Irish Examiner view: Rugby’s great jamboree has problems to solve

As Ireland limbers up for the Rugby World Cup, the sport must resolve not to let refereeing controversy and officials poring over TVs dominate the narrative

Rob Herring getting stuck in during Friday's Ireland Rugby Squad training session in Tours, France, ahead of the 2023 Rugby World Cup. Picture: Dan Sheridan/Inpho

When hosts France run out to tackle the All Blacks in the Stade de France in Saint-Denis this Friday night, they will usher in what could be the greatest World Cup in rugby history. And at the same time, it may be marked as a tournament the likes of which we will never see again.

The competition in 2019 — how distant and different those pre-covid, pre-Ukraine War, pre-inflation days now seem — was introduced by the kind of extreme weather event with which we have become uncomfortably familiar. The super typhoon Hagibis wiped out three of the group-stage matches.

Ultimately, South Africa were crowned as champions, defeating England and matching the number of titles achieved by New Zealand.

Ireland reached their customary quarter-final, and it is a mark of our progress at the level of the global game that this was viewed as disappointing, particularly the defeat to Japan in the qualifying rounds. Few who were in Shizuoka Stadium on that September night four years ago will forget the chants of “Nippon! Nippon!” echoing around the ground.

This time Ireland start as one of the favourites and they face off against Romania in Bordeaux next Saturday afternoon in a Pool B that includes other heavyweight opposition in the Springboks and Scotland. 

But it is the regulatory issues and, in particular, an increasingly difficult balance between player safety and automatic red cards for what could either be a reckless tackle or a split-second mis-timing, which threatens to seed this World Cup with controversy and ill feeling.

We have had dry runs with the suspensions of England players Billy Vunipola and, in particular Owen Farrell whose initial ban was overturned and then reimposed after an intervention by the governing body, World Rugby. This provoked several shades of differing uproar, some of it hugely unpleasant, on social media even prompting his father, Ireland’s coach Andy, to publicly condemn the “absolutely disgusting” circus surrounding his son.

All coaches and players heading to France want to know exactly where they stand in respect of high tackles and there is a clear and present danger that the new “bunker review” system, where a dedicated Television Match Official who will adjudicate on incidents referred to them, will produce the type of infuriating inconsistencies that have undermined the credibility of football’s VAR processes.

Rugby is a sport that has evolved into a high-speed contest where impressive human specimens collide with each other time and time again. If errors of judgement are automatically punished with match expulsion, then the game’s credibility will diminish, and with it public support for it as a spectacle.

The fact is rugby is a collision sport, and it is the cumulative consequence of multiple impacts over the course of a sporting life that produces what is now known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in certain individuals.

Some pro rugby matches feature more than 500 tackles per game, and the number of games per year is increasing all the time. That is one source of trouble that is being stored up for the future. In February a rugby player won €12m compensation in the English High Court after an opposing team member made a “red mist” challenge which fractured her spine and confined her to a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

That was in an amateur game. More than 200 former players have joined in a class action that accuses rugby governing bodies of failing to protect them against brain injuries. They include former British and Irish Lion and Wales captain Ryan Jones, England international and World Cup winner Steve Thompson, and former Wales international Alix Popham. The damages claim could exceed €350m. Rugby will not survive in its current form if they are successful.

It is likely more people than ever before will attend France 2023. The previous record is 2,477,805 in the UK in 2015. Many more will watch on TV. Net receipts will be the largest ever.

Ireland has a fighting chance of getting past the quarter-final and could win it. The sport must not shoot itself in the foot by letting refereeing controversy and hidden officials poring over TVs and delivering inevitable red cards dominate the narrative. This is a penalty that will not do anything to resolve the underlying perils of a close-contact game.

Scooted off

On trend, Paris was the first city to open its streets to for-hire electric scooters, and yesterday it became the first leading European capital to ban them with operators being given a hard deadline to withdraw 15,000 vehicles.

Tourists discovering Paris on board a hired scooter earlier this year. Paris was the first city to approve for-hire scooters, and has become the first major European city to ban them. Picture: Christophe Ena/AP 

The action follows a vote in the spring where 90% of the 103,000 Parisians who voted said they opposed the rental scooters which had provided an uncomfortable new element to public spaces where they jostled with walkers, cyclists, and drivers for pole position. Opinions hardened after fatalities in Paris and other cities.

The mayor, Anne Hidalgo, can at least say that she gave e-scooters, or “trottinettes” five years to win major public affection and can point to the advice of the comedian WC Fields in such circumstances: “If at first you don’t succeed then try, try and try again. Then quit. There’s no point being a damn fool about it.”

Up in the air

In a list of popular companies airlines rarely figure among anyone’s favourite. However, it’s difficult not to feel some sympathy for them, and the arguments put forward by industry leader Willie Walsh over this week’s travel fiasco which could cost them north of €110m.

While the operators should honour their compensation obligations for stranded travellers it seems unconscionable that the “world-beating” air traffic control company, which goes under the unlovely title of “Nats” should not contribute towards the disruption caused by their systems.

This week’s air travel chaos is a reminder that, for most, flying is an ordeal to be endured. While France is about to lead the way in scrapping low-cost air fares and incrementally taxing air travel — another example of political and bureaucratic over-reach — customers may start asking themselves whether any price is worth the aggravation and put more effort into alternative arrangements for leisure.