Time wasting has no place in sport as this kick should have taken seconds and not 40 seconds. Players blamed the ref saying it cost them the Championship, but the truth is they are to blame.
We had the perfect case over the weekend with a rugby match between the Wallabies (Austrailia) and the All Blacks (New Zealand) when a team failed to follow the referees instructions. This has been the first instance I can recall this happening and the referee was spot on. Time wasting has no place in sport as it is another form of gamesmanship.
Let me set the scene and how important this call was as it was game changing for the team who would have won if they had listened. The time on the clock is 78:34 with 1:26 still to play. The score is 37-34 in Australia's favor and this is all about closing the game out from here for the win. The Wallabies are defending their goal line when they are awarded a penalty. What would normally follow is to kick the ball into touch and win the following line out before the end whistle blows. Game Over and all done and dusted.
What the Wallabies did however was waste time forcing the referee to stop the clock not once but twice. He warned the team each time to hurry up and only when he blew his whistle for the third time and award a scrum to the All Blacks did the Australians listen. They had lost possession 5 meters from their line with the clock already in the red.
The Australian crowd were not happy along with the Wallabies, but they only had themselves to blame. Having the 2 warnings to use the ball was more than fair as 1 warning should have been sufficient. Players need to wake up as the first rule in rugby is you listen to the officials or suffer the consequences.
From the All Black scrum they scored and won the game 39-37 which was no fault of their own, but more so on the Australian side. Attitude and arrogance thinking they know better is what springs to mind as it bit them in the behind big time. This was the best thing that could have happened to rugby as it will wake everyone up as to what is acceptable behavior. The clock stopping was also a great mo e and should happen in other sports as well.
We see this in football all the time and unfortunately it has somehow ended up on the rugby field. I think this will be the last instance we see of any time wasting going forward which is only good for the game and supporters. football has so many problems with weak officiating at the heart of the problem. Football would be such a different sport if it was officiated correctly and players would not be behaving like they do.
Can you imagine players being yellow or red carded for play acting feigning injuries when there is nothing wrong with them. We had one instance of this many years ago and the referee ridiculed the player on the field saying he was not playing football. Diving looking for a penalty should be an instant red also trying to attract the referees attention asking for a player to receive a card should be an automatic sending off.
Unfortunately and thankfully you cannot compare the two sports as one is meant to be a contact sport and is more of a sport for babies. What has happened to football that was meant to be a contact sport? Don't get me wrong I enjoy watching football but it is irritating seeing how soft the sport has become and has been for decades.
The officials have allowed it to get to this state as they are as much to blame as the players. Rugby received a wake up from this and it would be good to see something similar in football. In Rugby we stop the clock and I would love to see that introduced to football as maybe we wont see substitutions happening in the time added on to run down the clock. Fake injuries will disappear and the control of the sport will return to the officials.
