Loose Pass: World Rugby set to ‘outlaw’ latest Springboks innovation and what has made this Lions tour ‘hallow’

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with multiple aspects around South Africa’s new play designs and strategies, some other notes from the round of Tests and the lamenting the loss of the dirt-trackers…

Rassie carries on SA innovation tradition

Two Doctors, two innovators, two men never afraid to take on the establishment and to win, whatever it takes. Two South Africans. Coincidence? Hardly. The most competitive nation on earth simply breeds such minds. It is what makes them good.

When Italy’s forwards refused to commit to rucks and instead charged round to England’s side of the ruck, flapping their arms as though attempting to take off, it was the brainchild of then-coach Brendan Venter, who noticed the loophole in the laws and took full competitive advantage. Anything to win. Rassie Erasmus is no different.

It did not take long at the time for World Rugby to respond to a tactic that, although innovative, would clearly have turned games into regular farce had the loophole not been closed. So how long will it take for World Rugby to respond to Rassie’s innovative bits of fun on Saturday. Do they need to? And crucially: is this actually disrespectful or just innovation?

Depends on the point of view, obviously, but we’d wager that one thing at least is about to happen within the next few days: namely that the lifting of any player on the pitch is about to be outlawed for anything other than at line-outs. Whatever the debate about respect v innovation, Nigel Owens got it spot on when he noted that on its simple technicalities it gives the attacking side an undue advantage because the defence will not be able to touch the player or his lifters before the lifted player comes to ground, making it virtually impossible to defend or compete as the maul is then formed.

Whether, or indeed how, World Rugby will respond to the deliberate concession of a scrum at a restart is perhaps a little more vague, but in view of the way the game’s flow would be potentially interrupted, we can foresee that tactic going the same way as deliberately kicking restarts into touch to end a match as Fred Michalak infamously did against Wales in 2010: i.e., the opposition gets the fair chance – in this case via a scrum or line-out – that it would have had, had the restart been carried out normally.

Yet in this particular case, perhaps World Rugby could use the moment to address the problem of players straying in front of the kicker, which happens so often in high level rugby that it is almost laughable. When Manie Libbok kicked the restart, Andre Esterhuizen was clearly, obviously and deliberately a good metre in front of him. Should this not be offside? Especially if he plays the ball. After all, players in open play who are in front of a kicked ball are offside. Why should restarts not be any different? Perhaps World Rugby can use this moment to start enforcing this law a little harder.

Curiosity piqued by both moments in terms of rugby technicalities. But the other view of both moments is that it was disrespectful. Was it?

It’s much more nuanced. Clearly, there is an argument for insisting that coaches take the perceptions of loopholes to World Rugby and asking the question about what would be legal or not, whether it would be acceptable and such, as opposed to messing about with experiments during a high-profile Test match. Yet how else are teams to compete if they are not allowed to innovate within the definitions of the laws? Must every competitive strategy be run past officials before it is inflicted upon the opposition?

It’s notable that fewer have passed the ‘disrespect’ barb to the open play lift than they have to the restart shenanigans; which seems about right, as the restart was such a blatant misuse of what that particular aspect of the game is for. So blatant was it, in fact, that we also think Andrew Brace should have penalised the Boks for the somewhat cloudy ‘act contrary to good sportsmanship’ law.

Maybe that will be the outcome, that such tactics are penalised. And we’re sure the open play lift will be outlawed soon. But in the meantime, let’s also appreciate the fact that the game’s laws and lawmakers are being fully tested; the end product can only be better.

Notes from the other Tests

My word, Ben Curry was lucky to only get yellow against Argentina. He stood upright, braced himself, and his arms never left his side. Never mind that his opposite number was bent into the contact, the technique was as poor as you could imagine and was never going to end in anything other than a brain-rattling collision of the exact kind the game is trying to snuff out.

France took a beating; New Zealand were much better value this week, a bit of rust shaken off. Yet it is worth also bearing in mind, this was the first time those French players had played together. Imagine how good they’d be if they played together regularly?! France has some immense depth at the moment.

The Portugal v Ireland match was a tremendous anti-climax. Nice that it happened, much less so that Ireland’s B side can stick a hundy on a country that was so impressive at the last World Cup.

Yet another round of headlines claiming that Fiji beating a tier one nation is an upset or a surprise. How can losing to the current Fiji team be a surprise? Especially when short, as Scotland were, of a number of front-line Test players? More respect due to Fiji please.

Congratulations to Wales for shaking that ugly monkey off the back. The start of a turnaround though? The jury is still out there, but there’s no disguising the emotional commitment of the players, which is very much a start.

The loss of the dirt-trackers has harmed the Lions tour

Granted, it’s a squad overflowing with class and competition for places everywhere. But the lack of both an obvious dirt-tracker itinerary and identity has harmed this Lions tour slightly.

In part, that has also been due to the quality of the opposition, which has been badly diluted by the lack of all the Australian Test players, while the all-star invitational teams have been a bit of a joke. But one of the great traditions of Lions tours gone by has been witnessing the reactions on the pitch of those selected the Wednesday before the first Test (there is no midweek match before the first Test this tour), as well as witnessing the emergence of the willing and able of the midweek team as ambassadors for the touring party while the Test stars get on with it.

The tour has clearly been one of the most glitch-free, professional and – on the pitch – successful there has been. And yet the steady erosion of so much of what goes on around it, as well as the brevity of the tour itself before the Test series begins, has still left it feeling a little hollow.