Why Danny Cipriani’s omission should not mask rugby’s big story this weekend: Geordan Murphy retracts ‘too PC’ claim

Leicester director of rugby, Geordan Murphy claimed that rugby has become ‘too PC’

Leicester director of rugby Geordan Murphy has retracted his ‘too PC’ comments (Getty)

Such was the furore over Danny Cipriani’s baffling omission from England’s next training camp on Thursday rugby’s other big story had to take a back seat for once.

It will be back on the agenda this weekend, you can be certain.

Geordan Murphy’s welcome climb down following his heat-of-the-moment claim rugby has become “too PC” following Will Spencer’s red card for making contact with Tommy Taylor’s head last weekend was a potentially watershed moment for the sport. Murphy said so himself.

Murphy realised that by screaming blue murder every time a player is disciplined for potentially inflicting brain damage on an opponent it sends out entirely the wrong message to the mass market (mums and dads) rugby is desperate to appeal to.

The newly-installed Leicester director of rugby had the class to admit he was wrong and in doing added even more substance to a change in rugby’s culture which is as inevitable as it is necessary. His change of tack was universally welcomed and hammered one more nail in the coffin of the dinosaurs who refuse to accept change in any form. It was a very important moment.

As concussion rates continue to skyrocket, rugby has identified it has a problem and is doing something to address it. Removing high tackles from the game will not eradicate concussions – nothing can in such a gladiatorial sport – but it could help to reduce them. The sport has a duty of care to its participants. It has a duty to attempt to improve safety. It would be criminal not to at least try to make the sport as safe as it can be.

The irony that it’s current and recently retired players who, on the whole, are the ones making the demonstrably untrue claim rugby has “gone soft” by cracking down on head shots must be put in context.

They don’t know any different.

There have been similar outcries in recent years when laws were hardened and officiating empowered around tip tackles and the “hit” at the scrum engagement which caused untold spinal damage to a generation of young front row forwards.

Geordan Murhpy has retracted his heat-of-the-moment comments (Getty)

Do we long for tip tackles or the engagement hit now? Of course we don’t. They only existed in the game for a brief spell (introduced by professional coaches desperate to gain an edge) and both have been banished to rugby’s history books.

Just as injury data was gathered then and acted upon, so it is being now.

World Rugby and the RFU must be applauded for holding their nerve then, just as they must do now by continuing to reduce the height of the tackle in a bid to reduce the number of head-to-head collisions so dangerous to the ball carrier and tackler alike.

Players may not know it, but they need protecting from themselves.

Ellis Genge, a young man with his career and life in front of him, was one of those screaming loudest at the perceived injustice of his team-mate Spencer’s red card from referee Ian Tempest.

The young Leicester and England prop launched a Twitter tirade claiming we “might as well play touch rugby now”. Bless him, he doesn’t know any better.

Genge knows only what he has experienced in the brief time he’s played the game and thinks the number of concussions and high hits now have always been there. They haven’t and the game can and will continue to move to change player’s behaviour just as it did with tip tackles and the engagement hit.

Most players are smart and will adapt. Those who don’t, won’t be picked. Professional sport is like that. Genge will be one of those who adapts.

Eddie Jones had lots to say on Thursday as he defended his decision to leave English rugby’s inform fly half out of England’s last training camp before they reconvene ahead of the November internationals.

Danny Cipriani was left out of England’s training squad despite his good form (Getty Images)

Few picked up his comments around the changing nature of the tackle.

As part of World Rugby’s steering group which heard the evidence Dr Ross Tucker presented to them and which ultimately led to the upcoming Championship Cup trial looking at reducing tackle height, the England coach is a significant figure in the debate.

“For me nothing has changed,” he said. “It is an important part of the game to change because of the concern about player welfare and that’s been done. I think the way the game is at the moment looks after the welfare of the players and they just need to adjust. At international level we’re certainly not going to give them 101 lessons on tackle height. They know where they’ve got tackle and how to tackle.

“At the forefront was always player welfare and that’s certainly been the right case. I certainly don’t think the game has got any softer. If you look at the game, and we’ve got stats to show, the percentage of increase in contact level in international rugby over the past two years has gone up 35 per cent. If people think the game is soft then I don’t know what they expect.”

Over time, the notion that rugby has gone soft will sound even more foolish than it does today.

The game has never been more physical or more demanding of those brave enough to play it. Reducing the tackle height is one small but important step on the road to making rugby as safe as it can be. We owe that to those playing it.

Players will learn to hit lower and there will be fewer red cards like the one that landed Spencer a four-week ban on Tuesday.

We’ll see more and more hits aimed at the torso very much like the superb technical tackle Cipriani pulled off on Bath’s 17 stone winger Joe Cokanasiga to save a certain try at the Recreation Ground a fortnight ago.

But that’s another story entirely.