Gerry Thornley: With so much on the line, did England’s punishment fit the crime?

Into the 76th minute of a Rugby World Cup semi-final, a scrum just inside the English halfway line goes down for a second time and has to be reset. Referee Ben O’Keeffe, conscious that this re-setting is running down time, has the match clock stopped.

“Time back on,” O’Keeffe calls, before the scrum is set for a third time. “Crouch . . . bind . . . set.” Vincent Koch, the replacement tighthead, is actually a little high but perhaps doesn’t want to prompt another reset and risk being penalised by standing up.

Ellis Genge is the English loosehead replacement and after O'Keeffe says “set” his knee briefly goes to ground before coming back up again.

There is no signal from O'Keeffe initially, but then the scrum crabs in, with Koch and Genge looking equally at fault, and O'Keeffe calls “advantage” and signals a penalty to South Africa.

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The scrum collapses like an accordion being closed and O'Keeffe declares: “Loosehead to knee and then across.” He adds: “Loosehead goes to knee and then across,” and repeats himself one last time. “Loosehead to knee and then across.” Like so many referees making game-changing decisions, it’s as if he’s trying to convince himself as much as demonstrate he is in the right.

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But O'Keeffe had not signalled when Genge’s left knee initially and fleetingly brushed the ground. Even then, it’s open to debate as to who was responsible for the scrum crabbing inwards. Another referee might have ordered another reset. The same referee might have done so earlier in the game.

Technically, O'Keeffe is correct and it’s additionally understandable given the pictures which the Springboks scrum had been painting for him, having just earned penalties at four of the previous five put-ins as well.

Admittedly, the call was made in the middle of the pitch and the ensuing 50 metre penalty by Handré Pollard is struck superbly. What’s more, scrummaging not only distinguishes rugby union from rugby league, but it is also one of the sport’s defining features.

Writing in The Times, the former England and Lions loosehead Alex Corbisiero notes that Genge went to ground and briefly over-extended in part due to the ‘Boks’ scrum actually being set up well. But he does concede that O'Keeffe was being consistent as Steven Kitshoff has been similarly penalised at an attacking ‘Boks’ scrum in the first half.

“Deciphering who is at fault when tightheads and looseheads drive on the angle are the hardest calls to make for a referee, as it is so difficult to see when you’re on the field, not looking at overhead camera angles,” wrote Corbisiero.

“However, rewarding it with no forward momentum sets a bad precedent, as tightheads will be incentivised to come across like that. That creates messier scrums and makes the referee’s job harder.”

On balance, Corbisiero says it was technically the correct call and he could understand why O'Keeffe made it, albeit it was tough on England.

On the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, although a fan of Wayne Barnes, Corbisiero believed that two of the scrum penalties against Ireland in their quarter-final loss to the All Blacks were incorrect. Others, such as Shane Byrne and Bernard Jackman, have also called into question some of Barnes’ scrum penalty interpretations against Ireland in that quarter-final.

On one occasion, when he is being advised by one of his assistant referees of a penalty against the All Blacks on the other side of the scrum, Barnes can be heard saying: “Not for me.” And all of this is aside from refereeing interpretations at the breakdown, an example being that Ireland firmly believe Brodie Retallick should have been penalised under the All Blacks’ posts early on when the score was 0-0.

But in the heel of the hunt, does rugby really want World Cup semi-finals to be decided by slightly subjective interpretations of such a complicated and nuanced aspect of the game? In other words, is the crime - ie a knee briefly to the ground at the put-in to a scrum - commensurate with the punishment, namely three points, and especially when it decides a World Cup semi-final?

But O'Keeffe’s plight in those 76th and 77th minutes underlines the pressures which are now placed on referees, especially at scrum time and the breakdown.

Furthermore, depowering the scrum altogether and making all penalties indirect would be excessive, and would do the sport more damage than good. And flawed though it was, the scrums in Saturday’s semi-final were a compelling subplot in their own right.

Yet in the fallout of the campaign to do away with reset scrums, it’s clear that teams are, more and more, simply scrummaging for penalties as a result. And if not three-pointers, as in Pollard’s monster touchfinder to the corner in the preamble to RG Snyman’s try, scrum penalties are one of the best gateways to seven pointers too.

However, had England’s reductive brand of rugby earned them a place in the final and, even more unthinkably, been victorious on Saturday night, you’d have to wonder what damage that might have done the sport.

Not that the Boks play a particularly progressive brand of rugby, and they retreated more into their shell in the rain-lashed semi-final. Indeed, this game even continued the trend of the quarter-finals in that England made more carries, metres and fewer linebreaks (zero vs three) than the ‘Boks, who often play as if they don’t want the ball, and still lost.

[ Owen Doyle: South Africa’s winning kick should have been a reset scrum, not a penalty ]

As we know, in the quarter-finals all four winners had a significantly lower attacking output than their opposition. All four winning teams also made fewer turnovers than their opposition, had higher positive outcomes (attacks that didn’t end in a turnover or error), kicked more possession, conceded fewer penalties and had a better red zone efficiency.

By contrast, the All Blacks, have comfortably scored the most tries in this tournament, with 48, compared to 30 apiece by France and Ireland, South Africa on 27 and both England and Wales next on 19.

So the 2023 World Cup has maintained the trend over the last four years which has seen an interesting clash of styles, and in that sense the final is fitting.

gerry.thornley@irishtimes.com