Last week I suggested we don’t appreciate how good the refereeing is that we have at the moment. Still, with all the uproar during November, it’s clear not everyone is happy. Most people say all they want to see is consistency from referees. How can we really expect this from refs when every player is training to cheat and the laws of the game keep getting more complicated? Every time the overall style of play is deemed not exciting or safe enough, another law or interpretation is added.

For all that rugby holds up the respect part of the sports’ culture, the one thing that players don’t seem to respect is the law book. Part of rugby culture is also acceptable or even good cheating and then there’s bad cheating. On the bad side of cheating are eye gouging, punching, and other acts of violence. There’s also playacting and trying to get players carded. However, there’s also a lot of cheating that’s considered good if the player gets away with it and that’s what I’m going to take a look at.

The Dark Arts

The dark arts used to refer to what happened at the bottom of rucks and whatever went on in the scrum. Its definition has slightly broadened in recent times to also include holding on to a player to stop them getting up or away from a ruck.

In the “old days,” this was something that referees didn’t have to worry too much about as self-policing amongst the players sorted it out. Self-policing in this sense means rucking or use of the boots to get bodies out of the way. Also, the “enforcers” from each side would throw a couple of punches to show when they thought the acceptable line had been crossed.

The problem with all this was that as society became more risk-averse, parents stopped their kids from playing the game. So the self-policing has been removed for safeties sake and that’s changed the whole dynamic of risk v reward. The risk has been removed as the chances of you being seen is low and also, even if you are, has it affected the flow of the game? So we are seeing a rise in this kind of play.

Slowing The Ball Down

In a similar category to the dark arts is slowing the ball down. Many of you will say that it’s the same thing and maybe you’re right. I wanted to call it out separately, though, as being good at the dark arts is something that the teams needs and coaches want. However, slowing the ball down is something that’s publicly heralded as being a good thing.

Ninety-nine times out of a 100, slowing the ball down will involve cheating. The only question is what does the ref consider cheating and what does he consider “making an attempt to get out of the way.” There are a number of ways to slow the ball down but the one that’s most praised is getting your hands on the ball.

Players are trained to go beyond the ball and bring their hands back or reach around either side of the body and hold the ball against the tackled player. Normally, their shoulders are below their hips and so they aren’t supporting their body weight, which is again cheating. Even if they release the ball, as refs will ask them to do, then it’s still slowed down but this “coaching” by the ref means no penalty is given.

You can also listen to the topic further discussed on #RugbyChat.

Offside

When you listen to modern commentary, you’ll be told that defense is all about line speed. Which invariably also comes with players standing offside at most rucks. It has been suggested by some that teams are standing offside consistently as refs can’t blow a penalty at every ruck. Whether that is true or not, quick line speed is certainly praised at the moment and if you get away with being offside, so that it’s slightly quicker, all the better. Well if it’s your side doing it…

By the way, I disagree that line speed is the most important aspect of defense. I think that the connectivity in the defensive line and trust in those either side of you is more important. However, that’s an old-fashioned point of view.

Blocking

Blocking or obstruction is cheating, but at the moment there are a couple of obvious ways that are praised. First, at the kickoff and also when receiving kicks, players are trained to protect the catcher by slowly running or just not moving at all. Also on attack, we have had two lines with the first line of “decoy” runners disrupting the defensive line. As long as a defensive player can’t reach the ball carrier from where the contact is, it’s very rarely blown for obstruction.

The more recent examples that are being highlighted by analysts, though, are even more intricate. If you watch a scrum half closely, you will notice that they often run in front of play as that’s the most direct line to the next breakdown. What they can also do in that action is get in the way or block/cover sweeping defenders. This makes line breaks even more dangerous.

Another style of play we have seen recently is for the attacking team to play one direction from a scrum or lineout and then switch back to the other side. This means that players who were involved in the scrum of lineout can again block those cover defenders. The premise is that they are slow to get back into play from the set piece. The reality is that they are keying on a specific defender and stopping him getting across in the defensive line. This is seen as clever coaching.

Deliberate Penalties

There are two types of deliberate penalties that I’m going to cover here. I will call out two countries that do this as examples but they are far from the only ones.

As I said at the top, fans are looking for consistency from referees. Well, teams know that there will be inconsistencies and so some teams will push the line early on to find out where it is. A side that has been doing that well over the last couple of years is England. They will often giveaway three or four penalties in the first quarter of the game and then give away very few after that once they understand that referee’s interpretation. Adapting to the referee is considered a specific skill in rugby nowadays.

Another example is the New Zealand All Blacks, who would much rather give away three points than five or seven. You’ll see that the All Blacks rarely let teams go through phases in their 22 and will give up a penalty to break up play. The way that the All Blacks counter that tactic being used against them is to kick to the corner or take a scrum rather than taking the three points.

England’s 2003 World Cup winning side always liked to keep the scoreboard ticking over. The current All Blacks are happy to let that happen as they believe they can respond to every three points with five or seven of their own. Again this is a specifically trained for strategy in their game.

With all these “good” ways of cheating, has rugby just legalized cheating or at the very least just turned more of a blind eye to certain interpretations of the laws? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Check back next Wednesday for the next in the Referees and Laws Series where I’ll start looking at some radical law changes that could make the game simpler to referee.