Dalton Papali'i was sent off during the Blues' loss to the Crusaders. Photo / Getty Images
Dalton Papali'i was sent off during the Blues' loss to the Crusaders. Photo / Getty Images
OPINION
Blues captain Dalton Papali’i killed his team’s faint chance of a victory in Christchurch on Saturday night, but he’s done his country a massive service by being red carded.
Papali’i, in deciding to shoot after Crusaders playmaker Richie Mo’unga to wallop him behind the gainline, has highlightedjust how fine the margins are between triumph and disaster in the high-intensity fixtures.
In the 43rd minute, the Blues captain anticipated that the ball was heading “out the back” to Mo’unga and so he took off, eyes fixed on the little No 10, his mind locked into one thought – to get to him before he was able to get the pass away.
A determined openside looking to bury an elusive first-five is rugby’s version of dog bites man: it’s woven into the fabric of the game and Papali’i was doing nothing other than following his instincts.
Chasing down a tricky No 10 is in the DNA of all good opensides – which Papali’i certainly is – but he was a split-second out with his timing, a fraction high in his body position and his shoulder made direct contact with Mo’unga’s head.
Dalton Papali'i is sent off during the Blues' loss to the Crusaders. Photo / Getty Images
It left the Blues a man down for 20 minutes, but come the World Cup, there will be no capacity for teams to restore themselves to 15 players if someone is red carded and so what Papali’i has illustrated to his fellow aspiring All Blacks is that the bar as to what constitutes astute and disciplined decision-making sits at an all-time high.
The game was once licensed to run as an extended Tom and Jerry cartoon, but it no longer is and Papali’i’s red card serves as a reminder that if players want to stay on the field for the full 80 minutes, they will have to at times curb their natural instincts and stop themselves on occasion from doing the very things they are on the field to do.
A decade ago, the game had an entirely different risk-reward balance to the one it now has.
The consequences of getting the timing and height wrong of a tackle were nowhere near as severe as they are now and so charging after a No 10 the way Papali’i did was seen as a justifiable risk.
But now, the risks far outweigh the rewards and in the context of how the game is refereed, Papali’i’s decision could be considered rash.
Once he committed, there was no way to pull out and the greatest sin the big hitters can commit in this climate is to approach a potential collision without the ability to react or even pull out.
Papali’i opened himself to risk and it therefore became impossible to justify the reward of nailing the No 10 behind the gainline against the risk of potentially getting it wrong and being sent off.
There’s simply no tolerance any more for intimidation – no ability for an openside to indulge in the once treasured art of knocking a first-five off their game through endless reminders of their presence.
Gone is the ability to bump a No 10 a fraction after he’s kicked the ball away. Gone is the ability to tackle the dancing No 10 a fraction after he’s passed and gone is any notion at all that this natural theatre between the hunter and the hunted is all part of rugby’s allure.
Richie Mo'unga receives attention during his side's victory. Photo / photosport.nz
The risks of making bold, committed defensive actions are simply too high and however tempting it may be to chase the high-impact plays that often swing games, or indulge in a long-war of intimidation designed to induce errors, New Zealand’s best players are going to have to learn the art of resisting.
Where once the great defensive players were revered for their level of sacrifice, now the real skill is having the clarity of thinking and strength of mind to not commit to certain collision scenarios.
It doesn’t make for a great selling point but caution now wins the day in big rugby matches, and in a World Cup year especially, it has changed to some extent the defensive qualities international coaches are looking for in their loose forwards.
Whoever the All Blacks send out in jerseys six, seven and eight later this year, the coaching group has to have total trust all three will innately know how to avoid putting themselves in vulnerable defensive positions where they incur the risk of being red carded.
Where once coaches were primarily looking for the highest-impact tacklers, now the higher priority is to find strong decision-makers – players who can recognise instantaneously which defensive situations are loaded with unacceptable risk.
That message should have got through on the back of Papali’i’s red card.
