Law Discussion: Not wanted on the field
Towards the end of last year the International Rugby Board introduced a new procedure for making replacements/ substitutions in rugby, bringing it closer to soccer’s way of working.
In short a replacement/ substitution was to take place only once the injured player was off the field. The exception to this is when an injured player is taken off the field by medical staff. The replacement then need not wait till the injured player has crossed the touchline, touch-in-goal line or dead-ball line.
That all seems neater and will prevent the confusion which has led to 16 players in a team on the field, which has happened even in a Test match.
This past weekend Sale Sharks played Saracens in Southport. Halfway through the second half there were two replacements to the Sale side, one immediately allowed, the other not.
Wing Rhys Crane limped off the field and Mathew Tait came on as a replacement.
Just prior to that Sale had kicked off and wing Mark Cueto leapt for the ball and came down awkwardly. A man with a bag came on to attend to him.
Play continued till there was to be a line-out. That ‘s when Tait replaced Crane. At the same time Nick Macleod came on to replace Cueto.
The referee chased him off because Cueto was still on the field. That is what soccer law requires and what rugby has cribbed from soccer. But soccer goes further.
In rugby Cueto, who actually had cramp, could go on being treated and at the same time play could go on because he was not in the way.
But it does not altogether make sense. If big Cueto was lying some 20 metres in the field of play and just one man was attending to him, how was he to get off the field with a damaged leg.
Soccer has a plan to deal with this: if a player goes down injured it has stretcher-bearers and “the stretcher-bearers should enter the field of play with a stretcher at the same time as the doctors to allow the layer to be removed as quickly as possible.
Rugby does not have that facility.
In rugby the referee is in charge of the match. Could he not ask that medical man if Cueto could continue? If he could not, then could the referee not allow Macleod to play in his place.
That or stretchers!
