At the end of the Six Nations this year I attended a World Rugby summit meeting with every coach and chief executive from all the leading nations around the globe. Among the key topics of discussion were the direction of travel for the game as we head towards the World Cup. If I could sum it up in one word it would be this: speed.
Speed, flow and ball in play time. We all want to see a quick game, we want fans to get more out of every game they watch. In the Premier League this season we’re seeing added time of 11 or 12 minutes due to a recognition that there is not enough ball-in-play time and rugby is no different. Put simply, how can we speed things up? It is not the introduction of new laws, just the greater application of existing ones.
There is a misconception that referees or lawmakers sit around and dictate how things should be. The vision and the direction of the game is produced by the coaches and referees are happy to implement the laws as guided by those coaches and all the key stakeholders. You will never get unanimous approval but the majority of people are, in theory, happy with the direction of our sport.
When we show our game to the world, when we will have millions of people watching blockbuster matches on the opening weekend of the World Cup, we want them to have the best experience. When we talk about tempo, not everyone wants to see a lightning quick game and there are so many ways to play the sport but within that, we do want to see a level of intensity, we don’t want to see time-wasting or people being laboured in their process. We just want to get as much out of our game as possible.
Which is why, when I think of the trends that we will see at the World Cup, my immediate answer is tries. I’m convinced the top scorers in this tournament will end up as world champions. The best teams in the world average about four tries a game and so if your attack cannot muster 20+ points a game you are going to struggle.
What’s brilliant about that is that rugby is so cyclical. We saw in 2007 how South Africa kicked their way to victory and then at domestic and international level everyone tried to follow suit. It was a similar story in 2019 but over the past few years, with law tweaks allowing for fluidity and more phases, with coaches showing more ambition, we’ve seen a sea change.
South Africa are a great example. They still have the weapons with which they won in 2019 but they’ve added a clinical ability to score tries. Last Friday they put five on the All Blacks and if that’s not a sign of the direction in which the best teams in the world are going then I don’t know what is.
The bunker review system was also a hot topic at the World Rugby meeting and the feedback from the Super Rugby trial was overwhelmingly positive. There is no doubting the impact it will have on the World Cup and there is an inevitability that, in the opening matches of the tournament we are going to be talking about referees’ decisions and about red cards. As a coach, you just have to factor that potential disruption into your planning.
I hear a lot of talk about red cards and I think some of the language used is quite dangerous. I hear phrases like “flurry of cards” to describe red cards in the Premiership when there is an average of 300 tackles a game. Over 24 rounds, only 16 were deemed worthy of a sending off. I also think it is important to start looking at the red card in its most pure and distilled form. The red card is there to monitor foul play. It’s not there to act as PR for our game, to get more young boys and girls involved, to tell mums and dads that the game is safer than ever. It’s not there to increase participation or to protect us from litigation. It is to monitor foul play, which looks very different to what it used to 20 years ago. I have a great appreciation for protecting players and brain health but it is really important that we understand the reasons behind the issuing of red cards.
I look towards the World Cup and one mistimed tackle in round one could be the tournament over for someone. I think we’re seeing genuine mistakes, whether that’s from poor tackle technique, made worse under pressure or when players are fatigued, but you could see a quality player making a genuine mistake and that’s their World Cup over. I go back to last Friday night and Pieter-Steph du Toit’s yellow card against the All Blacks. He was put on review and all the while he looked devastated, knowing what that might mean for him. It wasn’t reckless, or out of control; it was marginally misjudged.
The minute there is a review you suddenly have millions of unofficial referees, in the stands or watching at home, including myself, applying their perceived knowledge as they try to work through the framework for sanctions. Inevitably there is a sense of subjectivity, you are going to get different outcomes and because referees are human there are going to be mistakes and frustrating inconsistencies. That said, referees are scrutinised far more than players and it is important to keep that in mind in the opening rounds of the tournament.
On the whole, I’m thrilled by the unpredictability that stalks this competition. It’s creating opinion and that’s what you want, this fever pitch noise around the World Cup. Sport should never feel predictable, it’s part of the essence of sport to feel unpredictable and the essence of that runs right through the tournament. And if it’s like that now, wait until we get to the quarter-finals.
