The 2019 Rugby World Cup was barely a few days old before World Rugby issued a statement apologising for the performances of match officials in the opening round of pool matches.
It was all part of a wild and wacky start to the tournament by referees and television match officials, in which the Australian team played no small part. The unlikely culprit was Reece Hodge, a player with a faultless judicial record and one of the genuinely nice guys of the game.
But things took an awful turn for him when he hurled himself at Fiji’s Pecili Yato in a try-saving tackle during Australia’s opening match in Sapporo. The flanker was concussed by the hit and even after NZ match referee Ben O’Keeffe conferred with his TMO, Rowan Kitt, no action was taken on the field. Nonetheless, it created quite a kerfuffle on social media, with World Rugby forced to instruct one of its own leading consultants, Ross Tucker, to take down a Twitter post calling for Hodge to be red-carded.
No sooner was this done than Hodge was indeed cited and subsequently suspended for three matches, meaning he missed the remainder of the pool round. Even as World Rugby’s apology for the behaviour of its officials was breaking, its chief medical officer Martin Raftery of Australia warned that a ball-carrier was very likely to be sanctioned for a dangerous carry into a tackle. Sure enough, Wallabies centre Samu Kerevi was penalised for leading with his forearm when tackled by Rhys Patchell in the Wallabies’ very next match against Wales in Tokyo.
Amid all the chaos, Rugby Australia decided to fly its referee manager Scott Young and coach Mitch Chapman to Japan to offer assistance and guidance to its two World Cup referees, Angus Gardner and Nic Berry. Gardner, you may recall, came in for some stinging criticism from Argentina coach Mario Ledesma for his failure to enforce his “one more penalty and there will be a yellow” warning to France as the Pumas lost by just two points.
Everything is heightened at a World Cup. Small issues grow large in the twinkling of an eye and referees can play a huge role in determining outcomes. And Australia is already the most heavily penalised Tier One side in the game.
Discipline is at the top of Eddie Jones’ list of things to fix with the Wallabies.Credit: Getty
So let’s not make it any easier, shall we?
Within the space of an hour on Sunday, Waratahs back-rower Lachie Swinton discovered (a) that he had been called into the Wallabies training camp by coach Eddie Jones and (b) that he had been cited for his late, high, dangerous tackle on Jack Strachan just one phase and 30 seconds into the match against the Western Force.
It was an incident that happened right out in the open and should have played a pivotal role in the match but Gardner, refereeing his 100th Super Rugby game, and TMO David Conway astonishingly both missed it.
Swinton, you may recall, was red-carded on debut against the All Blacks for a high shot on Sam Whitelock in 2020. Another player who had struck discipline problems against the All Blacks, Brumbies lock Darcy Swain, was selected in Jones’ initial squad but ruled out by concussion. On Friday night against the Fijian Drua, he was yellow carded for a cynical foul, this the same player who last year conceded three yellow cards and a red.
He was replaced in the Wallabies squad by Queensland’s Ryan Smith, who was yellow-carded against the Hurricanes earlier this season and then arguably cost the Reds victory against the Rebels when he illegally held back a defender who had little chance of stopping Tate McDermott’s late try.
Dave Rennie, the man who made Swinton and Swain Wallabies and chose Smith for Australia A duties last year, had a no-nonsense approach to “physicality”: “We’ve got men in our squad who, when they cross the chalk, we want them to become a different creature, aggressive and competitive.” Jones would surely subscribe to that thinking.
On the field these players know no fear. Off the field, they are becoming more familiar with it, thanks to Jones’ mind games. But all three have been put on notice that their discipline is not up to scratch and Jones now has to find a way of keeping them aggressive and competitive but within approved limits.
Over the past week, Jones sent some fairly pointed messages to McDermott, Harry Wilson, Suliasi Vunivalu and Noah Lolesio to improve. They did. Now he must do the same but even more forcefully with the most undisciplined members of his squad. The World Cup itself might be riding on it.
An amazing draw — which sees top sides Ireland, France, South Africa, New Zealand and Scotland on the other side in the pool rounds — has placed Australia seemingly 160 minutes away from a third World Cup. If Jones is going to pull off his “smash and grab” raid, he doesn’t need any of his players shooting themselves in the foot.
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