Loose Pass: Why punishing Michael Cheika does not ‘solve the problem’ and France ‘within their rights’ to make All Blacks tour decision
Leicester Tigers head coach Michael Cheika alongside Top 14 referee Luc Ramos.
This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with HIA-gate, France’s law change push and the latest rounds of overspill from the calendar…
The Cheik of it
So there we have it, some three months into the new gig at Mattioli Woods Welford Road, the dependably combustible Michael Cheika has lost his rag and found himself on the wrong side of the authorities as a result. Quelle surprise.
Except, tempting though it is to believe and easy though it may be to conceive, we’re not so sure that this is really how it is this time.
Instead, it’s probably worth considering that twice in the first three weekends of the new season the HIA protocols and the independent match doctor employed to enforce such have been thrown off course by issues notionally some considerable distance from their actual control, and that perhaps we ought to be working out how to do it better.
The case for Cheika’s defence rests upon it somewhat. Consider that the Leicester coach had just squeaked through a game by the proverbial skin of the teeth, a game with quite high importance potential in the context of the upcoming season, before he went to see the doctor about the confusion.
The doctor said Cheika was ‘irritated’. No, really? Cheika also had his arms crossed, made ‘intense eye contact’ and was dismissive and harsh speaking. Many within the game might tell you that especially after intense games, Cheika is rarely any different. And he’s certainly unlikely to be any different when said match was plainly affected by the confusion among the medicos about who should come off and when. Consider it from the coach’s point of view: an international player is taken off for an HIA, passes, comes back on, then is promptly yanked back off again with coach’s team chasing a four-point deficit away from home on the opening day of the season. Irritated and intense is probably the least you’d be feeling.
The explanation, which amounted to little more than ‘there was a bit of a mix-up’ is unlikely to have settled Cheika’s nerves or renewed his confidence in the process.
‘They don’t really want me to be in the league’ – Michael Cheika opens up on Premiership ban
Which is where the attention really ought to be. For it’s not just been this game, it was also the dreadfully unfortunate timing of a Wi-Fi outage which saw Tom Curry playing the rest of a half of rugby despite clearly being in dreamland for a few seconds. This time it was the player being assessed by a doctor, but not the official independent match doctor, and being allowed back on, before said official independent match doctor was able to assess him officially and independently.
Twice in three weeks, in an age where sensitivity over head injuries has never been more acute, yet the processes and protocols have completely broken down twice in 15 matches – that’s 14 per cent of the Premiership matches to date.
It’s the kind of thing that makes you hopping mad, but better to control yourself, better just fold your arms and focus on keeping the irritation inside as much as possible, lest you do or say something that could get you into trouble.
But censuring those who react as above does not, in this column’s view, solve the problem. Having a look at the HIA processes might be a better place to start.
Sense across the Channel
The latest raft of law change proposals from France are among the best set yet to grace the tables of the lawmakers in the mahogany-panelled World Rugby dining room.
Getting rid of the 20-minute red card certainly wins our vote (although it needs to be combined with some common sense when applying the head contact framework), as does the 30-second set-piece countdown clock which would mean no more faffing around by teams at scrum-time when they are holding a slender lead with 90 seconds to go.
But it is the substitute one which has piqued curiosity the most. Fewer subs allowed on, but more to choose from would make for some fascinating strategy (imagine Rassie limited to only six forwards, for example), although it would be unlikely to be a hit in the amateur game (everybody needs to play and all).
And the very best one? Stopping the clock between tries and the restart, so the kicker just does his thing. The NFL-style clock management games surrounding that are tiresome.
Plus ca change
And yet another June/July Test series becomes mired in controversy as a touring team refuses to take its strongest – on paper – squad because the club season and international calendar overlap. Or because the season is, in general, far too long and with far too much overlap.
France are perfectly within their rights to take whatever team they want to New Zealand next June. They are (almost) favourites for the Six Nations, have the world’s most vibrant and highest-quality league, have a squad depth that other countries can only dream of and domestically the depth of competitive excellence continues only to improve.
If a few seasoned Test players missing out on a long and close to meaningless tour at the end of a long and meaningful season helps the French develop in this direction, then so be it. Instead of focussing on the one team, why not focus on the way the calendar continues to grow and stop it doing so?
