World Rugby boss Alan Gilpin is confident both players and coaches will soon have adapted their behaviours amid the current foul play crackdown, sparing next year’s Rugby World Cup of repeated incidents of head contact and the red cards they produce.
Attending government meetings in Australia this week, Gilpin was on hand as Rugby Australia was announced as the preferred candidate to host Rugby World Cup 2029, meaning the nation will host two tournaments within three years as it is also the preferred candidate for the men’s 2027 tournament.
While the hosting rights will be officially confirmed next month in what will be a huge coup for the game Down Under, Super Rugby Pacific is currently being dragged through the mire of constant red cards, with a player sent off in five out of the six games in Round 7.
While Gilpin said he could understand the frustrations, particularly those of fans who are growing ever weary of reviews by the Television Match Official, the World Rugby boss is adamant player safety remains paramount.
“The most important issue for the game is safety,” he told reporters on Monday. “From our perspective we’re trying to make the game as safe as possible, but at the same time having a great spectacle. We want people to want to watch and play rugby, and we want kids to be inspired by that. So it’s a really tough balance to strike.
“I think we’ve gone out with a really strong message in terms of sanction around head injury and head impact, in particular, that’s really important so we can address tackle technique, the height, the high hits, etcetera. And over time I think what will see is the players and the coaches adapt to that and we’ll end up coming out the right side.”
While there could be few arguments against any of the dismissals in Round 7 of Super Rugby, which sprung from two high tackles, two illegal cleanouts, and a charge down from Caleb Clarke that went horribly awry, Gilpin acknowledged there would continue to be incidents where players simply got their timing wrong.
“It’s hard, and again we’re seeing more red cards, but we’re seeing protection of the players ultimately,” he said. “Those cards are being issued because the match officials, as we’re asking them to, are protecting the players and hopefully we’re finding the right balance. Again what that ‘hopefully’ is going to do is drive coaching and player behaviour away from that type of contact to the head.
“It’s difficult, we’re in a really complex collision sports where those decisions are being made in fractions of seconds, so we have a lot of sympathy for players who at times are getting that wrong and are being on the wrong side of it.”
Gilpin also referenced the red-card replacement trial, where players who are sent off can be replaced by another player after 20 minutes, which has been in play in Super Rugby Pacific, saying he would be interested to see the results of the data once the competition concludes.
“In any series of law changes, all the different trials we’re doing, with the 50/22 [kick], the goal-line dropout, all of those ultimately [are about player safety],” he said.
“While some of them have led to more entertaining rugby, they’re all about safety and they’re all about reducing the amount of times where players are in dangerous positions.”
While the 50/22 trial has largely been embraced the world over, and was used in this year’s Six Nations, there remains strong opposition to the red card replacement trial in parts of the northern hemisphere rugby community.
There is the belief that it is not a significant enough deterrent to stop players from committing acts of foul play and that they should not be able to be replaced after 20 minutes, as has been rugby’s send-off law for decades.
Whether Rugby Australia and New Zealand Rugby are able to mount a strong enough case to lobby their World Rugby Executive Committee colleagues into adapting the trial the world over — after the next World Cup — appears to be a tall order.
But it would certainly be met with widespread support in Australia, particularly for tournaments where there will be a huge number of extra eyeballs watching the 15-man game on its greatest stage.
“Are we concerned? Yeah, the shape of the game is of primary concern,” RA boss Andy Marinos said when asked about the current spectacle being served up in Super Rugby Pacific. “We’ve got to make sure that the product that’s out on the field is compelling, because we are, as we know, in [Australia] in a congested marketplace. And it’s probably more elevated at a club and domestic level than it is at an international level. At an international level, that sits in a very unique bucket.
“So the shape of the game; it’s not only sitting at the feet of the match officials, it’s also the way in which we’re approaching and playing the game. So for us as Rugby Australia, we’re going to be getting together as a collective and really drilling in on how we can get a better flow and shape to our game going forward because it is important.”