France held on by the skin of their teeth – literally, to beat Ireland in their quarter-final. Axelle Berthoumieu sank her teeth into the forearm of the jackling Aoife Wafer in the 42nd minute. Wafer won the penalty at the time for the turnover but not the appeal to the referee to review the incident. The allegation was picked up post-match, leading to an initial 12-week ban for Berthoumieu. It was reduced to nine weeks because of her clean previous disciplinary record, remorse and a public apology.
Irish captain Sam Monaghan made her case during the game but beyond that what else could she do? Further appeals would have only risked getting her team offside with officials. In a game with just five points separating the two sides, you can imagine the impact a red card would have had on the final outcome. All of this begs the question, is it time to give the captain’s challenge another go?
One of the best things about refereeing in rugby is that humanity is still at its centre. There are laws which leave themselves open to interpretation and give referees the chance to enable the free flow of play. But humans are fallible, so moments will be missed. Even the keenest of eyes can’t see everything. We have seen a challenge work well within the NRL and NRLW. Strengthening, rather than undermining, the relationship between referee and players. It’s seen the debate taken out of key moments, leaving us to talk about the action that was rather than what might have been.
It has been trialled in rugby before, featuring in Super Rugby Aotearoa in 2021. Named then the “captain’s referral”, this allowed captains to request a review for infringements from the last restart in play right up until a try was scored. Or alternatively, anytime they thought foul play had taken place. In the last five minutes, it was then a free for all, allowing captains to challenge whatever call they liked. These parameters ultimately set the initiative up to fail. Leading to players to challenge everything, perhaps cynically in part, slowing the game right down.
If we are to see this initiative return, rugby needs to follow rugby league’s example more closely. None of this going over every play in the lead-up to a try.
Like league, it should simply be the opportunity to challenge once per game, keeping the challenge if you are successful. It should only be deployable by captains on decisions that lead to a structured restart of play such as a scrum or penalty. And it shouldn’t be able to be used if a referee has opted to play advantage.
More tightly controlling the application of a captain’s challenge within the game of rugby should get the balance right between speed and a fair go.
The above terms would have allowed Ireland’s Monaghan to challenge the foul play as it happened in the play that led to Ireland receiving a penalty. Taking the time to review that footage on the basis of the captain’s complaint surely would have let the referees see the same picture as we all saw on our screens.
The biting incident overshadowed the action of the quarter-final. Any suspension after the fact does little to assuage the fact that had the moment been seen, we would likely be seeing Ireland in this week’s semifinal.
Referees are doing the best out there, just like the players themselves. If we let them work together in these crucial moments, rugby will be better for it.
Alice Soper is a sports columnist for the Herald on Sunday. A former provincial rugby player and current club coach, she has a particular interest in telling stories of the emerging world of women’s sports.