I watched a full game of televised rugby yesterday. This is a much less common occurence than of old - I tend to rely on highlights these days and I must confess that I have my concerns about the future of the dear old game. It has got itself into a terrible mess - soft sendings-off, the Anglo-Saxon obsession with 'winning the collision', blah, blah, blah.
The match was the Premiership semi-final in which Saracens saw off Northampton with some ease. It was intriguing to see Saracens playing the game with more elan than of old. Most eye-catching was the commanding (imperfect but commanding) performance of Owen Farrell. He played with more freedom and imagination than he permits himself in an England shirt.
I have alluded to the soft sendings-off that blight so much of the modern game, but yesterday it was the other side of the coin that showed itself. No two ways about it - Sean Maitland should have been sent-off in the first minute. He is not, so far as one can judge, a malicious player but he got an aerial challenge catastrophically wrong and impacted an opponent with both elbow (to the head) and knee (to the chest). This involved a staggering degree of negligence and I do not see, the laws being framed and applied as they are, that anything less than a red card was appropriate. Karl Dickson (a good referee having a bad day) awarded nothing more than a penalty. Maitland scored two tries.
The controversy aside, I enjoyed the match, in particular Saracens' commitment to changing or, best of all, avoiding altogether the point of contact. It is a gloriously physical sport made complicated by a a groaningly heavy law book and the involvement of clumsy humanity. It can however be hugely uplifting when done well. When coaching I used to bang on about aiming for small moments of perfection. These remain achievable, Saracens' final try beinga case in point - pace and precision.
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