Rugby: SBW's All Blacks' ban another fine mess for game

Sonny Bill Williams receives a red card during the second test defeat to the Lions. Photo / Brett Phibbs

When is a game of rugby not a game of rugby? When a World Rugby disciplinary committee decides it's not, it seems. Sonny Bill Williams won't be the only one confused about this latest intervention from the sport's governing body.

Williams, banned for four matches for his shoulder charge to the head of British & Irish Lions wing Anthony Watson in the second test in Wellington, will not be available to play in the first Bledisloe Cup test in Sydney on August 19 because, in essence, the All Blacks warm-up match against Counties and Taranaki isn't considered a proper game.

That is the finding of a committee including two former Wallabies David Croft and John Langford.

The irony is that Williams would definitely had played in that match at Pukekohe's Ecolight Stadium on August 11 in order to prepare himself for the rigours of the test at ANZ Stadium at week later.

He is unlikely to have played in a pre-season match for Counties against North Harbour, one of those counted for his ban (Williams missed the third test and the Blues final match of the season against the Sunwolves in Tokyo), all of which puts World Rugby's farcical ban system into the spotlight once again.

Under World Rugby's laws, all games are considered equal. In the organisation's eyes, Williams turning out for his Puni club at the Memorial Ground on the outskirts of Pukekohe (for which he has never played, and in fact does not field a premier 1 team) is the same as him running out for the All Blacks on Eden Park.

This anomaly needs to be tidied up. We've seen it before, of course, memorably with former All Blacks hooker Andrew Hore. In the opening minutes of a test in Cardiff in 2012, Hore clocked Wales lock Bradley Davies from behind - an act apparently not seen by the match officials but for which Hore was later suspended for five weeks.

He missed the following week's test against England at Twickenham, but served three-fifths of his ban by not turning out for the Highlanders in their three pre-season matches, even though he was unlikely to have played in them anyway due to the All Blacks' leave requirements.

In other sports, such as football, any ban is served at the same level in which the offence occurred. In other words, commit a bad foul in a club match and you serve your time by missing club matches.

That may not work in rugby, however. It would be difficult to stomach seeing a player banned for eye gauging in a test, say, and then having him run out a week later for his club.

Maybe the details of the ban should be set at the time of sentencing. Williams' hearing was held on July 2, the day after the test at Westpac Stadium, yet only now, nearly four weeks later, do we - and more importantly the All Blacks and Williams himself - have clarity over when he can play.

Williams will be available for the All Blacks in the second Bledisloe Cup test in Dunedin on August 26.

Couldn't that have been made clear a little earlier?

Another question; if the All Blacks game against Counties and Taranaki isn't considered a game, is Williams then free to play in it?