Ex-referee offers radical solution to limit ‘near obsession’ with pick and drives and wades into Jan-Hendrik Wessels controversy
Dan Sheehan scoring for the British and Irish Lions and, inset, Jan-Hendrik Wessels
Retired Test referee Owen Doyle has called on World Rugby to bring in a radical ruling to limit the number of pick and drives that happen in a match.
Officials thought that the introduction of the goal-line drop-out would restrict pick and drives near the try line, but the Irishman claimed this idea has not been a success and has offered up a very different solution.
Concerned by the number of head injuries in the game with how picking and driving players lead with the head, Doyle has insisted it is time for a rethink. If he had his way, he would limit the number of successive pick and drives to three in any sequence of play.
That would force teams who have the ball to be more creative in what they do with it, and also reduce the number of pick and drive collisions where the ball carrier is leading with his head down and vulnerable to sustaining knocks to the head.
“It has done nothing of the sort…”
Writing in The Irish Times ahead of the November international window which this Saturday sees Ireland play New Zealand in Chicago and England host Australia in London to name but two of the scheduled matches, Doyle suggested about head injury assessments: “It is becoming well nigh impossible for the human eye to observe which players need to be assessed, even with the assistance of replays.”
This observation became Doyle’s cue to delve into his thoughts about the goal-line drop-out and what he labelled the “near obsessions” teams have with the pick and drive tactic.
“We have been living for some time now with the goal-line drop-out. Introduced to reduce the number of pick and drives close to the goal-line, it has done nothing of the sort.
“Ireland’s Dan Sheehan is a marvellous player, a generational hooker in the making. In pick and drive scenarios, in line with common practice, Sheehan leads with his head, which means his brain is taking repeated hits.
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“Repetitive sub-concussive impacts to the head do have potential for long-term brain damage, but they do not demonstrate the typical effects of concussion.
“England hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie also goes head first; and has had no issue in knocking himself senseless with a tackling technique which has involved using his head, instead of his arms.
“The pick and drive tactic has become a near obsession in the game. It doesn’t really matter if a player gets held up over the goal-line; the ball will regularly be returned to his team via the subsequent drop-out.
“The attack plan is to eventually pull in so many defenders that space opens up out wider, when the ball will be sent into these channels. It needs more thought, but there is an argument for restricting it to three pick and drives in any sequence of play. While it all counts as ball-in-play time, it can hardly be called ‘quality’ time.”
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Doyle also referenced the past week’s major disciplinary controversy, the red card for Connacht player Josh Murphy that was overturned with Bulls front-row Jan-Hendrik Wessels instead given a lengthy suspension.
“The red card controversy in the Connacht v Bulls match, unsurprisingly, grumbles on,” he wrote. “The hearing has rescinded the red for Connacht’s Josh Murphy, and handed Bulls’ Jan-Hendrik Wessels a hefty nine-week ban for interfering with Murphy’s nether regions.
“The cameras did not supply proof, so the judiciary acted on the balance of probabilities, following interviews with both players, and the citing commissioner, Ireland’s Peter Ferguson.
“I would have thought that’s the job of those who sit on the bench, but the displeased Bulls are mulling over an appeal. Perhaps they might tell us why they think Murphy so very suddenly turned on Wessels.”
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