We have to stop planned physical attacks on rugby players

What is happening to the great game of rugby? Watching the game over the past few years, I am beginning to feel that rugby as we knew it and loved it will soon be no more.

It has become full of rage where a big man is not his own man until he becomes angry.

Guys built like tree trunks — lumbering mounds of flesh and muscle — have taken control of the game. The laws of behaviour have yielded to mass energy and power, power wielded by abnormal strength, and energy and power, mostly in its most clumsiest.

As exhibited by the French last week where five of our guys were injured by a what looked like a concerted effort by the French to target what might be a danger to them, their game had nothing to do with fair play, and the only answer to Ireland’s class was nuclear warfare.

I’m afraid the performance of some of these refereeing officials will eventually cause a death on the pitch.

A new move has been allowed to creep into the game. As happened last week again, a player can now be tackled in two halves.

He is attacked by one opposition from waist up and by another from the waist down, both opposition often going in different directions.

You don’t go around any more, you go through. Any man under 18 stone can be broken in two.

Censure can be invoked after a referee has issued a card, red or yellow, and relative punishment can doled out to the offender.

However, it can often result in acquittal while the unfortunate victim is sidelined for long periods while receiving medical help.

So what about that assault that goes by the referee, infringements that only we as TV watchers can see?

May I suggest a simple knuckle rap:

Within hours of a game, let there be an impartial triumvirate to examine the game and on agreement by majority, let the yellow or red card be issued.

Let the application of censure continue, but for the next game, the yellow starts his game after ten minutes and the red is not allowed on the pitch?

Or is that too simplistic a solution from a lover of the game?

Ted Emery

Fountainstown

Co Cork.