Martin Devlin: Give World Rugby the red card

COMMENT:

If anyone at this World Cup needs the red card, it's the bozos who run World Rugby.

Perhaps with the exception of vice-pres Agustin Pichot, who with his radical thoughts on future policing of the offside line, the only one of these fish-heads who even seems willing to confront the major problems confounding the game.

As far as the on-field red card circus goes though, it's clear and obvious the game's governing body came into this tournament without a tried and true plan - and that largely is what's causing the chaos. Players who commit illegal head-high tackles deserve every punishment they get, that's not the issue.

The problem is the incompetent way the rules have been and are being enforced. So far this has been the sum total of WR's "plan":

Week 1 - publicly criticise your refs and tell the world they're not doing a very good job.
Week 2 - privately criticise their decisions to coaches and endorse those people going public with their gripes (e.g. Joe Schmidt on Angus Gardiner).
Week 3 - celebrate the fact there have now been more red cards issued in Japan than the previous four tournaments combined AND we still haven't even finished the pool matches!

As administrators it's their job to get this situation under control. Because, if it's not, then whose job is it? You cannot spend a whole year on fat salaries dropping the ball on your League of Nations plans before patting yourselves excessively on the back over ditching the word "Women" from future WCs and thinking you're setting some international precedent.

It's a marketing gimmick you idiots and all of us know it is.

Now you've got a refereeing/rulebook crisis going on that threatens to derail the very matches that are the pinnacle of your sport and your response has been
what exactly - to publicly and privately castigate your own officials?

With many questions to answer the only thing we know for sure is that WR will run for cover. Because who is WR? Who, Pichot aside, even are these fish-heads? Will anyone connected to the organisation even show their face? Will any of them ever front a press conference and tackle these issues? Will any of these nameless faceless clueless bozos even try and justify their position?

The answer is NO.

They take, and continue to take, fans, sponsors and broadcasters for granted. They scoff at the very people who are the stakeholders of their sport, the same people that appoint them to and keep them in their fatcat admin jobs.

So no matter how frustrated you get with the rules, no matter how upset you get with the inconsistencies and wrecked games as a result of the various interpretations, save a large part of your wrath for the men who run World Rugby. If anyone at this tournament deserves a red card it's them.