Last Saturday at the Aviva we witnessed rugby’s future, a high-tempo, action-packed festival of entertainment that excited, exhilarated and inspired.
At the absolute top of an amazing batch of statistics generated from the match was the fact that the ball was in play for a wonderful 46 minutes. Almost double the time from the majority of other Test matches played across the globe in the past five years.
While World Rugby should be changing laws to create games that constantly have “ball in play” time above 60 minutes, this wonderful match created 49 minutes of play due to one simple factor. Both teams approached the match with a heightened and deliberate attacking mindset. Both teams aimed to keep the ball in play.
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The counterintuitive statistic to this hypothesis is that there were 76 kicks across the game, which usually suggested a boring, artless kickathon. Yet, we know the opposite was produced.
This is because the vast majority of kicks were attacking in nature and not looking to find touch. The French wanted to deny Ireland their lineout as an attacking launch pad and the Irish believed that they could tire the French by not gifting them time to breathe during the set play.
This resulted in a very low number of time-consuming lineouts. It followed that the great cancer in rugby, mauls, were also reduced.
Under the statistical heading of “The Bleeding Obvious”, the glorious fact that there were only five scrums and the ball was liberated from each of them was a joy for us all.
Again the positive mindset of French forwards coach William Servat and his Irish counterpart John Fogarty, their frontrow players, plus referee Wayne Barnes, all deserve great credit.
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If we sat down to a sumptuous banquet of rugby at the Aviva on Saturday, on Sunday at Twickenham, we were wrestling with stray dogs for stale crusts.
The current English game plan exploits scrums to gain penalties. At Twickenham, we endured scrum after scrum, reset after reset, and scrum penalty after penalty.
England’s attacking tactics have fallen out of the top of rugby’s ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.
While at the Aviva Ireland’s ferocious attacking plan scored four tries against a resolute French defence that was forced to make 235 tackles, with a massive 91 per cent success rate. Then Ireland only permitted the visitors into their 22 for a minuscule 57 seconds.
Despite these overwhelming numbers against the French, their inspiring determination and their undeniable talent empowered them to score long-range tries and drop goals that kept them in the fight until the final minutes.
Combined, both teams made over 374 tackles, and carried the ball 314 times, making 1,334 metres while only producing an exceptionally low 15 penalties.
All staggering numbers.
The mental grit, physical conditioning and rugby skills on display from both teams were stupendous.
In a match of such super quality, the referee plays a major role. No referee is perfect and Barnes got some decisions wrong. But the style of officiating he brought helped produce a magnificent game.
We know that in tackling Rob Herring, Uini Atonio got his timing horribly wrong. It also became clear that while performing an act of breathtaking acrobatic athleticism in attempting to score a try, James Lowe’s right boot kissed the grass and was in touch.
On both occasions, the TV images presented to referee Barnes by the TMO were not the best available to make a fully informed and factually correct decision.
Moments after the decisions were made, in camera shots supplied to TV audiences across the globe, it was abundantly clear that Atonio should have been red-carded and that Lowe’s foot was in touch.
This proved that having one official attempting to find the most conclusive shot from the 24 cameras that are covering the match in the seconds required by the referee to make a match-changing decision is an impossible task for one person.
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Barnes was forced to be a police officer, prosecutor, defender, judge and executioner, while being provided with inconclusive evidence and pressurised into making decisions within seconds. Barnes did not fail, the officiating system failed us all.
As usual, Super Rugby is forcing innovation on the hard-core conservatives controlling the game’s laws and officials.
This coming Super Rugby season if a yellow card is given for foul play and video evidence is later found as grounds to upgrade the card to red, the TMO will be empowered to intervene and change the yellow card into a red.
The offending player will not be allowed to return but they can be replaced after 20 minutes. In Super Rugby referees will be able to quickly give a yellow card knowing that the TMO can review the evidence to upgrade it to red. This will stop the arduous on-field video reviews and supply the game with just outcomes.
If this process was in use at the Aviva last Saturday, justice would have been delivered to Atonio, while Barnes would not be the scapegoat for a broken system.
Sadly the dark voices inside the refereeing lobby will focus on Barnes’s errors rather than the quality of the match he produced. Those who adjudicate our referees penalise them for what they miss and do not reward them for what they create.
That attitude encapsulates all that is wrong with our officials. They see themselves as separate from the solution when in reality they are a major part of the problem.
The glorious match at the Aviva proved to us all that the game has evolved towards a new and exciting place. Now our laws, officials and technology have to catch up to the standards set by the players and coaches.
Hopefully, we will have more of what we loved watching in Dublin and much less of the dross we were forced to endure from London.
