Donal Lenihan: Those running Italian rugby are not helping themselves

Wed, 02 Mar, 2022 - 06:00

I’ve a neighbour who loves watching rugby on the television but is often confused by the eccentricity of the laws. During my many walks throughout the Covid lockdown, I’d pass his house and he’d be waiting at the gate, looking for clarification on some issue he didn't understand in a game he’d watched.

Many of the queries would force me to pause, think about it for a while, before attempting to offer a plausible explanation as to why the referee had adjudicated in the manner he did. That is the problem with rugby. You could play or be involved in the game all your life yet, every now and then, you’re faced with a situation that forces you to ponder what exactly is the law in this scenario.

As a commentator and analyst on television and radio, I’m conscious of this and always try to demystify the game for the casual fan. Sunday’s Six Nations encounter against Italy came across as bizarre for many a hardened follower, not to mention the casual observer, when the Italians lost not one but two players after their reserve hooker, Hame Faiva, was sent off for a dangerous tackle on Ireland’s Dan Sheehan.

Faiva’s high hit is exactly the type of tackle World Rugby has been striving to eradicate from the game. With the increasing focus on concussion and its potential long term effects, the governing body is striving to reduce the height of the tackle. The consequence of anyone making shoulder contact in the tackle with the neck or head of an opponent will automatically result in a red card, regardless of intent.

The only mitigating factors taken into consideration in reducing the sanction from a red to a yellow card is the force of the blow or if the ball carrier dipped or fell just prior to engagement, dropping his body height at the last second, thus making it impossible for the tackler to adjust.

Faiva’s tackle on Sheehan had no mitigating factors, making it a very straightforward decision for impressive Georgian referee Nika Amashukeli. It’s what happened afterwards that caused the real confusion. Faiva was introduced off the bench as an injury replacement for starting hooker Gianmarco Lucchesi ten minutes into the game. Italy had started reasonably well and trailed Ireland 7-3 after a strong opening quarter.

With no other player available to fill the hooking role at the scrum after Fauve’s dismissal, Amashukeli was immediately required under law to declare uncontested scrums. A number of years ago, in the French Top 14 and Pro D2, there was a spate of teams pulling questionable injury strokes with their front row forwards when playing against teams with a far superior scrum.

Something had to be done to stop this practice as it was denying teams a central tenet of the game via underhand means. In order to counter this, the French trialled a law that forced the team requiring uncontested scrums to remove a player from their side as a consequence.

In the season following the introduction of this trial, the incidence of uncontested scrums across the top two French leagues reduced from over eighty to two. World Rugby later adopted the trial into law and it now applies worldwide in the professional game.

The law also requires every uncontested scrum to be manned by eight players from each side. Bear in mind that when a team loses a player to the sin bin for ten minutes, they can compete at scrum time with only seven players if they so wish as the scrum is still contested.

It was clear on Sunday that the majority of players, on both sides, were unaware of the law, which in itself reflects just how unusual an occurrence it is now in the professional game, with Irish captain Peter O'Mahony along with his irate Italian counterpart Michele Lamaro, seeking clarification on what was actually happening.

When Italy were reduced to 12 men after flanker Braam Steyn was yellow-carded on the 75th minute, it meant Italy had to defend off scrums with a backline of four, facing up against seven Irish attackers. No surprise therefore that Ireland registered two more tries in that closing stretch.

It’s fascinating to think that the Italian management didn’t seem to fully appreciate the implications of declaring, after Faiva’s dismissal, that they had no player capable of playing hooker when asked for clarification by Amashukeli. Once that was confirmed and uncontested scrums were required, the referee had no option but to remove another Italian player from the field.

Recognising that replacement loose-head prop Ivan Nemer may have had some experience operating at hooker - the quality of his throwing to the line out would certainly suggest he had - the Italians sought to reverse their decision in a discussion between Lamaro and Amashukeli coming off the field at half time. The officials had no option but to inform the Italian captain that the decision couldn’t be reversed at that stage.

The bottom line here is that, again, it was Italian indiscipline that led to this unfortunate sequence of events. Players must know by now that any shot to the head of an opponent will result in a red card. Italy have a history with indiscipline at this level and it has to be addressed.

Against Ireland at Musgrave Park on Friday night, their impressive U20 side made life impossible for themselves when three separate players received yellow cards. Having defeated England 6-0 in their previous encounter, it’s clear that this is a very talented U20 side with a number of players capable of rising to the next level. They have to learn, however, that having players off the field for 30 minutes of action gives them no chance of competing against the top teams.

A 51-point annihilation is about the last thing Italian rugby needed last Sunday with their very existence in the Six Nations coming under scrutiny after a 35th consecutive tournament defeat in Dublin. With difficult assignments yet to come against Scotland and Wales, the prospect of yet another whitewash is virtually guaranteed.

Just at a time when the excellent work being done by former IRFU development coach Stephen Aboud in structuring a productive academy system and pathway for young Italian players is bearing fruit, the Italians are in the process of dismantling a proven system. That seems ludicrous.

In conversation with former Zebre coach Michael Bradley last week, he opened my eyes to the difficulty in integrating some of these promising underage players into the two professional setups. Bear in mind that Italy beat England at U20 level a few weeks ago, along with taking big scalps in South Africa and Argentina at recent U20 World Cup tournaments.

On these pages last Saturday, veteran Italian rugby journalist Paolo Ricci Bitti confirmed as much when confirming that “the academies need to be strengthened and better integrated with the clubs rather than being dismantled as is currently happening. Thanks to the patient work of Aboud in developing the academies, after doing the same work in Ireland, we’ve come as high as seventh place in the world rankings”.

The problem with the FIR, the Italian governing body, is that the president is all-powerful. Last March, they voted in Marzio Innocenti, in succession to Alfredo Gavazzi who was in office since 2012. The new man is making wholesale changes, not least dismantling the proven academy model, set in place by Aboud, which makes no sense.

Up to this point, I had some sympathy for the plight of Italian rugby and the threat posed by South Africa’s long-term vision in joining the Six Nations. If that happens, international rugby in the southern hemisphere will be severely hit and the fallout could be catastrophic.

At the very least, I need to reconsider my thought process on this issue. After all, if the powers that be in Italian Rugby continue to do absolutely nothing to help themselves, why should we bother?