Is rugby in danger of going soft?

Julian Redelinghuys acknowledges he is wading into dangerous waters, but the forthright scrum coach of the Lions goes on to caution that rugby runs the risk of going soft.

The former Bok tighthead was asked to comment on an incident in last week’s clash between his team and the Bulls when tighthead prop Carlu Sadie cleaned out an opponent in the ruck by questionable, if not dangerous, means.

“I’m all for player safety,” Redelinghuys was quick to point out. But, “the one thing I enjoyed about rugby growing up was watching guys like Bakkies [Botha] cleaning out players at the ruck. I think a lot of us fell in love with the toughness of rugby.

“I know I’m in dangerous water when I say this, and rugby does well [still] allowing players to be tough, but we must be careful that it doesn’t become a soft game,” Redelinghuys said.

“If there is a good clean-out it should be rewarded. It is nice to see guys putting in effort, putting in a tough tackle and carrying hard. That is what I fell in love with.”

He was loath to delve too deep into the merits of the Sadie incident but the point he made about the soul of the game feeds into a wider debate about rugby being at odds with itself. Physical domination remains one of the primary objectives, but the sport increasingly needs to be seen to be safeguarding player health and wellbeing.

By extension in a sport that is heavily policed, the game’s officiating has become more fraught. Players now more than ever run the risk of being penalised and potentially sent off.

Not that rugby needs more grey areas. The scrum, an area to which Redelinghuys is paid to bring clarity, he concedes, is often as clear as mud. “It is very difficult to ref the scrum. There are so many things that change in the scrum to look for. We try to pick up what cues certain refs look for. We try to give them good pictures on those cues.

“I have sympathy for them. When you dominate a lot of scrums in a row you’d hope to get favourable calls where there is doubt in those 50/50 calls,” he said with a wry smile.

The lack of uniformity in the way scrums are officiated in the different hemispheres exacerbates the problem. “The difference is all SA teams pride themselves at scrum time, all the time. Overseas teams try to get the ball in and out. The refs don’t have those types of decisions to make.

“Tappe Henning is heading up the refs in the URC [United Rugby Championship]. I like the way they are doing it at the moment. They chat to us on a weekly basis to get our points of view. We try to get solutions. We don’t want 100 reset scrums in a game. We want the right calls to be made most of the time. In time those processes will deliver results,” Redelinghuys said.

The Lions take on the Stormers in a URC game at Ellis Park on Saturday. Redelinghuys reached for hyperbole in talking up the anticipated scrum-time confrontation.

“They had a good battle against the Sharks ... It will be a nice forward battle but that is what we like. I live for those battles up front where you are tested to the max. Two killers meet, one must die.”