Twickenham foul mouths and boo boys undermine the spirit of the game

Much is being said and written about the insidious effect of television replays on major rugby occasions. It is a topical subject but only part of a bigger, more concerning picture. Set aside, for a moment, images of the poor referee struggling in technology’s grip and reflect instead on what else we saw and heard at the weekend. Could it be that the conduct of those who watch and play rugby union – and the fundamentals of respect upon which the sport is based – is changing before our eyes?

Take the Millennium Stadium. When the injured Welsh fly-half, Dan Biggar, went off after 47 minutes against Australia, on came Rhys Priestland. Now, I have met Priestland and know him to be charming, thoughtful company. He also plays in a nation which is supposed to revere its No10s. Yet sections of the crowd showed loud disapproval of the new arrival before he had even touched the ball, as if he were a hapless Cardiff City striker who had not found the net in months.

At Twickenham, as the letters page of Tuesday’s Guardian makes disturbingly clear, there were also worrying developments. Thank you to Keith Wilson of South Yorkshire for flagging up the homophobic abuse he heard directed at the Welsh referee, Nigel Owens. “As a lifelong rugby fan, a straight man in his 60s, I could not believe that a bunch of men half my age watching a rugby match in the 21st century could be capable of hurling such nasty, foul-mouthed, racist, homophobic abuse at an openly gay match official. My equally disgusted son is in his 30s but next to him, hearing this vitriol, was a little boy. I felt ashamed.” Wilson went on to suggest, probably correctly, that “if it had been a football match they’d have been thrown out”. He was right, too, to identify excessive drinking as a likely factor.

Up in the corporate seats there was more disquiet, this time at the lack of hush when New Zealand performed their haka. Several Kiwi spectators were unhappy at the loud choruses of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot which greeted the traditional Maori challenge. A New Zealand reader, Ross Anderson of High Wycombe, also contacted the Guardian to complain about the “82,000 unsporting yahoos who drowned the sound of the haka and booed the kickers”. He did not actually attend the game, having given up going to Twickenham years ago “as I didn’t like being surrounded by xenophobic yobs who knew little about rugby”.

Virtually any kind of response to the haka, as we know, is a diplomatic minefield nowadays. It used to be one of the sport’s great sights but there are increasing signs of it being perceived outside New Zealand as an overblown pantomime-exhibit staged for self-serving reasons and, possibly, commercial advantage. Welcome to the era of the computer haka, performed with half an eye on the YouTube market.

Either way, there are elements of the Twickenham crowd who, increasingly, appear to feel anything non-English is fair game. There were even a few boos when Richie McCaw was announced as the man of the match. Now McCaw is a man who has shown extraordinary levels of fortitude and ranks up there with the greatest of all time. Should New Zealand happen to stumble out prior to the semi-finals of next year’s World Cup this will have been the last sighting of him in a Test at Twickenham. It is a bit like booing Pelé late in his career.

To all this can be added the widespread cat-calls which greeted the All Blacks’ slow walk back to the halfway line for the game’s final restart on Saturday. Yes, they were attempting to waste a few seconds but Owens duly asked for the clock to be stopped. Then again, what should we make of the sight of three All Blacks advancing towards the referee early in the third quarter to appeal a decision? It is one thing for a scrum-half to wave his arms irritatingly about, seeking a possible penalty, quite another to try and get opponents sin-binned, take a dive to feign injury or demand that any number of decisions be referred to the television match official.

All the above have occurred this season. Put it all together and what have we got? Once upon a time people might have classified this as rugby becoming more like football. Once upon a time they might have had a point. Nowadays, rugby’s right to the moral high ground is increasingly shaky, even with great men such as McCaw around. It might even be that umpteen referrals to the television match official is part of the problem, arousing more frustration than it solves and encouraging a climate of dissent among players and spectators alike. Refining the TMO system, however, is not the only thing the game’s authorities must address between now and next year’s Rugby World Cup.

Raising awareness

England’s players were genuinely humbled this week to meet the former Springbok Joost van der Westhuizen, who is in Europe to raise awareness of motor neurone disease, the condition which now afflicts the great scrum-half. Van der Westhuizen, who is raising funds for his J9 Foundation, has also been helping to publicise a highly unusual sporting occasion this Saturday: a Gaelic football match being played at Ulster’s Kingspan Stadium (previously Ravenhill). The contest, between 2013 All-Ireland champions, Dublin, and an all-star Ulster select team, is in support of the former Antrim senior football captain Anto Finnegan, who was diagnosed with MND in 2012. Tickets for the Game for Anto are available via Tickemaster.

One to watch this week

Scotland v New Zealand. Hardcore stuff awaits at Twickenham when England and South Africa collide on Saturday but it will be equally fascinating to see how Scotland, under their new coach, Vern Cotter, go against New Zealand. Having taken the eminently sensible decision to revert to Scotland’s traditional strengths – playing at pace with the devil taking the hindmost – the home side’s attacking performance against Argentina was highly promising. Now they await the ultimate test.