This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with the apportioning of blame, Wales’ underlying problems and South Africa in Europe…
Collision on collision
Looking back, it almost seemed like a turning point in the game for Leinster. Caelan Doris was sent to reflect upon the errors of his ways early in the second half with Leicester still tenaciously clinging on to a one-score deficit.
Doris departed for 10, Leinster racked up a point a minute while he was gone and the Tigers’ resistance was ended. So all well that ended well, for Doris’ card epitomised everything misplaced about the current head contact protocols.
It’s not that Doris did not make contact with Jasper Wiese‘s head with his shoulder. He was higher than he ought to have been. But looking at the endless replays of the contact between them, it was nigh on impossible not to notice that on the other side of the contact, Wiese’s shoulder was busy thundering into Doris’ head.
Collisions with Jasper Wiese are rarely dominant for anybody other than Jasper Wiese and this one was no exception despite Doris’ best efforts. The practical result was that Doris took head contact from Wiese which was probably harder than Wiese took from Doris.
So why wasn’t Wiese sent as well? Well, obviously he was carrying the ball, duh. But he also dipped into the contact: Doris was said to be a little high, while Wiese was in the textbook carrying position: stooped slightly forward, shoulder braced for the crunch against whatever the poor tackler deems appropriate to put in the way. And if a would-be tackler gets his noggin boshed by 110kg of prime stampeding Springbok, well, that’s just bad luck for the tackler, right?
Watching the collision between the two at real speed, it was easy to imagine the impact force had Doris bent fully forward and received Wiese with his shoulder, a force which would surely have dissipated along Doris’ shoulders and spine, not to mention rattling his brain around in his head like the last smartie in the tube. And as we all know, the more that smartie is rattled around, the less smart it becomes.
But then of course, Doris’ smartie was rattled anyway; he was only spared the impact down the shoulders and spine. His tackle was, in our view and once he had correctly identified that Wiese was looking to bosh, the safest one he could have made.
The vilification of tacklers when it comes to head contact is occasionally correct, but only occasionally: sometimes the contact is a by-product of what is quite clearly the safest action for the tackler, as it was in this case. Are we really going to keep punishing tacklers for self-preservation? Sending players out of the game for mitigating their own risk?
Fortunately, Leinster did not pay a price for this, fortunately there was enough common sense on show for Doris not to see red, which was possible. But we really need some common sense to seep through into the tackle/collision protocols at the moment; as they are, they simply punish some tacklers for nothing.
Wales’ woes run increasingly deep
It’s not just the departures that are cutting Welsh rugby. The rumbles from the club game are increasingly ominous.
Stories of 100-point thrashings, pros, or mercenary journeymen, playing against amateurs, teams unable to put out sides and sporadic violence abound. This week, Llanelli RFC, one of the world’s most storied names, opted to pull out of the Welsh club Premiership next season, ostensibly to save money ahead of starting as a part of the WRU’s new eight-team semi-professional league in 2024, but the move has left other teams frustrated, particularly Pontypool, which has been denied promotion to the Premiership for the past two years while Llanelli has struggled.
Both the departures and the end of a generation are hitting the elite game, with emerging star Joe Hawkins possibly ruled out of international contention by his signing for Exeter and Will Rowlands facing the same quandary because of his move to Paris. Ross Moriarty’s move to Brive has set a tone too; with Moriarty openly suggesting that he is better off elsewhere.
Despite the positivity surrounding the recent revamping of the WRU, the size of the task awaiting the new CEO seems to increase each and every day: he, or she, will have an unenviable challenge.
South Africa’s exit
So, with the Stormers and Sharks exiting stage left at the weekend, it’s the right time to pose the question: has the South African involvement in Europe been a success?
The over-riding impression is yes, but with enormous caveats. The logistics have been nightmarish for both they and their opposition in an era when player workload is increasingly looked at as something to be reduced, not exacerbated. Travel times and routes have been tough enough to render a large number of the contests competitively flawed – not least the knockout matches involving South African teams over the past two weekends.
Fans both sides of the equator have been unimpressed after seeing their teams labour with 18-hour flights clogging up the muscle fibres, but the benefits are also apparent.
There’s little doubt that the quality of rugby has been enhanced however, as well as the deepening of player experience. The flaws in the competition are for the administrators to correct: a better-designed competition with them in is hugely-desirable.
RIP
In more formative years, Loose Pass was fortunate enough to receive a week of instruction in coaching from Ian McIntosh. Several others who were instructors on the course were more technical, several others perhaps more up-to-date with specific knowledge.
None, not one, could fill a room with the waves of infectious enthusiasm and simple enjoyment of life and the game of rugby as he. Watching his session with a group of youngsters was like watching them all get plugged in to a current of excited energy – and his effect on us older heads was no different. Rugby is immensely poorer for his passing.
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The article Loose Pass: The Caelan Doris-Jasper Wiese collision, Wales’ problems run deep and South Africa’s first season in Europe appeared first on Planetrugby.com.
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