I’ve long had a soft spot for Wayne Smith.
But before any readers seize on this as further evidence of my growing narcissism, I should point out that I am referring to Wayne Smith the former All Black player and coach and the current World Rugby coach of the year.
Technically speaking, I have seniority on him by about three years, but I am under no illusions about our respective standings in the rugby pecking order. He has done some extraordinary things on and off the field, while I have remained on the sidelines, humbly recording them.
Nic Berry’s refereeing in the Super Rugby match between the Force and Highlanders last month frustrated former All Blacks coach Wayne Smith.Credit: Getty
Still, there are benefits to our shared name. I’ve lost count of the number of room upgrades I’ve been given over the years simply by ringing hotels in New Zealand to confirm my booking. “Are you coming for the rugby?” they will ask, all excited, and I swear I did nothing to mislead them. I can, however, only apologise for the underwhelming feeling I have left behind whenever I checked in.
My admiration for Smith reached new heights recently when he revealed he had switched off a televised rugby match out of sheer frustration. Australian referee Nic Berry annoyed him greatly, after issuing five yellow cards during the Force-Highlanders match. I suspect, however, that Smith was frustrated as much for Berry as because of him.
But first, some context: Referees are not the authors of the rugby laws. That’s the responsibility of World Rugby. The referees’ job is to simply enforce them. The fact that Berry has just been announced as one of Australia’s two referees for the World Cup later this year suggests he has done a reasonable job in applying them.
The Professor: Rugby should be taking Wayne Smith’s criticisms more seriously.Credit: Getty
Like Smith, I am fed up with the ridiculous laws that match officials are obliged to enforce. They have come to distort the game, changing it for the worse, and virtually leaving players with no option but to cheat. And that only brings the referee more into the game.
With some rare but notable exceptions, it is churlish to attack referees. They are simply doing their job. And that explains the timing of this column. Four Australian teams won their Super Rugby matches on the weekend, with only the Melbourne Rebels faltering against the Waratahs. There will never be a less emotional time to analyse why the laws are leading rugby astray.
Now, to return to Smith’s criticism. “The standard’s great in terms of the quality of the players around the world but I’m getting frustrated with the game,” he said last month. “I watched the game that Nic Berry refereed the other day and the arm’s out the whole time, every single play, there’s advantage.
“You just know we’re going to go seven, eight phases and, if it goes nowhere, we’re going to come back for a penalty.
“Then there’s 30 seconds to kick the ball into touch, 40 seconds for the lineout to happen. You know there’s going to be a drive that will collapse. It’s going to come back to another penalty, another kick to touch, another drive. Then the yellow card comes out because they did it again.”
Smith has been attacked by such deep thinkers as Joe Marler and Joe Moody for daring to attack the driving maul. You remember Marler, the England prop who grabbed Welsh captain Alan Wyn Jones by the testicles back in the 2020 Six Nations. Or Moody, the All Black and Crusaders prop who viciously attacked a NSW player with his forearm in 2018.
“What a ridiculous thing to say,” said Moody of his former coach’s plan to do away with the driving maul.
Smith is known throughout the rugby world as “The Professor”, an acknowledgement of his extraordinary knowledge of the game. The only thing ridiculous about what he has said is that no-one in authority is taking his complaints seriously, despite some of the game’s foremost thinkers supporting his position.
Rod Macqueen, John Connolly, Andrew Slack, Dick Marks, Barry Honan, Sir John Kirwan, Jeff Wilson – all have expressed their exasperation with where the laws have taken the game.
Their most commonly repeated gripe is that the driving maul is organised obstruction which leaves defenders facing the same choice Melbourne Rebels captain Brad Wilkin faced against the Waratahs on Saturday night – take illegal action (sacking the maul) or stand back and watch as the sacrosanct maul rumbled over the tryline.
Wilkin acted. That left referee Damon Murphy with no choice under the laws. He awarded a penalty try and then he sent Wilkin to the bin for 10 minutes. For what crime?
I have been thundering on about driving maul rugby – or “drugby”, as I like to call it – since the truck-and-trailer days of England at the 2003 Rugby World Cup. The game needs to engage reverse gear immediately and get the hell out of this dead-end street.
But don’t take my word for it. Take Wayne Smith’s. He knows what he’s talking about.
Watch all the action from the Super Rugby Pacific with every match streaming ad-free, live and on demand on Stan Sport.
