In a seismic development for rugby, last Saturday at the Aviva France evolved what South Africa had started.
What we witnessed finally ended the 200-year-long concept of rugby having only two separate units, one of forwards and one of backs.
The French exploited the loophole in rugby’s safety laws that permits seven forwards and only one back on the bench to create three distinct and separate playing units.
Steve Aboud: the Irishman who saved Italian rugby
There is now a group of seven, who are the only individuals who play for the entire 80 minutes. These are joined by two separate groups of seven forwards. The first group starts the game and plays for about 45 minutes. These are substituted for the third group of seven forwards who play the final 35 minutes. This leaves the solitary reserve back, who is the only true reserve, to enter at the whim of the coach or because of an injury to another back, as Maxime Lucu did for Antoine Dupont.
Gerry Thornley: French accusations against Ireland not in keeping with the spirit of the Six Nations
Ireland did not lose because France were bigger, it was because they were better
Steve Aboud: the Irishman who saved Italian rugby
The age of rugby imperialism is here, and Ireland must realise we sit with the ‘Have-nots’
Giant tight-five forwards dominate both groups of forwards who play for these short periods. Because they never fall into deep aerobic fatigue, these behemoths are able to inflict a bone-jarring power game on their opponent.
South Africa used this influx of power to destroy teams at the scrum, maul, breakdown and in defence.
Last week France did all of that, plus they evolved the use of these two groups to become devastating ball carriers who generated immense power in attack.
Just after Dan Sheehan had plunged over to put Ireland ahead, at the 48-minute mark, Fabien Galthié pulled the trigger and unleashed his power running unit of forwards on to the field.
With the loss of outside centre Pierre-Louis Barassi to injury, Galthié adjusted his plan and kept nine giant forwards on the field.
The talk that Oscar Jégou, the French reserve back rower who was forced to play as a centre, is some form of futuristic hybrid player that excels at both backs and forwards play does not hold up to scrutiny.
Jégou had possession for a three-on-one try-scoring opportunity and ridiculously kicked possession away. His try was a pick-and-go from less than a metre as he was in the centre of a nine-man pack. Ireland were simply incapable of gaining possession to expose his defence because France were so dominant in attack.
The brutal reality is that the 7-1 bench has ushered in a type of rugby imperialism. It works for those countries with a huge playing population that are capable of producing 10 world-class tight forwards and another four top-flight big back rowers for each match.
Nations with a large rugby playing population, such as South Africa, France, England and New Zealand, that can produce 14 Test-standard forwards will dominate. While countries with smaller rugby populations such as Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Italy, Australia and Argentina will be further disenfranchised.
The ramifications for the women’s game are even more stark. If France, England and New Zealand, who dominate the global women’s game, adopt a 7-1 bench and force the concept of three separate units on to countries such as Ireland − whose professional playing population is a fraction of those giant rugby nations − then this loophole in our safety laws will cement into place a permanent two-tier system that will make it close to impossible for Ireland and other smaller nations to compete.
There is no arguing that a 7-1 bench can be highly effective, but at what price? It is not only the obvious physical danger it produces to the spines and brains of players right across the sport, including the amateur game, it is the immorality of its blatant brutality at the expense of skill that shatters what was once rugby’s greatest assets − the game’s spirit of egalitarianism and the centuries-long ethos of fair play and sportsmanship.
When I was coming through the coaching ranks in 1990s Australia, my great mentor, the Australian Institute of Sport rugby head coach Brian “Boxhead” O’Shea, took me to a coaching conference in Brisbane. A Kiwi speaker stood on the stage and boasted that New Zealand could put out three teams that could beat the Wallabies.
Brian leaned over towards me and whispered jokingly, “Don’t worry Matty, the bastards can only put 15 on to the field”. Of the encyclopaedia of rugby knowledge that Boxhead tried to pass on to me, it is perhaps the only point that is no longer true. Today’s laws allow the powerful to put 14 forwards into every match.
The iconic American author Hunter S Thompson wrote in his classic tale Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas about looking back at the demise of the idealism that sat at the heart of the anti-Vietnam War campaign in California during the 1960s. About how the forces with massive political power eventually swept aside the morally just.
He wrote, “So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark – that place where the wave finally broke, and rolled back.”
In five years, we will be approaching the first ever World Cup to be held in the USA. This will be rugby’s golden opportunity to display the great joys of our game to a truly global audience. In the days immediately before this incredible showcase begins, we all want to see the game flourishing in a positive environment, with an equal playing field on the international stage for men and women from all countries.
Nobody wants to look back, as Thompson did, and say that, less than five years later, you can go to Sandymount Strand on Dublin’s shoreline and look west, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark on the side of the Aviva − that place where the wave finally broke, and rolled back.
On Saturday Wales will push England in Cardiff, Ireland will beat Italy and France should become the Six Nations champions.
Strangely, that almost seems trivial.
Rugby is at an inflection point that will define its future direction. A path that leads either towards brutality and demise, or a restoration of balance and equality. World Rugby’s leadership must fight for the interests of the entire game and not be politically captured by the interests of the few nations with giant playing populations – the “Haves”. If the Haves win, they will insidiously create a hegemony based on brutal forward play that will gain almost total dominance against the “Have-nots”.
Ireland must wake up and realise that we sit with the Have-nots.
