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Emerging Ireland accused of gamesmanship after 3-nil tour of SA
By Jan De Koning
The Emerging Ireland team will celebrate an unbeaten three-match tour of South Africa. However, their hosts are fuming over the obvious and blatant gamesmanship employed during the Challenge Series they competed in.
The Irish visitors edged the Cheetahs 21-14 in a scrappy and dull game in Bloemfontein this past Sunday.
However, they have not won any new supporters in the Republic.
Cheetahs coach Hawies Fourie said the most frustrating aspect of the loss was the manner in which the game was slowed down – an well-documented Irish tactic that also caused the exasperation of South African teams on the Highveld in the United Rugby Championship.
It is claimed the first half between the Cheetahs and the Irish lasted 56 minutes and close to two hours for the entire match.
The visitors were booed in Bloemfontein for their constant delaying tactics that saw all three of their games taking just about two hours to complete.
“We can’t continue playing games like this, allowing teams and players to slow the game down,” Fourie said.
“Every time the referee blew his whistle, two medics were running onto the field looking for someone [to treat].
“They [World Rugby] implement [regulations for] water breaks [to supposedly speed up the game], but all things like this.
“It is just not making sense. The problem is that the referee can’t say you are not injured.
“If you look as though you are injured, he must allow the medical staff to look at you.
“However, it was clear as daylight for anyone what they tried to achieve.”
Fourie said he watched a game in the series earlier in the week – between the same Irish team and the Pumas – and it was a big bore.
“I can imagine how it must be for young children. They don’t come to the game to see stoppages and water breaks.
“We want to entertain,” the Cheetahs coach said, adding: “That is the business we are in.
“Obviously we [the Cheetahs] have to win and play better rugby.
“However, there are a lot of issues around the game that has to be revisited.”
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The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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