The fallout between World Rugby and
the clubs has escalated farther with the
French clubs commencing legal pro-
ceedings against the governing body.
This opening shot in the latest battle
for control of the players was fired on
Wednesday night when a legal letter
was sent from the Top 14 clubs, under
their umbrella organisation, the Ligue
Nationale de Rugby (LNR), to World
Rugby.
The letter was sent in advance of yes-
terday’s meeting of the World Rugby
council, in which it approved an exten-2018 — is different. I’ll defend the
bloke who slows possession down to
avoid the quick ball that will result in
a try; I’ll shake my head at cheating
that is not of the moment.
Or do I? Really?
I want to, but if I think back to a
decade at Bath I don’t recall ever
saying: “Come on, lads, that’s not
within the spirit of the sport” or some
such romantic nonsense.
The sport, all sport, needs to do
everything within its power to
eradicate cheating, but Haden’s
death is a reminder that the actual
participants are rarely going to be the
catalyst for an on-field clean-up.
I fear performance enhancement
is part of the same problem. For the
elite, sport is not a recreational rest
from the woes of this world that it is
for 99 per cent of us. It is what they
do and how they are judged. This is
not a defence of cheating in whatever
form it takes so much as recognition.
A good man will be buried on
Monday and I would like to think,
even in Wales, the majority of rugby
fans will accept that he did what he
felt he had to do for the benefit of his
team-mates. That is the nature of
international sport. Roll around in
peace, Andy.screamed it was worth a speculative
wave of the hand. He got away with it.
Preposterous, but the blame belonged
with the referee, not a man whose
greatness was built as much on the
will to win as innate genius and an
immortal hand.
Thierry Henry (I confess to being
an Arsenal supporter) had a
reputation for fairness that was
shattered in Ireland when his
deliberate handball helped
William Gallas
score the goal
that ended
Ireland’s hopes
of qualifying for
the 2010 World
Cup. In that split second he
had to decide whether to avoid
contact with the ball or commit
a misdemeanour that would
help his mates, although
morally unacceptable
to many.
But is this instinctive
cheating immoral in any
way? To win at all costs by
planning illegalities off the field —
I think of the Harlequins
“Bloodgate” scandal and the clear
premeditation of the Australian
cricketers’ ball-tampering sensation inperceived as role models. Haden
reminds us that such wide-eyed
innocence is both ridiculous and
unfair on our sporting heroes.
In New Zealand, it provokes
headlines if I describe Richie McCaw
as a cheat. Never mind if that was
an essential part of his game, an
essential part of the game at the
highest level. You do what you
have to do in that moment of crisis.
The Kiwi locks of 1978 went even
further, if they indeed did practise
taking the dive. I’d like to take
the tale with a pinch of salt.
We all love to use the phrase
“Test-match animals”. But a
Test-match animal is more
than just someone
with immense ability and
a will to win. Test-match
animals do what it takes.
Things that perhaps
separate them from equally
gifted but less committed
contemporaries.
Maradona did what he did
against England in the 1986
World Cup quarter-final
because every instinctjoins the long list
of deceased All
Black greats. Yet
Haden’s attitude
to the moment
when he fooled
the referee has
never softened.
I have heard
him recount
the incident on
a few
occasions. It
raised a laugh.
It was ancient
history, after
all. “I don’t
have any
regrets,” he once said on the subject of
a dive he claimed was rehearsed the
day before the game. Maybe it was all
part of a good after-dinner story. “I
don’t think there are [any regrets]
among the rest of the team that
played that day. There’s certainly not
been any about the final score.”
Had the boot been on the other
foot, the second-row would have
shrugged his shoulders. All part of
the game. We live in an era where
sport has become a retreat from the
long-accepted degeneration of our
public life. Sports persons areI
t was more than 40 years ago;
- An English schoolboy
sitting in the East Stand of
Cardiff Arms Park, Wales leading
the All Blacks going into the final
minutes. A lineout not far from
where I was sitting, hymns and arias
all around me.
Wales were about to end a 25-year
losing run against New Zealand. Never
mind that this actually constituted a
mere five matches. Facts didn’t spoil
the best headlines, even back then.
“Filthy” Frank Oliver, as New
Zealand’s front jumper was
affectionately known, made the
slightest move as if pushed (and it was
indeed the slightest of pushes by
Geoff Wheel, the Welsh lock, that
referee Roger
Quittenton
claimed was
the reason for
the penalty
that would be
awarded). Andy
Haden, ever
the more
theatrical of
the two men,
catapulted out.
Nobody had
touched him.
To this day
most people
present believe it
was Haden who
fooled the late
English referee.
Brian McKechnie,
a Test cricketer
and All Blacks full back of modest
ability, stepped up and robbed Wales
of their victory.
Wales have yet to end that losing
run, which stretches back to 1953.
In the quarter-century after the
infamous — in Wales at least —
Haden dive, Wales have only
managed to get within that solitary-
point defeat on the one occasion.
Haden, earlier this week, joined
Quittenton in the ranks of the late.
On Monday his funeral service will be
held at Eden Park. The 69-year-old
Sport
Haden’s death a reminder cheating is
part of sport – even for the ‘honourable’
Former All Black captain McCaw
was known for being streetwiseStuart Barnes
jo
o
B
H
t
w
th
n I h t a o r I h a hregrets”heonce id
Haden, circled, leaps out of the lineout to feign being pushed, resulting in the All Blacks’ winning penalty, and, left, with Eddie Jones in 2015
Top 14 launches legal action as club v country row intensifies
Owen Slot Chief Rugby Correspondent sion to Regulation Nine, the rule that
governs the release of players from
their clubs to play for their countries.
World Rugby has extended Regula-
tion Nine to allow for an expanded
autumn Test window, which will run
from October 24 to December 7. In that
period, England are due to play the Bar-
barians and finish the 2020 Six Nations,
against Italy before a grouped tourna-
ment involving the Six Nations teams
plus Japan and Fiji.
The influential French clubs are
seeking to oppose that extension and
seek compensation for the loss of
their players.Despite receiving the legal letter
before its meeting, World Rugby voted
through the temporary extension
yesterday morning. The letter from the
LNR explained why it believes that the
Regulation Nine extension is detri-
mental to the club game. The letter is
written as a request for information
before further proceedings.
The information the LNR seeks in
the letter is an understanding of how
World Rugby is constructed. World
Rugby is divided into a number of dif-
ferent entities and companies. LNR’s
letter is both a shot across the bows and
a request to know to which of thesecompanies its legal challenge should be
addressed.
Though the English clubs have held
back from such a legal challenge, it is
well known that their sympathies lie
with the French. This legal battle is part
of a greater conflict between the club
game and the international game.
In the short term, World Rugby is try-
ing to deliver a package of international
games big enough to alleviate the post-
Covid financial crisis. In the long term,
it is promoting a proposal to create an
annual international window stretch-
ing across October and November,
which would then in turn force theclubs to restructure the calendar. The
clubs believe that this plan would be
financially disastrous for them.
The French clubs are now challeng-
ing World Rugby’s short-term proposal
for this autumn. However, both English
and French clubs fear these changes
could become permanent.
French and English clubs are also
concerned about World Rugby’s confir-
mation that The Rugby Championship
will run from November 7 to December- Their South Africa and Argentina
internationals would be away for that
period, not to mention a two-week
quarantine on arrival in New Zealand.
the times | Friday July 31 2020 1GM 57