Peter Jackson: Leinster and Johnny Sexton running out of time
As if that’s not bad enough, Johnny Sexton might have beaten them to it amid the scrum wreckage at The Rec on Saturday, a defeat leaving Leinster to topple Toulon’s empire as the only way out of being scuttled in the harbour of Napoleon’s old naval base. Had Sexton’s valiant long-distance penalty not fallen short, Bath would have had cause for referring it to the TMO.
Nobody in the Test arena applies more painstaking care to the art of place-kicking than Sexton. His meticulous preparation takes time and in the old days when the game tended to be a law unto itself, he could take as long as he wanted without any referee daring to give him the hurry-up.
There was no law against it. Now, and this may come as a shock, there is: Law 21.4 section C, entitled: No Delay.
“The kick must be taken within one minute from the time the player indicates the intention to kick at goal,’’ it states. “The intention to kick is signalled by the arrival of the kicking tee or when the player makes a mark on the ground.
“The player must complete the kick within one minute even if the ball rolls over and has to be placed again. If the one minute is exceeded, the kick is disallowed, a scrum is ordered at the place of the mark and the opponents put the ball in.’’
At Bath on Saturday with the match all-square, Leinster’s fate in the balance and 71 minutes 43 seconds on the clock, French referee Jerome Garces penalised Bath a metre inside their opponents’ half.
Sexton signalled to the posts at 72 minutes 2 seconds and put boot to ball some twelve seconds after the one minute deadline. That particular law may not have been invoked yet but one day someone will get round to using it.
Suppose Sexton’s kick had gone over. Suppose Leinster had won 19-16 instead of losing by the same score. And suppose the Bath captain had lodged a complaint and asked the referee to check the timing. What then?
Potential embarrassment all round, that’s what. Referees have more than enough on their plates without the added burden of putting a stop-watch on every penalty shot. In that respect, the French Top 14 is ahead of the game.
Their clubs have a kicking clock positioned for maximum visibility. Sexton knows this to his cost because during Racing’s home draw against Clermont in Round 18 last February, the referee, Romain Poite, timed the Irishman out while he was still eyeing up the shot.
Imagine that happening against Wales in Dublin in February with Ireland two points down and time running out. It’s almost certainly too late for Leinster in the Champions’ Cup but Joe Schmidt, a man not known for missing a trick, will be reaching for Law 21.4 Section C if he hasn’t done so already.
Italian cup spot should go way of Mussolini
The Champions League, crammed full each season of also-rans, is a misnomer. Regrettably, there is a rising danger of rugby’s Champions Cup becoming a bigger one.
Treviso are Italy’s sole representative in a tournament renamed after the clubs wrestled control of running it from the Unions. Presumably they fit the criteria because they are undisputed champions of the soft touch.
In 23 consecutive away ties since their last victory on the road, at Newport eight seasons ago, Treviso have lost the lot. They have conceded 134 tries, virtually six per match, and 114 match points out of a maximum 115. They saved one at Perpignan in 2008 when the Catalans failed to secure the four-try bonus point win.
The case for Treviso, or Zebre or any Italian team, is an admirable one, to spread the gospel in a country whose most notorious rugby fan, the Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, came to a sticky end.
Altruism, a rare and wonderful concept in the brutal reality of professional sport, is to be defended but Treviso’s lamentable failure to show any real improvement makes it more difficult to defend with each passing season. Worse still, they throw the competition out of kilter as Plymouth would if they got into the Champions’ League in their current guise.
Anyone drawn in the same pool as Treviso will bank on 10 points from10 from two matches and therefore be virtually twice as likely to reach the last eight by securing one of the two berths reserved for the best runners-up.
The organisers are never slow to refer to the ‘elite’ nature of their premier competition while ignoring the fact that the Challenge Cup is a poor secondary event. Why should others, most notably Connacht, be sacrificed on an Italian altar?
Massif display from evergreen James
For another inspiring example of the human spirit conquering adversity on the rugby field, the story of the weekend happened in central France yesterday in a city surrounded by the volcanic mountains of the Massif Central. Twenty minutes may not have been much but it was long enough for the evergreen Brock James to pull Clermont off the ropes against the Ospreys.
When he wasn’t booming the ball 70 metres into space or chipping the most delicate of dinks which Wesley Fofana fumbled with the try line at his mercy, James was hoisting a cross-kick of such perfection that again all Fofana had to do to score was catch it, which he did.
And to think this is the same Brock James who missed eight shots at goal for his same French employers during a quarter-final against Leinster in Dublin six seasons back. The same Brock James who has only recently been given the all-clear after minor heart surgery last summer.
Long may he continue.
Weekend’s best and worst
Bath fly-half George Ford going for the corner instead of the posts against Leinster and ending up with a priceless penalty try. Why take three points when you can get seven?
French referee Romain Poite’s failure to send Saracens flanker Michael Rhodes off for his dangerous tackle on an aerial Andrew Trimble at Ravenhill on Friday night. Given the poverty of Ulster’s performance it would, if nothing else, have made it a bit more of a contest.
Europe’s golden oldies
The notion Europe at the highest level is no place for old men is being ridiculed like never before. Both competitions are so crowded with veterans that Munster’s evergreen pair, Worcester’s 36-year-old lock Donncha O’Callaghan and Sale scrum-half Peter Stringer, 38 next month, were given a rest.
They have some way to go to catch Sereli Bobo, the Fijian wing who turns 40 in the New Year.
Silvere Tian (Oyonnax – 35); Vincent Clerc (Toulouse – 34), Aurelien Rougerie (Clermont – 35), Regan King (Scarlets – 35), Sereli Bobo (Pau – 39); Seremaia Bai (Leicester – 36), Neil de Kock (Saracens – 37); Gethin Jenkins (Blues – 35), Carlo Festuccia (Wasps – 35), Tau Filise (Blues – 38); Jamie Cudmore (Clermont – 37), Nick Easter (Harlequins – 37); Jean Bouilhou (Pau – 37), George Smith (Wasps -35), Chris Masoe (Racing – 36).
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