This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with the ‘Leinster bias’ incident and Wales and England’s civil wars…

The anatomy of good team bias

Let’s face it, banging on about serially successful teams getting all the marginal calls is hardly a new addition to the sport. Or any sport, for that matter. Yet the feelings can run especially strong in rugby, where a significant portion of the calls are marginal/interpreted.

But for rugby players, international ones at that, to go all Kevin Keegan at reporters about it is a bit of a turn-up for two reasons: firstly because the main incident itself is one worth looking at in a wider game context and secondly because it lends further weight to the hypothesis that despite the success – before November at least – of the national team, all is not harmony among the regions.

The incident. A quick note of legalese for technicalities at clean-outs pertaining to this incident.

Law 15.3: Players involved in all stages of the ruck must have their heads and shoulders no lower than their hips.

Law 15.4: Each team has an offside line that runs parallel to the goal line through the hindmost point of any ruck participant. If that point is on or behind the goal line, the offside line for that team is the goal line.

Law 15.5: An arriving player must be on their feet and join from behind their offside line.

Law 15.6: A player may join alongside but not in front of the hindmost player.

Law 15.7: A player must bind onto a team-mate or an opposition player. The bind must precede or be simultaneous with contact with any other part of the body.

For Law 15.3, Jordie Barrett is fine. Head clearly above hips. Bundee Aki is not in this picture, but he did have rights to go for the ball, so his head to hip position is immaterial.

For Laws 15.4, 5 and 6, Barrett occupies a murky zone. He is on his feet. His starting position is behind the offside line. And although he goes beyond the offside line before making contact with Aki, he does join alongside the hindmost player. Frustratingly, he does not go through what used to be called ‘the gate’, but the ruck laws as they are do not make that as explicit as it used to be. Yet the video clearly shows his outside foot well beyond the offside line before he makes contact, so he is clearly offside.

Finally, Law 15.7. Barrett does bind with the arm that is on the outside of the ruck. But his arm on the inside, the one below the shoulder which makes contact with Aki’s head, is tucked in shoulder charge position. He essentially commits an offence with one arm, but fulfils technicalities with the other – and the bind is simultaneous with the contact with Aki’s bonce.

So how much of an offence is it? If the arm binds correctly, if he joins a ruck in a legal head-above-hip position (leave aside the offside for a moment) and if Aki’s head is down, how is Barrett supposed to avoid the contact?

This was a problem addressed very sensibly by Ben O’Keeffe in last year’s Wales v Scotland Six Nations match, in which a clear head contact was not penalised because it was a rugby incident. And again, although Barrett is offside, that has nothing to actually do with his clean-out technique, and does not affect whether this is a rugby incident or not.

The flip side of that is the arm which does not bind. It clearly tucks. It clearly charges. It clearly makes contact with Aki’s head. And tucking your arm into contact is not in any form a rugby action. Simultaneous with the bind it may be, but it is illegal and should have been reviewed.

And there, in rather more than a nutshell, is the problem for opponents and officials that many good teams create. They do enough of the technical things well that the simultaneous infringements get lost in review.

Ireland’s national team has been at it for years, although strangely this November past, the technical levels fell; almost immediately the infringements began to pile up prolifically. The same has happened to Leinster in some memorable big games down the years. South Africa and especially New Zealand have been good at it for yonks as well.

But back to the ‘wider game’ aspect: these kinds of clearouts, where cleaners come alongside the last player, clearly outside the width of the player on the ground and ending up clearing out almost across the ruck rather than through it, are a nuisance and make a mockery of what we want to see at ruck time. It would be good if the principles about coming through the gate and cleaning straight were enforced a little more than they currently are.

Peace on earth and goodwill to a-oh

The year ends for England and Wales with both in a state of horrible boardroom flux. Nigel Walker was only ever going to be as good as the squabbling tribes around him allowed him to be, but the management of the change at the WRU, so desperately in need of stability and strategic direction, continues to be more Eddie Jones than anything else.

Perhaps Wales’ only consoling thought is that the way the RFU has fallen apart in the past few days makes the Welsh infighting look like seagulls arguing over a chip.

Both under-pressure coaches remain in their respective roles, both are, despite the problems on the field, looking like the most sensible and stable persons within their respective administrations, yet both may end up being the first head placed on spikes by incoming bigwigs. A fun Six Nations approaches.