This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with the start of the ProD2 and the Women’s World Cup…
And we’re back!
There are still a few more weeks until Europe’s season really gets going, but the first tackles, kicks and cleanouts graced the pitches of France the weekend past, as the Pro D2 got underway.
It was a fine weekend of rugby. Biarritz and Beziers racked up 91 points between them. Vannes battled stoutly to a 30-30 draw at Brive despite playing 70-odd minutes with 14 men. Grenoble, for whom promotion is becoming an obsession after three Access Match defeats in a row, eked out a crucial 30-28 win at Oyonnax, one of three matches decided by fewer than four points. Agen’s descent into rugby irrelevance continued with a 54-17 drubbing at the hands of Nevers; there is reason to worry at the Stade Armandie.
But as well as all the action, the weekend served as the indicator of some new trends heading into the new season. First up was John Cooney. Allotted his 60 seconds to take the conversion of his own try, slap bang in front of the posts, Cooney stood stock still for an inexorable 30-40 seconds, running down the clock with maximum cynicism and all the while with a smirk on his face just begging to be knocked off. An ugly tactic at the best of times, perhaps understandable in tight games, especially with leads to protect.
Not, however, in any tiny way understandable about a quarter of the way into the game, with the kicker’s team both ten points and a man up.
Is there any way to stop this? A new law amendment ensuring the kicker can’t ever stand still for longer than ten seconds? A reduced time allotment for kicks inside the 15m lines?
Most likely not. But it would not do the game good to see that sort of shameless negative antic perpetuated at any level.
Brive also looked at times to have placed a curious interpretation on the new lineout laws, which say that skew throws are only skew if the ball is actively contested for. The law hasn’t made a lot of difference at lineouts and has certainly led to game time being played, which previously would have been chewed up with scrum sets.
But on Saturday night, Brive also took a number of lineouts short and quickly after the set, with hooker Dave Cherry frequently throwing the ball almost directly to the guts of the first lifter at the front of the lineout.
Hmm. It’s within the law. If the opposite prop is not ready or alert, it’s not going to be contested. If the teams are set, then Cherry can throw whenever he wants.
Yet the spirit of the law surely assumes the possibility of a contest, acknowledges the potential decision of the contesting team as to whether to bother or not. But in this case, the throws happen so fast that the opposition has no time to react, let alone opt to contest or not.
The tactic does speed the game up, get ball in play, all those positive aspects. So it’s unlikely to be focused on by the lawmakers for now. But it’ll be interesting to see teams wising up and looking for the contest, and then interesting to see how officials react and how much contest is needed before referees start paying attention to the quick throws as well as the regular ones.
Jeopardy makes a belated entrance
There’s little disputing the improvement in the quality of the leading women’s rugby teams over the past few years, all of which has been on show across England over the past few days as the Women’s World Cup has continued.
But the same problem that still dogs the men’s version to an extent is creating drag on the progress of the women’s version as well: that of the utterly predictable and one-sided match. England’s romp past Samoa was fun to watch, England’s evident quality admirable, Samoa’s battling spirit even more so. But once the game was over, how much was it actually talked about?
Watch: Samoan players celebrate first points after crowdfunding effort to get to World Cup
Which is what made the epic 31-31 draw between the USA and Australia and South Africa’s quarter-final clinching win over Italy so important. Firstly, there is now at least something riding on the final weekend of fixtures beyond the jostle for quarter-final seedings, where the USA will need to better Australia’s points difference by catching up 135 (!) points, although some of those may be handed to them by England, assuming the Red Roses beat Australia.
But even that comes across as a little skew: a team needs to win by 100+ points and that this prospect is not regarded as pure fantasy.
Secondly, the two were exciting matches in which the winner – ok in the USA v Australia game it never came – but the winner was in doubt until the final minutes. Beyond those two, the closest games have been 14 and 24 points respectively, hardly the sort of emotion-wringing experience that leaves you gasping for more.
The men’s version has progressed in baby steps, with World Rugby funding and structural change slowly reaping benefits; many a lesson was learned along the way. But all of the men’s World Cup pools now has at least three teams that can cause each other significant headaches, making the entire tournament a better prospect.
The women’s version needs this too. But as the final two games of the second weekend showed, the shoots are there.
READ MORE: Watch: The dramatic end to USA v Australia and what it means for Ilona Maher and co.