JUNE/JULY 2015 // NZ RUGBY WORLD //

[ TROUBLED SOUL ]

he out of date law book and the

pervading culture of rule bending

are more of a concern than a

worry. But in late March-early-

April, there was reason to wonder whether

rugby’s culture was more rotten than

misguided.

It transpired that at halftime of the

Blues versus Waratahs game in week six,

Michael Cheika entered the referee’s

room. This is an absolute no-no and

against the rules of the game.

Cheika, who is also the Wallabies coach,

has previous form at this and is also,

highly signiﬁcantly, holding a suspended

six-month sentence that will see him

banned for six months if found guilty of

breaching Sanzar’s code of conduct.

The facts painted a terrible picture: at

halftime the Waratahs were ahead 7-6 but

had suffered badly at the hands of referee

Jaco Peyper with the penalty count

eight-one in favour of the Blues. In the

second half, the penalty count was

nine-one to the Waratahs.

When the Blues, a few days later,

complained about what happened, the

outcome was that Sanzar wrote warning

letters to Cheika and Peyper and wanted

to keep the whole business secret.

The New Zealand Herald broke the

story, however, and from that point on,

Sanzar’s stance became a major worry.

First the Waratahs were able to mock the

game when their chief executive Greg

Harris said Cheika didn’t even know it was

against the rules to talk to the match

ofﬁcials during the break.

He’d faced a previous judicial hearing

for doing just that during the Heineken

Cup in 2011-2012. Worse, though, was the

fact Sanzar had wanted to keep the whole

business off the books.

Their initial secrecy implied they had

something to hide and in this case, they

most deﬁnitely did. They had failed to deal

with the matter with the appropriate level

of scrutiny it required. There was no peer

review of Peyper’s performance, while

there was a deﬁnite attempt to play down

the seriousness, almost trivialise, the

incident.

That was ugly because the integrity of

the contest was challenged by Cheika’s

breach of protocol. It didn’t matter if he’d

been going into the ofﬁcial’s room to chat

I just don’t want us to be disadvantaged, so if the

other coach is going to talk to him, I want to be

in the room listening to what’s said and have our say

as well.’ Dave Rennie

BAD IDEA

Michael Cheika should

not have entered the

referee’s room at

halftime of a Super

Rugby game.

about the weather or swap baking recipes,

the instant he stepped across the

threshold, he’d broken the rules and

contaminated the game.

It was weak leadership from Sanzar and

Chiefs coach Dave Rennie said as much.

“I’m really shocked by it to be honest,

because it’s opened up a can of worms,”

he said.

“I think they’d be smarter to say, ‘you

can’t talk to the referee at half-time. If you

want to go through the referee, you’ve got

to go through your captain.

“I just don’t want us to be

disadvantaged, so if the other coach is

going to talk to him, I want to be in the

room listening to what’s said and have our

say as well.”

By the end of the saga, it became clear

that the playing ﬁeld in rugby is not level.

The public carry expectations about

players and coaches and these men are

held accountable for each and every one of

their actions. But referees, their bosses

and administrators... well they can operate

in a secret world where they send letters to

one another, belittle the media, accuse

them of beating stories up and effectively

play judge, jury and executioner.

The credibility of the sport was badly

tarnished by the Cheika incident because

it not only set a precedent; it highlighted a

culture of secrecy, lack of accountability

and ultimately said it was okay for the

integrity of the game to be compromised.

t’s a forlorn hope that rugby will begin

the necessary clean-up job before the

World Cup. All 20 teams will be

working feverishly on ways to ﬁnd an

extra inch or two of space –0legally,

semi-legally or illegally.

The games, especially the knock-out

games, will be tight, tense affairs with

little rugby and contentious refereeing

decisions. Half the crowd, or more, won’t

have a clue what’s happening but that

won’t stop them being certain Richie

McCaw is cheating.

There will be judicial hearings that

make no sense, scandals and controversies

that go unpunished and all the time,

World Rugby will trumpet the commercial

success and the expected growth of the

game.

But to those who can recall a different

time – a time when the cheating wasn’t

constant; when the law book didn’t

appear so archaic and out of date; when

there was a culture of integrity; when

there was an appreciation of belonging to

a movement that went beyond self-

interest – the World Cup will highlight

that rugby has taken a few wrong turns

since 1996.

It needn’t be terminal or disastrous, but

it does need to be addressed.