It’s been a busy weekend for me – and all in the name of rugby. Arrived in Cardiff on Friday night and guided some of the Irish journos around a few drinking establishments in town, but sadly they guided me to too many bottles of beer and I ended up paying for it the following morning! Note to self: don’t match Irishmen drink for drink – it can only end in a severe hangover.
As for the games on Saturday, I was delighted to see Italy beat France. They deserved a victory for the performances they’ve put in so far in this Six Nations. They should have beaten Ireland and if they had a consistent goalkicker they would have beaten Wales – not that I can fault Mirco Bergamasco’s efforts with the boot yesterday.
The Wales game was, of course, dominated by the try that shouldn’t have been. Yes, the ball Mike Phillips scored with wasn’t the one that had been kicked into touch but if the officials can’t spot that it’s hard to blame the players for chancing their arm. Touchjudge Peter Allan should never had told Jonathan Kaplan it was the same ball when he clearly didn’t know, but we’ll never know what the referee would have done if Allan had been honest.
Kaplan couldn’t have gone to the TMO because he can only rule on events ‘in the act of scoring’ and people will surely now be calling for the TMO to be allowed to adjudicate on events in the lead-up. I fear that this would lead to too many long delays in the game, however, as referees consult the video on events several phases back. And then that creates the problem of how to then restart the game if their was an error or offence. We want the game to flow and I think constant stoppages for TMO decisions around the field would damage the game.
This was an error by the touchjudge. Brian O’Driscoll wanted the referee to “cover all his bases” but in effect he did that. He asked his assistant, his assistant said it was the same ball and so he awarded the try – that’s all he is able to do. As for Allan, he’s unlikely to be seen in action at an International match for some time, if ever.
My weekend finished with a rather scrappy England-Scotland game at Twickenham (thanks to Stephen Jones for the lift from Cardiff). Yes, England one and are still on course for a Grand Slam thanks to Tom Croft’s try, but they hardly swept the Scots aside as expected. I thought it would be tighter than predicted and so it proved. Scotland have pride and defensively they were excellent, shutting down England when they looked dangerous. James Haskell impressed and, as much as it pains me to say it as I’ve never been a huge fan, so did Shontayne Hape.
If Mike Tindall is ruled out of next week’s game with Ireland because of injury, it will be interesting to see how Matt Banahan and Hape fare in midfield. Banahan looked good when he came on – he has power and pace and surprisingly deft hands too so he could cause Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy problems.
While the game was error-strewn and the sight of Kelly Brown – one of Scotland’s best players – being carried off on a stretcher is something no one likes to see, there were a few comical moments at Twickenham. First, a friendly fox made his way onto the pitch before kick-off and kept the crowd entertained as he managed to outfox (if you’ll forgive the pun) several officials trying to get him out of the ground.
Then midway through the second half a sudden cry of ‘Aah’ was heard over RefLink and referee Romain Poite was hobbling around for a couple of minutes before he stopped play because of his injury. Scotland coach Andy Robinson was fuming when he blew the whistle as Scotland had been in possession, but Poite simply couldn’t keep up with the play and had to go off.
After all the drama of this weekend, it’s hard to know how next week will top it – but with a Grand Slam up for grabs there’s sure to be plenty to keep us all entertained!
Tags: Matt Banahan, mike phillips, Six Nations, Twickenham
