England Lose - Sour Grapes

England lost to New Zealand in the final of the Women's Rugby World Cup and cannot seem to get over it. After going into the tournament as red-hot favourites, they came up short when it really mattered. 

After a red card offense for reckless play leading to head contact, and the injuring of the other player early in the game, England now want to change the rules. In doing so they may end up endangering players. England coach, Simon Middleton is claiming the red card for England's Lydia Thompson was unfair as it was 'accidental'. What Middleton appears to be calling for is lengthier yellow cards for such head contact.

This endangers players and must be summarily dismissed as a proposal. The effect of it would mean no real penalty for foul play. In the final played over the weekend, England went down to 14 players for the remainder of the match after a collision by Thompson with New Zealand's star player and all-time great, Portia Woodman, which led to the NZ player being put out of the game. If Thompson was to get 20 minutes in the sin bin, she could re-enter the game, England would be back to 15 players, but NZ loses its biggest talent. There is an obvious dividend received by the offending team. They would succeed in eliminating their biggest try-scoring threat.

In this case, Thompson made no attempt to avoid contact. She simply ran into Woodman, there was no tackle, it was simply reckless play. Watching the game I knew it was a red card offense but commented that it'll be a yellow due to the game being a World Cup final. When the referee conducted the mandatory video review and called the play a red card, I was gobsmacked. Finally, a rugby referee called it correctly and against England who think they own the game. Credit to the referee.

But play such as that by England must always result in a sending off. Player safety is paramount.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/nov/13/she-did-not-deserve-this-middleton-urges-rethink-after-thompson-red

All Blacks Rebuild

All Blacks 9 - Ireland 16

The All Blacks failed to score a try. They've now lost 2 of the last 3 against Ireland. New Zealand rugby has to be honest about this and face it, by their own high standards the All Blacks are now weak and have to rebuild.

What is going wrong? Three things stand out as far as I can see:

1. Fitness - once one of the fittest teams in world rugby the All Blacks now seem to run out of puff as early as half way through the first half. That's too early, they need to train to go the full 80 minutes. Size has taken over from lean and mean, and size alone doesn't cut it I'm afraid. NZ teams are looking to steamroll their opponents, instead of being elusive and using the ball to beat their opponents.

2. They're selecting teams based on past record and popularity with the management. They need to get back to selecting teams based on current form, and dropping players that are not performing to expectations, including decision-making, yes that includes the captain Kieran Read.

3. Leadership on the field is not there. Things stay the same until the All Blacks ring the changes and replacements come on with a new set of instructions. This was starkly obvious in the latest Ireland game, when it was obvious they needed to keep the ball low at foot. They started doing this and getting somewhere well into the second half when replacements came on, but it should have been their tactic from the beginning. Why at foot and low? It keeps the team going forward, and gains field position. The opposition has to get down to pick up the ball, thus taking longer to return the kick. It keeps the defender turning around to defend as well.  Instead the All Blacks were putting in high kicks which Ireland could swiftly return, or the All Blacks would fumble trying to pick up their own kick (in many such cases the ball in this position really needed to be nudged ahead with the foot, putting further pressure on Ireland).

These three factors reflect poorly on management; they're not preparing the players, are being hidebound when they select and they're not making it clear how they expect the team to be led.

Compare the All Blacks with their women counterparts, the Black Ferns. They lost to France admittedly, but in every respect they surpass the men in my three areas of the game. They're fit, they select based on form and they're well led on the field.