Johannesburg — The Lions will remain steadfast in their tackling and defence approach, in spite of a degree of frustration, confusion and uncertainty from a supporters’ perspective regarding the area, which was punctuated by the unfortunate red card handed out to England international Freddie Steward this past weekend.
World Rugby has made a serious point of revising rugby’s tackle rules recently, strictly enforcing the laws that govern what is deemed as dangerous and foul play. It has seen multiple instances of harsh cards being served to players.
Case in point: This past weekend when Steward was sent off and England were forced to finish their Six Nations clash against eventual champions, Ireland, with 14 men.
The full-back was given his marching orders by South African referee Jaco Peyper in the 41st minute when, in an attempt to collect a loose ball, his hunched shoulder made contact with a rising Hugo Keenan’s head. The sanction arguably ended any chance the English had of beating their Irish neighbours.
From an officiating point of view, Peyper followed the letter of the law in making his ruling, but common sense would dictate that there was no way that Steward could have avoided Keenan. A review panel downgraded the infraction to a yellow card offence earlier this week, but that will be no comfort to an England team that was desperate to win.
With that in mind, Lions scrum coach Julian Redelinghuys explained that the team — currently in Treviso, Italy, where they are scheduled to face Benetton on Saturday — would not step back regarding their physicality to negate a possible sinbin situation.
Said Redelinghuys: “We haven’t officially reviewed it, but we obviously have had chats with each other. Nothing against Peyper, he just followed the rule practically.
“I don’t want rugby to become soft. Personally, that is what I loved about the game when I was a laaitie: Watching the game and seeing guys cleaning hard and well, tackling each other really hard and carrying with explosiveness.
“I don’t want that to go away (but) we must look after player safety, while also preserving the physicality of the game. I am glad I am not in that position to govern the rules because I think it is really tough.
“I don’t think it changes anything in the way we want to tackle. We would like the guys to still have a good level change, make a positive tackle, and be nice and square.
“We certainly did not address it in the sense of, ‘Gents be careful of this’. We are just going to be doing what we have been doing.
“We have been carded a couple of times (nine yellow cards and one red card) and it is just about the awareness of player safety in that situation.
“Everything happens very fast. So, it is not easy to adjust that quickly but we have to do the best we can to protect players and also have that physical edge,” he concluded.
IOL Sport