A culture of cheating: how should officials deal with rule-breaking in rugby?

This is in article I wrote today about the culture of cheating that pervades professional rugby, and about what officials can, or should, be doing about it. First published here 07/01/11.

Rugby players have always tried to get away with as much as they can. That’s just part of the way the game works – players try to bend the rules, and it’s the referee’s job to keep them in line.

Recently, though, it seems like players have been able to get away with more and more. Whether it’s scrum halves feeding the ball into the second row, hookers throwing it in crooked at the line out or half the team being offside from the kickoff, rule-breaking seems increasingly easy to get away with.

And that’s without getting started on infringements at the breakdown. Here, rule-breaking isn’t just accepted, it seems to be positively encouraged. Anyone who’s ever watched the exploits of a certain Mr McCaw will know how often we see cheating praised as “great back row play”.

The culture around the game is one in which any play, legal or illegal, that gains a player’s team an advantage sees them showered with praise. In the professional era, where results can make or break careers, this is hardly surprising. In an environment where winning is everything, it’s understandable that players and coaches are prepared to do whatever it takes to secure victory.

So, everybody cheats. All the infringements I’ve mentioned are now ubiquitous in the professional game. But if every team cheats to about an equal degree, then doesn’t all the cheating just cancel itself out?

And if this is the case, where does it leave referees? What can, or indeed should, they do to combat a culture that shrugs its shoulders and accepts cheating as an inevitable facet of the professional game?

Perhaps it’s time for a healthy dose of pragmatism. When everybody’s breaking the same rules, to about the same degree, maybe it’s time to accept that trying to enforce those rules no longer serves any useful purpose. Surely consistent non-enforcement would be fairer than the situation we have now, and more realistic than expecting referees to spot every infraction.

More than this, though, clamping down on misdemeanours that players are used to getting away with will just make the game even more stop-start and disjointed than it already is. With scrums already eating up so much time and leading to so many free kicks and penalties, surely adding yet more offences to the list can’t be the answer.

We’ve now reached the stage where cheating seems to be accepted, and expected, by all those associated with professional rugby. Perhaps it’s time we all stopped complaining, gave these rules up for lost and moved on. Surely that’s better than compromising the quality of rugby we get to watch week in week out.

So, is it worth turning a blind eye for the sake of the game?

No, it isn’t. Because turning a blind eye is the way to destroy the game, not save it. It’s simple psychology – the more you let people get away with, the more they’ll try to get away with. Just think about spoilt children. Or footballers.

And once you start letting things go, it’s a slippery slope. Yes, clamping down on all these infringements will cause problems in the short term. Players will complain, and fans probably will too. And yes, referees are still going to miss the odd offence. But they can, and should, do more to stamp out the complacency that currently pervades the professional game.

It is the responsibility of officials to make it clear where the boundaries are, and to punish players who overstep those boundaries. That is the only way they can effectively protect the integrity of the sport they serve.