Loose Pass: Runners, colours, bolters and our one-word form summary
England's Freddie Steward gathers a high ball against Wales, South Africa's Canan Moodie in action against Argentina and New Zealand centre David Havili.
This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with runners, colours, bolters and our one-word form summary…
Too static
Early in the Wales-England game, Danny Care put up a couple of tasty box kicks. At the second one, the camera naturally focussed on the catcher, but just as the ball was caught, an England player flew headlong into the frame and sprawled across the turf. Nic Berry penalised Wales for obstruction and, through clever use of the camera behind the goals, was vindicated for his decision shortly after, as one of the Welsh players had clearly run a line across the chaser’s path and initiated the collision. Whether he had changed his line to do this or not was not as clear as we’d like, but the line run didn’t seem all that natural.
A few minutes later, Gareth Davies put up a similar kick – those kicks were quite a feature of the first half – which was easily caught by Freddie Steward. The Welsh chaser, however, could barely see Steward for the trio of white shirts standing in front of him. Steward feinted to go right, which led to the comical situation of all three England players moving one way, with one of them being half-tackled by the Welsh chaser, Steward running into one of the others, and then all of the players standing still for half a second before Steward then advanced again and was tackled.
The incidents, relative to one another, did leave nagging questions though. The English would not be the only team to have clearly coached players to mooch around in front of a would-be kick-catcher and create an obstructive nuisance. Nor would the Welsh player be the first to be penalised for running an unusual retreating line.
So where does obstruction start? More pertinently, where does the responsibility of retreating players end in terms of giving chasers a clear path? By and large, the law and the majority of decisions have been pretty clear on players who change their line to ‘accidentally’ cross paths with a chasing player, while many is the time, as was the case on Saturday, when a line simply needs to look unusual for it to become contrary to the law.
But what about these guys who hang around in front of a waiting catcher as the bomb comes down? Doesn’t this also count as unusual? After all, there is nothing constructive these players can do once the ball has been caught. You’d think they’d serve their team-mates better by getting behind them ready to offer support? Although standing still, as the Welsh player showed by tackling one of them having fallen, partially sighted, for Steward’s feint, they are certainly obstructive.
But ok, they stand still. They don’t change lines. They are not actively breaking the law. At least we should then crack down on incidents like the catcher then running into one of them as he plays the ball and give it as an accidental offside, regardless of the materiality. Not the end of the world, but enough of a deterrent, probably, to stop players getting used to performing what is really a very negative act.
The good, the bad and the ugly
It’s colours season in the world of rugby. A World Cup just around the corner, which once meant that we all might be able to see for the first time what colours some countries actually played in, now we get to see, for the umpteenth time, what the kit manufacturers of the world are going to do to extract a few more hard-earned ducats from our pockets.
Sometimes they get it right. Sometimes they most palpably do not. But most of the time it is just irritating.
Examples of all three were on show in Buenos Aires on Saturday, with Argentina looking resplendent in their classy-looking changed strip. Resplendent would not be the word your correspondent would use to describe the appearance of South Africa, however. ‘Eyesore’ would be one prime candidate. ‘Vivid’ perhaps another, if you feel kind.
Had the most responses ever from the Twitterdom on the Springboks' new "Strange" Strip. 99% of responders think its hideous and demeaning of the great tradition of one of the world of rugby's most iconic brands. Change it SA Rugby – before the RWC game v Scotland on Sept 10 pic.twitter.com/MLfUvVxIUV
— Dan Retief (@Retief_Dan) August 8, 2023
Either way, it was irritating. Neither side needed to wear a change strip, indeed, South Africa’s main reason for having a changed strip – the new regulations about strips for colourblind viewers notwithstanding – is potential clashes against Ireland.
The problem there is that Ireland’s awful new World Cup green and South Africa’s dazzling new emerald-shouldered number is that the two hues really are not that far away from one another… anyway, save that one for September. But this business about creating new colours every so often and then wearing them for no reason is starting to really grate.
Cometh the hour…
Most of the World Cup squads will have, somewhere in the ranks, what is known as a bolter. A pick which was unexpected, probably of a somewhat maverick talent, maybe a youngster, maybe someone whose chances had long been written off as tenuous at best, maybe someone who’s not played in a while. David Havili fits the bill for the All Blacks, for example.
But after the weekend’s games, we reckon that Welsh fly-half Sam Costelow might be someone about to make a name for himself. He showed all of the tricks on Saturday, none of them flashy, but there were clever inside passes, delicate cross-kicks, good vision, solid defence. With Dan Biggar very much in the twilight years now – as evidenced by the missing number on his jersey(!) – Wales might have found a ready-made replacement just in time.
In a word
(disclaimer: we couldn’t watch all the matches, but these are the ones we did)
England: Non-stick
Wales: Solid
France: Stacked
Scotland: Steely
Ireland: Relaxed
Italy: Uncertain
Argentina: Inconsistent
South Africa: Clinical
Namibia and Uruguay: Rough!