistency in the advantage laws too. Take the Mum analogy again; how do you explain an endless advantage in a 22 that we see regularly over a two or three phase advantage (the norm) in your own half? Make it simple – three phases and any advantage is over but allow the player in possession to call for his own advantage if they want it over and above play on, job done.”

‘Captain’s review’

Although Campese is a man for simplicity, as a keen cricket fan he also recognises the drama that reviews bring in cricket. With so many marginals seen in rugby now, he believes that the TMO’s focus should be on foul play but that a ‘captain’s review’ could be a compelling addition to the laws.

“Whilst I do want simplicity in the laws overall, I also want entertainment and I feel rather than letting TMOs call marginals all the time, a captain’s review – two per match – would add the drama and be relatively clear for the fans to understand. Again, the three-phase rule applies – that’s as far as you’d want to go back – but I would like to see the challenge available at Test level.

“Lastly, whilst we all want to see scrummaging and we all value the wonderful ethos of rugby to offer so many sizes and shapes of people to play the game, let’s simplify the scrum offences. For me, remove all penalty offences until the ball is in. And, after that, once the half-back or eight touches the ball, all scrum penalty offences are over. (offside by the other half-back is NOT a scrum offence!).

“It’s quite ridiculous that a marginal binding problem will give the same offence outcome as a clothesline tackle and I, like many, am bored senseless with seeing endless resets, endless scrum penalties and no emphasis on restarting the game. Free kick the first offence and crack on, that’s how you get momentum into the game and stop the scrum snorefests that blight the game.”

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