Ah, rugby – the game protecting some players but not others, and certainly not itself.
The game's earnest – but hugely flawed – efforts to stop the runaway train of concussion is, in the process, creating second-class citizens in rugby: tacklers.
That's the only conclusion to be drawn after the second test lunacy – the red card (and three weeks' suspension) given to Angus Ta'avao after he and Irish centre Garry Ringrose accidentally, horrifically, banged heads. It was the strangest red card ever, even weirder than unconscious Welsh lock Huw Richards being revived to be sent off when he copped some manual correction from Buck Shelford after Richards punched All Black lock Gary Whetton in the 1987 World Cup.
Rugby's pooh-bahs, so keen to avoid legal challenges and assaults on their bank balance by aggrieved players with wee dementia problems, have brought in laws which regularly penalise the wrong people, diminishing the game. The laws protect the ball carrier; fair enough. But not tacklers – and they are in the most danger and are the most penalised and carded.
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The 1500-game study by World Rugby from 2013-2015 concluded 76 per cent of head injuries occur in the tackle – with 73 per cent suffered by the tackler. A later study by England's RFU revealed only 20 per cent of concussions were suffered by the ball carrier, 47 per cent by the tackler and the rest through accidental collisions, like at the breakdown…and like Ringrose-Ta'avao.
Ta'avao's red card, according to the laws, was perfectly valid. But while the intention may be honourable, the law is crazily incompetent – as proved in the twin tests in Dunedin and Brisbane last weekend and again this weekend.
Referee Wayne Barnes issues a yellow card during the third rugby test played at Sky Stadium in Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell.
Ta'avao was one of four players taken off with head knocks, all tacklers. In the Australia-England match, Wallaby fullback Jordan Petaia was concussed in the third minute while tackling. England lock Mauro Itoje followed later, also getting his head in the wrong place. Sam Underhill departed after an attempted tackle. This weekend, Wales' Dan Lydiate and South Africa's Cheslin Kolbe both groggily quit after head knocks while tackling.
The only ball carrier affected was the All Blacks' Brodie Retallick – a head clash with Irish prop Andrew Porter uncannily similar to the Ringrose-Ta'avao incident. It is beyond explanation as to why Ta'avao the tackler got a red card and Porter only a yellow – but such inconsistency is another reason the game is losing fans.
Tacklers are a serious weakness in rugby's anti-concussion campaign. It's like this (admittedly crude) comparison: two cars on collision course on the road, both equally culpable of poor driving and decision-making. One driver has a seat belt on. The other has no seat belt and is wearing a beanie. After they collide, Mr Beanie is charged with not wearing a seat belt and dangerous driving, once he's out of hospital.
You see the problem: contact sport, 100kg-plus athletes running at speed, capable of elusive manoeuvres without sacrificing pace. Anyone who criticises the All Blacks (or anyone else) for faulty tackle technique needs first to acknowledge they know stuff-all about the speed and power of the modern game at test level and the split seconds available for decision-making.
What can rugby do? It has lawsuits from former players massing. It can hardly hand out red cards to ball carriers for trying to run through tacklers or evade them with sudden movements. All it can do is stick further fingers in the concussion dyke. But for every action there is a consequence, and the upshot for rugby is that it is increasingly less watchable. Dangerously so.
I mean, why would anyone want to watch the coming World Cup if it is likely to be decided by an accidental head clash and red cards? It's like paying out good money to see the Rolling Stones in concert – only to see Mick Jagger red-carded by the local council for excessive hip movements.
No sport (or the Stones) can survive long by sending off stars when they are not really at fault. In Ringrose-Ta'avao, no malicious intent was involved – and yet it influenced the result, bringing anti-climax and frustration. It's a ridiculous and harmful situation for any international sport.
Rugby needs to conquer new markets, attract new fans globally. Hard, when a collision sport begins assigning blame to accidental collisions, affecting – some say wrecking – key clashes. The concussion lawsuit may clear muddy waters. But that will take years; in the meantime, the game can't afford to let its appeal wane further from an already low point.
Late last year, this column recommended law changes which might help lessen head injuries and concussions. It's time to try; time to come up with a better solution than Ta'avao being told he was sent off as he walked off the field, staunching the blood from a head wound he didn't see coming. What about his chances of developing dementia?
Even if tacklers are somehow safeguarded, protection leading to the potential extinction of the game doesn't really help; it seems more than a little counter-productive. It's rugby's biggest test.
