Loose Pass: ‘Provocative’ waterboys a ‘nuisance’ and the ‘era-defining’ Champions Cup rivalry

waterboy-rugby-leinster-v-la-rochelle

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with the ubiquitous waterboys, awful commentary standards and the one we have all been waiting for…

Get them off the field

In a mad five minutes in Tshwane on Saturday, the Bulls scored one try they shouldn’t have (as was detailed in this week’s law discussion), but Lyon also didn’t get a penalty try when they probably should have two minutes later, then moments later got a try which didn’t sit well either.

Referee Luke Pearce was within his rights to tell the irked Bulls players that they needed to pay more attention and play to the whistle, but Bulls captain Marcell Coetzee was adamant that Lyon pulled a fast one, gesturing with no little irritation to the waterboy, who was still walking around the Lyon players.

There’s plenty to be said for allowing medics onto the field when they see someone down and needing treatment, you only need to see a couple of the concussion knocks from the weekend past to understand that there are safety aspects there that trump the game.

Waterboys do not. They are becoming a nuisance, not least because of the identities of some of them (think Rassie Erasmus and Neil Jenkins), not to mention, as in Jenkins’ case, the actions. Similarly to the substitutes who feel it to be ok to charge into piles of players in the in-goal area when a try is scored, they are occasionally provocative and have very little or no need to really be there the whole time, nor are they contributing in any way to the game.

If waterboys come on, they should only do so (if at all, more in a moment) at stoppages, i.e. when the referee calls ‘time off’.

It would have cleared up a lot of the confusion over the Lyon try had Mr. Pearce initially shooed the waterboy away on this basis. He explained to Coetzee that as he had not called ‘time off’, the Lyon half-back was fully within his rights to tap and go. Fair enough, but with a waterboy there as a distraction, it seems plausible that the Bulls mistakenly assumed there was an actual game stoppage rather than just switching off per se. It does not feel right that someone from the sidelines can be on the pitch and in a position to cause this problem.

A solution? Cut down on the time waterboys can come on the pitch at all and definitely don’t let them on unless time is officially off. There’s enough people on the pitch when time is running already.

Comments on the commentators

It is feasible that the sheer number of changes in the Lyon ranks caused challenges. It is also feasible that, as Owen Nkumane was commentating to really only one target audience – South Africans – there was little need or pressure from his bosses for him to get his notes on the Lyon squad deeply informative.

But considering how many people around the world will have listened to the commentary, it was very poor form to have him list the Lyon squad by surname only but do the home side with full names and a couple of stats or get the nationality of a player wrong. And while pronouncing foreign player names is a challenge – French commentators are not great with Afrikaans names either – considering he is commentating in English, pronouncing Godwin as Goodwin for the entire match is inexcusable.

Commentators have a job to be informative, researched and articulate. Frankly, it is a job many of us would commit crimes to be able to do and as such, it is a position of privilege.

Mr. Nkumane manages to articulate reasonably well and mistakes happen and nobody is perfect, but even so, he let us down badly on being informative and researched this weekend past.

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Le Crack or Le Craic?

This year’s instalment is in two parts but that neither will be the final is not important: the Leinster v La Rochelle rivalry is becoming one of those that defines an era.

As Saracens v Clermont v Toulon defined the teenies, as Wasps v Munster v Toulouse defined the noughties, so Leinster and La Rochelle (Bordeaux and/or Toulouse will eventually have something to say about this too) are the teams giving us the benchmark memories in Europe after the dark day interruption of covid.

It’s staggering to think that Leinster, so good for so long, have won nothing major for nearly three years and have only been European champions once in the past decade; just as surprising as it is to consider that La Rochelle are yet to win a domestic title or even finish top of the regular season Top 14 table, yet have twice been champions of Europe.

Ronan O’Gara’s side has been a bona fide bogey for possibly the best sub-international European team there has ever been, and while that particular monkey may well have been briefly shaken off during the pool stages, it is redolent of one of those ‘how the hell did they manage that’ comebacks from La Rochelle that they should once again be hopping onto Leinster’s back for the quarter-finals.

While the other three games carry an unmistakable whiff of fait accompli among them, this one is anything but. All eyes on Dublin on Saturday for another instalment of the match that has defined the twenties thus far.