Much has been brilliant about this World Cup. The rise of the minnows, in particular Japan – who arguably no longer fit into that category – promises an exciting future, while proper ding-dong battles between heavyweights – New Zealand vs Argentina, England vs Wales, Wales vs Australia, Ireland vs France – have kept the group stage interesting to the last.

But the farcical nature of disciplinary proceedings both on and off the pitch have been a real blight on the World Cup so far – and what is most baffling, is that they needn’t be. Surely with clear communication from World Rugby, it cannot be too difficult to educate all judges and TMOs as to what is right and what is wrong.

The decision that has caused the most outrage so far has been Alesana Tuilagi’s initial five week ban for leading with a knee when running into a Japanese tackler. Rightly, this sparked mass outrage on social media, and the ban was quickly reduced to two weeks.

But even two weeks for what boils down to a powerful Tuilagi carry (what his family has made a name for) does not stack up when compared with other bans this tournament. David Pocock used his knee in a far less necessary way against Wales, and yet he received nothing more than a ‘citing commissioner’s warning’.

And even more bafflingly, the week previously Michael Hooper had received just a one week ban for charging recklessly and hugely dangerously into a ruck and clearing out Mike Brown with his shoulder.

This is one of the most dangerous parts of the game at the moment, in my opinion, and we cannot be far away from a very serious injury occurring from an overzealous and illegal clean-out. Simply put, one week is a criminally short ban for such an act.

Where is the consistency? That is the most frustrating thing. If there were a concerted effort to cut down on ‘dangerous play with the knee’ then you could just about understand it, but it is the way it has seemingly been one rule for one thing and a completely different one for another that grates the most.

The use of the TMO during games has also been madly frustrating, and not just because of the way it has rendered most games stop-start slogs (as one of the commentators pointed out last weekend, he presided over a 68 minute half the other week).

Why is it that the TMO can stop a game (with this new, madly annoying ‘check, check’ call) to come back for a marginal high tackle or forward pass, and yet he missed possibly the most blatant act of the tournament so far: Sean O’Brien’s swinging arm punch on Pascal Papé.

Now, O’Brien may well have been provoked by an impromptu prostate exam, but that does not excuse his reaction. And there is really no excuse for the TMO to have missed it, either. O’Brien will rightly be banned, but that does not help France, who had to endure another 78 minutes of O’Brien at his best.

We all want to see the best players competing at the World Cup, and the knockout stages will be much poorer for O’Brien’s absence. There have been many that have crowed about World Rugby being biased against the smaller nations, but frankly if O’Brien is not handed a hefty ban, then they may have a point, given the leniency shown so far to the likes of Pocock, Hooper and Wood.

O’Brien must be banned or all faith in the system will be lost.

Continuing the disciplinary theme, there’s been a bit of noise on social media in the past 24 hours about the nationality of the citing commissioner that picked out an alleged dangerous tackle committed by Jonny Gray and Ross Ford in Scotland’s game against Samoa – he’s Australian.

Scotland, of course, play Australia in the quarter-final this weekend. Now, I’m sure Scott Nowland is a professional guy who doesn’t let nationality get in the way of what he does, but why is an Australian commissioner the one reviewing that game? Surely it just opens World Rugby up for accusations of bias?

I appreciate the pool of commissioners and judiciaries probably isn’t that big, but I’m sure they could have found someone from a country that Scotland weren’t playing in the quarter-finals a week later. It just makes them look silly.

By Jamie Hosie

Follow Jamie on Twitter: @jhosie43

Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images