All Blacks ask New Zealand to get vaccinated. Video / All Blacks
OPINION:
As much as Jordie Barrett's red card exoneration was a victory for common sense, it was also yet another reason to wonder how stuffed the game will be if it continues to resist making much needed changes.
Barrett was by no means the first player to feellike Josef K in Franz Kafka's novel, The Trial, unsure of the crime he had supposedly committed and having to answer to a remote, inaccessible judicial body.
And nor was this the first time that a judicial committee had overruled the decision made by a referee – with Marika Koroibete the supposed victim in this instance – also having recently been exonerated from a red card, just as French fullback Benjamin Fall was in 2018.
For the judiciary to so regularly be at odds with officials suggests there is either an endemic problem with the laws or there is a weak cohort of referees who aren't quite up to the job.
What's most worrying for rugby is that it is both, and the farcical case of Barrett and the red card that never should have been, is just one of three significant events that have conspired in the last few days to highlight how broken things really are.
Just as Barrett was learning of his fate, news broke that former All Blacks coach Steve Hansen and former New Zealand Rugby chief executive Steve Tew are lending their backing to a new 12-a-side, tournament proposal.
Former All Blacks coach Steve Hansen. Photo / Photosport
Hansen's involvement, as much as anything else, is born of frustration. For the near two decades he was involved with the All Blacks, he relentlessly campaigned for a simplification of the laws: for a comprehensive rewrite so they more accurately reflected the modern game.
There was nothing far fetched or particularly ambitious about what he wanted to see and yet despite seemingly everyone in a position to do something about it agreeing he was right, nothing ever changed.
Not fundamentally at least the way it needed to. There has been some tinkering and gimmicky amendments – the arrival of the goal-line drop out being the most criminally dumb addition in years rewarding as it does aimless, low-skill kicking – but nothing material.
Hansen made some reasoned arguments as to why he has got himself involved in this new venture, none more illuminating than his stated hope that a format played under well-reasoned, bespoke, relevant laws will open World Rugby's eyes to what 15-a-side rugby could look like if administrators were bold enough to make the required law changes to enable the game to flow rather than stutter and confuse even the most die-hard fans.
Hansen may well see the merits of a 12-a-side tournament but his backing for this new venture is proof that he has lost faith entirely in World Rugby.
And as further evidence of how frustration is reaching boiling point, the curious case of South African director of rugby Rassie Erasmus will soon be heard.
Rassie Erasmus. Photo / Photosport
Erasmus has to face a disciplinary hearing after releasing an hour-long video on social media in which he criticised 26 decisions made by Australian referee Nic Berry in the first test of the British & Irish Lions series.
It was an extraordinary attack by Erasmus, unprecedented in scale and impact as never before has a coach so widely distributed his thoughts about a one-off performance by an official.
There is a near unanimous view in rugby circles that Erasmus needs to be heavily punished for the public means by which he chose to raise his concerns.
But equally, there is a near unanimous view that while he was wildly out of line in terms of the process he followed, he wasn't wrong to question the quality of Berry's performance.
The standard of officiating has been and continues to be a massive concern and it was, probably, only a matter of time before a high-profile coach self-combusted the way Erasmus did.
The complex laws don't help and nor do the changing demands of World Rugby – with the governing body flip-flopping every few months as to what specific facets it wants to see referees prioritise.
Maybe there is a quick fix here - simplify the laws and see refereeing performances improve as a direct consequence.
But that argument is hard to make as so often referees in big games are guilty of making multiple basic errors where they don't see forward passes, clear offsides and don't effectively communicate as a team of three.
Rugby doesn't just need new laws, it also needs new, better trained, better prepared referees.
The storm clouds are certainly gathering and if the people running the international game don't want to be battered by the storm, they need to respond to what they are being told.
