Rugby, as a certain sub-section of fans are always keen to stress, is a sport that likes to think it is a permanent resident of the moral high ground.
To non-rugby folk, the image of two international team-mates sharing a beer after their opposing clubs face off in a big game isn’t a perfect example of
#RugbyValues so much as it is just entirely normal behaviour.
Similarly, the peddling of slogans such as “football is 90 minutes of pretending you’re hurt, rugby is 80 minutes of pretending you’re not” in the middle of a generational reckoning with the impacts of concussion strikes plenty as a little perverse.
And just try explaining to those who think a prop is for stage actors just how a team with a famed, self-proclaimed “no d********” selection policy came to hand down what was tantamount to a mere one-Test match ban to a player who this week apologised for his behaviour following an alleged assault of a woman in a bar.
To say all that is to note that amid the potential for pious pearl-clutching over the notion that rugby should be above the unedifying discourse surrounding this evening’s second Test between the Lions and the Springboks, recent history suggests anything but.
But the behaviour of Rassie Erasmus, South Africa’s director of rugby, after a first Test loss has still been damaging to the game.
The World Cup-winning coach’s public utterances over the past week began somewhat oddly and concluded with the downright bizarre. By the end of it all, there was a certain irony to the fact that his first post-game comment had been “no excuses for this side”.
Through the somewhat suspicious Twitter account known as ‘Jaco Johan’ to an hour-long piece-to-camera dissection of the performance of first Test referee Nic Berry, it’s been a bad look for the former Munster boss.
It is fair to note that Berry was likely being addressed as plenty more than Sir throughout South Africa last Saturday after he and his officiating team chalked off two Bok tries and failed to bin Hamish Watson for a seemingly dangerous tackle.
But the Australian could hardly have held any reasonable expectation that his performance would have come under such unprecedented public scrutiny.
Referees are professional, with all the standards that entails, but Lions skipper Alun Wyn Jones was right when he pointed out that it’s the hardest gig in the game... anyone who has tried to take charge of even a minis session will tell you the same.
There is no game without officiating teams and yet this week you’d wonder why anyone would bother.
“Match officials form the very fabric of our game — simply, the game would not exist without them,” said Rugby Australia CEO Andy Marinos without any exaggeration.
“As a highly-regarded and respected international referee appointed by World Rugby, the attack on Nic’s integrity, character and reputation is unacceptable.
“It is important to ensure public attacks of this nature are not tolerated. We will continue to provide support to Nic at this time, as both his physical and mental wellbeing remains a priority for us.”
Erasmus should not shoulder sole blame. There is a sense that he was sent down such a track by witnessing how the Lions seemed to get the rub of the green last week only after Warren Gatland expressed surprise at the selection of a South African TMO for the game when the original choice from New Zealand did not travel due to the knock-on effect of the pandemic.
Given his impressive CV too, Erasmus is obviously nobody’s fool. Indeed, how his antics have deflected from his side’s second-half surrender of a nine-point lead may well be described as a bit of ‘cute h*****m’ in his previous coaching stop and in the lack of response from World Rugby through official channels he does seem to have a genuine gripe.
None of that makes it good promotion for the sport and it has all only served to add to the sense that this series is a missed opportunity the game can ill-afford.
The Lions is a once-in-every-four-years chance to attract those whose interest in the game rarely extends beyond the five weekends of the Six Nations while rugby remains the biggest of minority sports at a time when the game’s finances have been plunged into a perilous state thanks to revenue lost during the pandemic.
The Lions can create superstars who make a dent in the wider sporting consciousness, the kind of impact that can have a knock-on effect from the top of the game right down to the bottom.
Yet how much more has now been written about law minutiae than, say, the majesty of Maro Itoje?
Played in soulless empty stadiums, against the backdrop of a third wave of Covid-19 in the host country, and with the effect of the virus in the world champions’ squad still not fully known, it always felt like this particular tour was fighting an uphill battle in this regard.
In addition, the compressed calendar meant that at various points viewers had to make a choice between games and the European Championships, the Olympics, The Open, Wimbledon, the Ulster Championship, Silverstone, the first iteration of cricket’s latest re-invention and the ever-popular monitoring of Premier League transfer largesse.
Amid such competition, how many more eyes beyond the already committed will have been drawn to Cape Town Stadium by such an odd build-up?
A possible burner account and a 60-plus minute sermon no doubt sent tongues wagging but this is hardly a bombastic promoter hyping a prize fight. Indeed, the attention it has garnered feels more like rubbernecking at a car wreck, all the worse that it has become the only story in town.
Like all sports trying to expand their base, the game is forever walking a tightrope between staying true to the already initiated and piquing the interest of new fans.
Ahead of what should be the biggest game since the World Cup final almost two years ago, neither, you feel, has been well served these past seven days.
