A fast game's a good game
Why the Six Nations opening weekend was so good for the sport of rugby
It felt like I had barely settled into an absorbing England versus Scotland viewing experience when I glanced at the clock for the first time. And I was startled to find we were twenty-five minutes in.
That’s when I knew that World Rugby’s new anti-time-wasting protocols were working a treat.
Photo source: @scotlandteam on Twitter
Sure, time flies when you’re having fun, and the Calcutta Cup clash was a great game. But even great games lack any flow when they’re constantly interrupted for a swathe of unnecessary reasons, a trend that peaked unbearably in 2022. Which is why I’d come to expect the clock to move on about as quickly as a gang of climbers finding their way up Everest. And grown used to letting my mind wander.
But if the opening weekend of the Six Nations is anything to go by, that’s a habit I’ll need to get out of. And I’m delighted that’s the case. World Rugby clearly read my post from last July, and they’ve taken the necessary steps to address the problem. Credit where it’s due.
If you’re not aware, the new protocols aren’t so much a raft of new laws as the referees being told to actually enforce existing laws around delays before lineouts and scrums, as well as time limits on penalties and conversions. They’ve also been encouraged to reduce their dependence on video referees. (For more, look here.)
The effects were immediately evident. I didn’t catch Wales versus Ireland live – it was always going to be one-sided – but today I watched the replay with stopwatch in hand. I started it at kick-off, and was delighted to see it tracking the match clock for several minutes of the game. There were days last year when the stopwatch would have streaked ahead by that point, thanks to interminable foul play decisions, unwarranted drinks breaks and suspicious injuries.
By the 21-minute mark, my stopwatch was only one minute ahead of the match clock. And we’d had three tries by then!
And at half-time, with a shade over 42 minutes played, only 45m36s had passed since kick-off. Which is right, reasonable and means you can survive a half quite comfortably without a loo break.
By the end, after 83 minutes of official playing time, 96 minutes and 46 seconds had passed since the opening whistle – excluding the break of course. So the second half did bog down a little, but still the entire show was in no danger of spilling into a third hour, as some did last year.
I don’t have detailed stats on the other games, but it felt like they passed even quicker. There’s no doubt they all fitted an acceptable time frame that hopefully injected a new lease of life into others disillusioned by gifting so much unnecessary time to ‘80 minutes of rugby’ in 2022.
A fast game’s a good game
This expression really annoys me when it’s used by playing partners on the golf course. But that’s a rant for another day. What was noticeable in a rugby context was that the new approach to refereeing really did seem to translate to a feast of positive rugby. A spirit that seemed to grow in force as the weekend went on, culminating perhaps in the Italians going a little too far (running it from everywhere!) in Rome on Sunday.
You might just say the vibe of the new dispensation rubbed off on the players. And sure, that may be a factor. But it’s no surprise, really, that a directive to minimise stoppages has that effect.
If referees lean towards longer advantages rather than stopping the game for anything that might border on a card offence (video refs can now double-check for any heinous oversights in real time), then of course there will be more pace and more adventure. Because advantages are free plays. And hopefully for the neutrals, there’s a try before the whistle sounds for the original infringement.
More running means more tackling, which results in tired defences. That’s another incentive to put width on the ball. And so the cycle repeats.
Another positive side-effect of less whistle-blowing is that there’s less opportunity for players to snipe at each other and get into stupid post-whistle squabbles. They’ve got no choice but to get up and focus on playing rugby. All this means fewer post-stoppage stoppages to look at the post-stoppage squabbles on the screen (you follow?) and dish out yellows, which saves us even more time. It’s a heartwarming cycle of positivity.
Fewer yellows is something the game sorely needed. And so far so good – there only two throughout the entire Six Nations weekend!
A dose of perspective
Late in the Italy/France game on Sunday, there was a feeling that a lineout had been wrongly attributed to the hosts. The referee was having none of the French protests, however, and my mind flashed back to a time when a lengthy discussion would have ensued.
For an instant, I was unsettled that we hadn’t reached the perfect decision, or achieved perfect fairness. But then I said to myself, ‘You know what? It’s only a game. And I’m enjoying the flow of it too much to quibble about this.’
In any case, France found themselves with a throw-in in a similar spot just a couple of minutes later. A timely reminder that justice usually takes care of itself in sport. Particularly in rugby, where the better team almost always wins. (Just don’t get me started on soccer.)
The old adage that refereeing calls even themselves out is probably a cliché for a reason. I think this weekend showed that we can live without being so analytical about things, and that it’s not necessarily a bad thing to reach for that adage. After all, rugby is only a sport – and one which most players on this planet manage to enjoy without any cameras or any chance of a video decision.
(It might be fair to point out that I’m writing this as a neutral. I may need some reminding of these words if South Africa tumble out of the Rugby World Cup after being on the receiving end of a dodgy try!)
Challenges ahead
It was a remarkably clean weekend in terms of questionable tackles or clean-outs. To my recollection, only Liam Williams’ hit on Johnny Sexton earned close scrutiny from officialdom, which resulted in a yellow. (The other sin-binning, that of Charles Ollivon, was for cynical play.) Maybe that was down to the increased focus on the rugby. Or maybe it was just coincidence.
Either way, there will surely be future matches where more incidents catch the eye of the reffing team. Or, more challengingly for them, the tens of thousands in the stands, who might help them along with an ‘ooooooh’ or two.
I really hope referees will be trained to resist any outside influences here. They should continue to trust their first instincts – and their assistants to address any howlers. It’s exactly the right way to go. (And we as observers need to lighten up on them too, because an overly critical world is what led to overly cautious, time-consuming reffing in the first place.)
Ultimately, a forward pass or a knock-on being missed is not the end of the world. Play on! As for foul play, yes, this needs a stricter approach in the current climate. But as I argued last year, you can come down hard on any transgressions in the week after the game. I don’t think anyone needs a decision-making process in the stadium: it’s boring for those paying for seats, and potentially too rushed to be fair to the players concerned.
And one last thing before I go: is anybody mourning the demise of the official drinks breaks in the middle of a half of rugby?
Think I can string a sentence together? Then get stuck into one of my books! (Yes, they’re written under a different name…)