Cardiff Blues have not lost a match in this year’s Heineken Rugby Cup, but now find themselves out of the competition because their flanker Martyn Williams, an absolute giant of the game, was asked to take a kick at goal, something that would never have been in his job description.
People may point to the international football players who have been in a similar position. There is, however, a big difference between a football penalty shootout and the rugby variety. In football, kicking the ball is a bread and butter skill. Rugby isn’t the same, the skill sets are wider and there are more specialist positions. Forwards are not expected to kick goals in the same way as outside halves aren’t expected to scrummage.
Should the game have even gone that far? There are other ways to break the deadlock after extra time has been played. The Heineken Cup rules use tries scored as a tie breaker, but that too was level in this game. Although there were no drop goals in the game, perhaps this scoring method could be included as a further way to avoid the shootout.
Another potential element for splitting the teams is the disciplinary record. Leicester had two players sin binned during the match. Newby and Murphy chose to give penalties to prevent Cardiff from scoring a try. Using yellow and red cards to split the teams would reward the attacking side and make teams think twice about professional fouls.
Ideally, if the teams are level after extra time and the various formulae have been used, a replay would be the solution, but in these days of global television contracts, congested fixture lists and the need to hire vast stadia, this will never be an option.
So what alternatives are there?
Rugby Extra Time Options
Ideally, the game would be settled during extra time. The physical nature of rugby makes it impractical for players to keep playing ad infinitum, with the chances of injury increase dramatically as players become more tired. There are formats, however, which could be employed to ensure a winner:
Competitive touch rugby decides tied matches by a drop off procedure where a player from each side leaves the field every couple of minutes. The full game could play ten minutes at 10 a side, then ten minutes at 7 a side, which would almost certainly produce a result.
Football experimented with the golden goal. It didn’t really work in that game, but rugby is different as scores are easier to come by. This is the method used in American Football, which has a lot of parallels with rugby. If a golden point is still considered too much of a lottery, limiting the win by a Ggolden try, might be the answer.
Rugby Penalty Shootout Variations
If a penalty shootout must be played, it might be fairer to constrain it to specialist kickers. The shootout could involve three kickers from each team, taking kicks from progressively more difficult positions until a winner emerges. The Guinness premiership uses an adjusted version of this in that even though the kicks are from different locations, it still uses all members of the team as kickers.
Does the shootout need to be a kick at goal? Perhaps a one-on-one situation could be engineered where a player from one side has to try and score past a defender on the other team in a restricted area. Ice hockey uses something like this and a similar method was used in the US soccer league in the seventies.
The Daily Telegraph has reported that the tournament organisers are going to review the shootout procedure. That is good news, but whatever decision is made, Martyn Williams’ unfortunate position as the answer to a pub quiz question is secure.
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