Rugby has always been viewed as a tough sport. Players coming off the pitch with blood pouring out of a nostril, a shiner being sported underneath an eye or even a few stud marks down the back of the legs are all common sights at all levels of the game and are generally accepted as “going with the territory”. However, the last 12 months has seen the re-emergence of one of the most heinous crimes possible on a rugby pitch. That of eye-gouging.
In Kent, Gravesend RFC’s number 8, Clarence Harding is coming to terms with the fact that he will never see out of his right eye following an alleged incident of gouging in a recent Kent Cup match, an act that is, quite rightly, now being pursued through the criminal court. The last year has also seen the likes of Schalk Burger, Sergio Parisse, David Attoub and Julien Dupuy all banned following incidents involving “contact with the eye area”.
IRB bottlers
In a way the International Rugby Board (IRB) have made a rod for their own backs in the manner in which they punish such offences. During the Lions tour, Schalk Burger clearly placed his fingers in the eye of Irish winger, Luke Fitzgerald. This was the first of many incidents that have since been cited and the IRB had the opportunity to set an immediate strict precedent. As it turned out they instead chose to give Burger a pathetic eight week ban, a punishment which merely amounted to a few weeks off before the Tri-Nations. Burger wasn’t the only one to get off lightly; Sergio Parisse received a similar ban having been cited for a similar offence.
This lack of action from the sport’s governing body has now had fairly wide consequences as a minority of players now view gouging in the same way that “a bit of shoeing” was viewed in the 1970s and 1980s. It is not the same, just ask Clarence Harding.
The recent banning of David Attoub (70 weeks) and Julien Dupuy (23 weeks) show that the IRB have now taken into account the public outrage and fury regarding the issue. Unfortunately, the fact that they have had wait so long before doing so will still leave a bitter taste.
Time for growth
Rugby is a great game. A sport that combines great acts of power and strength with skill and subtlety. However, for the sport to continue to grow it needs the youth of today to take up the game and take it forward. With children being targeted by a host of other sports, rugby needs to realise that no right minded parent will allow their child to play a sport when headlines highlighting the game’s victims are prominent in the mainstream press.
The sport has tried to clean up its act over recent years to make it more marketable, including banning the use of the boot in rucks. It now finds itself in a similar situation where players will try anything to win on the field. The IRB have not been able to suitably address the issue, it is now up to the players to stand up, otherwise rugby will be relegated to the minority sport status.