Lancaster era at Racing begins with 'nasty' fourth-minute red card
The Stuart Lancaster era at Racing got off to a dubious start on Saturday when his new team suffered a fourth-minute red card for a crocodile roll. The Parisians were hosting Bordeaux in the opening round of the 2023/24 Top 14 campaign and their pre-season planning under the ex-England boss was given a rude awakening just minutes into the match at La Defense Arena.
Having worked as senior coach at Leinster since September 2016, Lancaster has now taken up the director of rugby role at Racing but the last thing he would have expected was seeing his team so quickly reduced to 14 men.
The clock was stopped on three minutes and 29 seconds so that the referee Vincent Blasco Baque could review an incident that had taken place at a ruck where ex-French loosehead Jefferson Poirot went foraging for a turnover after Nolann Le Garrec had carried the ball to a ruck.
Bordeaux No1 Poirot was crocodile rolled away from the breakdown by Racing lock Boris Palu and with his left leg crumpling, the play was quickly stopped so that a TMO review could happen.
The match was broadcast live on Premier Sports and this is how their commentator described the stoppage in play that ultimately resulted in Palu getting red-carded and Poirot substituted due to the extent of the injury he suffered:
“It is Boris Palu who has tackled him [Poirot], it looks like he just bends his leg over as he turns him. There is Poirot going down. I don’t think there is anything particularly foul play but that’s nasty. That is very nasty. That is horrible – that has got ACL written all over it.
“Boris Palu is going to be sent off for dangerous play. It’s one of the new rules that is coming in. They are cracking down on dangerous play in the game. It’s a red card because of the fact that he tackled him and bent his knee back the wrong way.
“Boris Palu does not understand. It is going to take some understanding of this new rule or this new interpretation of the rule. Poirot has had to come off... it’s not the start that both sides would have wanted.”
Racing went on to cope admirably with being a man down for 76 minutes, going on to win 23-18 with two tries from Le Gerrec.
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All of these media pundits always miss the obvious whenever they analyse what is ailing or assisting the game. Rugby always has contentious points for debate when picking apart individual games and finding fault with itself. All this focus and scrutiny on “speeding up the game”, “high ball in play” etc is all contextual to the fan. As a tv viewer, if you’re absorbed into a game, regardless if your team is playing or not, more ball in play time and action are all byproducts of the contest. A good contest subliminally affects your memory in selectively remembering all the good aspects. A poor contest and your brain has switched off because its a blowout and the result is never in doubt or it’s a real chore to watch and remain engaged throughout. The URC, Top 14 and English premiership are all competitions that feel like there’s real jeopardy each week. The dominance of Super rugby by NZ teams was unhealthy from a sustainable interest perspective. You can’t fault those teams or the players, but the lack of competitions won by SA and Australian teams long term was always going to test the faith and patience of die-hard and casual fans from those regions. SANZAR took their eye off the fans and fans voted with their feet and subscriptions. They were so concerned about expanding their product they forgot the golden rule about broadcasting live sport. Viewers tune in more when there’s an atmosphere and a true contest. You need to fill stadiums to create one, host unions need to do more to service ticket buyers, and this year proves the other, there’s more interest in Super rugby this year only because more games are competitive with less foregone conclusions. All these micro statistics bandied about, only interest the bean counters and trainspotters.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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