Spiro Zavos
IN the 17th and 42nd minute of the bruising Test between the All Blacks and the Springboks at Eden Park, the referee, Frenchman Romain Poite, issued Bismarck du Plessis yellow cards. Two yellows, in the arithmetic of rugby, make a red card.
On Monday the IRB issued a statement claiming that "it was incorrect for Poite to issue a yellow card to du Plessis" for the first incident. SANZAR's Judicial Officer Terry Willis, an Australian, supported the IRB saying that the tackle made by du Plessis on Dan Carter "was within the laws of the game". The second yellow card stands. But the red card is now removed from the disciplinary record of du Plessis.
In my opinion, the IRB and SANZAR were wrong about the first yellow card and probably wrong about the second. And as a consequence of these mistakes, a thuggish approach to playing rugby that is detrimental to the enjoyment of the game by the players and spectators has been endorsed. The tackle on Carter was made from an offside position. Commentator Justin Marshall called out: "I do think that shot was high." He retracted this when the incident was shown in slow-motion. The referee, metres away, was in no doubt the hit was illegal. He blew his whistle twice, signalling a serious incident. Carter lay crumpled, holding his shoulder. There was a melee. The TMO was asked to look only at the melee.
A tackle from an offside position is automatically illegal. When a player commits an illegality, which du Plessis did, and a player is injured or liable to be injured because of the dangerous nature of the tackle, it is virtually automatic a yellow card is handed out. The IRB charter gives the rationale for this: "It is perfectly acceptable … to be seen to be exerting physical pressure on an opponent … but not willfully or maliciously to inflict injury."
Maurice Heemro, a Cape Town player in the 1960s who was made an honorary Springbok in 2001, said of the incident: "Bismarck is a bully and, regardless of whether he used his arms or not, he went into that tackle from an offside position, with the intention of injuring him. It speaks of a cynical and a dirty style of play the Springboks have espoused for a long time."
Just after half-time, du Plessis, who was playing in a dominant mode, smacked his elbow into the throat and chest of Liam Messam. All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said after the Test: "I don't think it's legal to go around and put your elbow on someone's throat. The second one may well have been a straight red, without the first yellow."
The assistant referee who flagged this second offence was the Frenchman, Jerome Garces. He was the referee in a Test in 2012 between Italy and the USA when the American Paul Emerick smashed Luca Morisi before he received the ball. The tackle was legal. But the context in which the tackle was made (like the du Plessis tackle on Carter) was illegal play, which made the tackle illegal and reckless. Emerick was (correctly) given a red card.
What has this to do with the Wallabies? Next weekend they play the Springboks at Cape Town. The referee for the Test is Jerome Garces. He faces the dreadful prospect of trying to ensure that the Bismarckian method of "blood and iron" is kept within the laws of the game. He will be under enormous pressure not to do this from partisan local supporters. Garces knows, too, that he might not get much support from the IRB and SANZAR if he insists, as he has in the past, that foul play is appropriately punished.
The Springboks have the highest number of yellow cards and second-highest number of red cards in the 10 years of the card system. It's time for them to give away the thugby that diminishes their legacy.
