Loose Pass: Leinster are their own ‘greatest enemy’ and drawing the line on abusive ‘banter’
Sale Sharks forward Jonny Hill and Leinster back Ciaran Frawley.
This week, we will mostly be concerning ourselves with spectator scraps, TMO screen variations and the Munster charge…
Accountability needs to be everywhere
The details are not clear, so no judgement can be passed. But irrespective of what happens, a spectator grappling with a player is never a good look. Bringing the game into disrepute is sometimes overused, but not in this situation. Rugby does not need this in any way.
But was it only Jonny Hill? Is it only he who needs to be named and (maybe) shamed? Censured? Punished?
Spectators are starting to be called a little more to account at the moment. The person who gave Ugo Monye a filthy mouthful of racial abuse at Exeter is now named and facing prosecution. The spectator who gave Frank Lomani a similar mouthful in Melbourne a few weeks ago is extremely lucky not to be facing similar.
Those are racial slurs though, and are formally a hate crime. Clearly, there is a line to be drawn there. But where should that line start?
Your correspondent was once unfortunate enough to be sitting close to some Welsh fans during a game against England, whose level of temporary inebriation, crossed with the somewhat basic permanent level of sophistication, caused them to think that repeatedly chanting: “(insert England player here), you’re a load of ****,” might get under whichever player’s skin. It’s highly unlikely to. Rugby players are mentally tough people, of whom many coaches prior have also probably used the same evaluation of their skills. Does the line start to be drawn there? Hardly. It would be nice, but it’s just not realistic. Yet, is that really what we need from spectators?
Does it start when it comes to insults? Bad language? Or is it only hate speech? There always seems to be a line drawn for players not to snap at abusive spectators, yet often, there seems to be nobody willing to start drawing lines between what’s acceptable banter, what is unacceptable fan banter, and what is abuse.
Sometimes, spectators get away with such a lot of rubbish that you often wish the target of their abuse would snap and give said spectator a wake-up call. Or you are just left with an unpleasant rugby experience.
We’ll see what transpires of this one, but while the bottom line for players remains to not get involved, the bottom line for spectators should also be that paying an entry fee to watch these players play does not mean buying a licence to pepper them with abuse and insults.
Taking the crowd out of the equation further
Narbonne’s quest to get back to the PROD2 in France fell a single agonising point short in a playoff match against Montauban Sunday, in a game of French club rugby epitomised, as many are, by as colourful and raucous a spectatorship as you could wish for.
A tense game was marked by several moments of screen analysis by the match officials, who generally got the decisions spot on. What also seemed good is that we were able to use the TMO at all despite the Stade de la Mediteranee – a lovely old venue but hardly one of haut technologie – not being in possession of one of those giant screens.
The disadvantage, naturally, was that for each of the six times a decision needed reviewing or making, all three officials had to trot some way off the side of the pitch to do their stuff, including one comical moment when they arrived at the screen to see themselves on the screen, arriving at the screen.
But the advantage, particularly late on, was in the lack of crowd reaction that such big screen replays tend to encourage. One head contact decision, in particular, was borderline, yet the slow-motion replay was both damning and exonerating; the former because of the way the recipient of the tackle’s head (a Narbonne, so home player) snapped back in the collision, exonerating because it was clear to see that the initial contact had been arm-to-shoulder.
We all make an opinion quite quickly on slow-motion replays of head contacts, with home fans inevitably focussing on the potential that having the opposition a man down could create and baying for blood each time the replay is screened. It makes the moments fraught with tension all the more so, as fans will doubtlessly see far different to referees, without the benefit of knowledge of what goes on.
To that end, the chats between officials that are being broadcast on stadium loudspeakers help for clarity, but not to dissuade negative crowd emotions. To that end, it was nice to have the referees doing their job in relative peace, while all we had while they deliberated was the sounds of the competing brass bands.
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Leinster and Munster on a collision course
It’s increasingly hard to dissuade the notion that Leinster’s greatest enemies are currently themselves. Strange tactical tweaks in Cup Finals, late-game reversions from normal game-plan, over-elaborate rest schedules, and over-planned selections are all haunts of the past three or four years in which, despite their obvious excellence, have led to Leinster winning only one single solitary major title in the last three years.
Munster have won the same number, with a memorable march to the United Rugby Championship title last season by a squad littered with broken bodies but infused with indomitable spirit still fresh in the memory.
The contrast to Leinster’s schedules of player treatment could not be more stark even this season, with Munster embarking on an epic and victorious two-match tour of South Africa recently while Leinster chose to let two tour matches go by sending a much-weakened squad.
Looking at how this season is finishing, it’s difficult to escape the notion that the pair, and their contrasting schedules of player preparation and peak planning, are set to meet in the URC Final in a fortnight’s time. What a climax to the season that could be!