It is discouraging to see how rugby is denatured. The match between england and ireland it was over at minute 40. Forget the color of the shirts. An apparently insignificant play with a ground ball, after a resounding avantwas picked up by the Irish defender Keenan, who when going to pick him up off the ground ran into his English counterpart, Steward, who almost unconsciously protected himself by hitting the Irishman’s head with the Englishman’s arm.
Nothing flagrant, no intentionality. But after six takes the television judge and referee found a frame that served as an alibi to expel him. The wearer gets under the scoreboard, who barely has time to protect himself. whatIs it a dangerous cast? As much as a hundred others that occur in every rugby match. But that is why it is rugby, a contact sport and not tennis, with the rivals separated by a net.
A drift of rugby against his identity
This drift of our sport is making it lose its identity. The zeal to protect the health of the player (something laudable) has turned the game into a sweetened version of what it was. And also, the play in question meets several of the precepts that excuse it from the card, both red and yellow:
The ‘offending’ player did not have time to reset
It is a passive action
It’s an involuntary shock
The expulsion is not sustained neither from the normative point of view nor from the instinctive sense of the game, which makes the decision based on the context of the game.
The surprised face when seeing the red of the players of both teams confirmed the nonsense. Not even on Irish television, those of the beaten player, there was consensus. Defender Rob Kearney warned: “It can’t be red under any circumstances.” Rugby should make him watch it.
England never gives up
Beyond this worrying drift, the match confirmed something we already knew: England never gives up. He came from ‘eating’ 53 points against France and played during a part with one less player, too much advantage. But not even the latter was used by the English as an excuse to lower their arms.
Borthwick’s fought on and made it difficult for the Irish to conquer the Grand Slam showing that they were not as bad as last Saturday against France, nor so good as to think that their shirt wins the games alone. They looked for the tickles of Sexton, who took some harsher retardation even than the expulsion itself, but the 10th did not get nervous.
Those of the clover continue to produce an enormous volume of play that ended up unstitching those of de la Rosa thanks to the continuity of a forward that compulsively wins the advantage line and always finds support. The green ‘fats’ have internalized an unknown dynamism in the deployment until the arrival of Andy Farrell, and that materialized on the scoreboard with a couple of tries from hooker Sheehan, another from Henshaw and a final from Herring.
The Irish put the culmination of the feast of Saint Patrick and dyed green an afternoon in which France previously chased the Welsh elephants and a choral Scotland, without Russell or Hogg, naturally subdued Italy.
The Irish, on the crest before the World Cup
There are six months left for the World Cup and the Irish are back on the crest of the wave a short time before the start of France 2023. Some will think too soon, judging by the precedents of those from the Emerald Isle, which already generated a lot of expectation in the previous World Cup cycle. The dilemma is whether when the World Cup arrives they will not be dragged down by their own expectations again like Sisyphus.
France is well on track to fight for the title with a team in which Galthie has implemented a rugby capable of physically challenging the Irish and overtaking England. Something that leaves them a step behind the South Africans and at the same level as the New Zealanders. Their differential is the dynamite they have behind, where Dupont generates a lot of game volume, and always wins the advantage, activating Ntamack, Fickou or Ramos, playmakers around which things always happen.
England, for its part, is not a candidate but will be a judge, and Scotland can guess feats, the same ones that do not contemplate Welsh or Italians. I raise my Guinness for Ireland and for the names on jerseys and man of the match awards to disappear. And because they give us back the rugby we knew. The contact one, which is after all what this was about.
