Writing in The Guardian, Robert Kitson evaluates some of the points emanating from the 'Image of the Game' task-group's recommendations.
"It began in a joke shop in Clapham Junction and ended in shaggy dog style yesterday in the Spirit of Rugby room at Twickenham. According to the Rugby Football Union's specially commissioned rottweilers, their sport is not systematically rotten and there is no urgent need, among other things, to find a new name for their flagship suite. For the game's guardians, this was theoretically the best afternoon since the first spurts of fake blood started to cascade down Tom Williams's chin last March.
"The 138 pages of report, statistical analysis and appendices, though, are by no means covered in whitewash. Contained in the document are a number of issues which should arouse significant concern once everyone has waded through the fine detail of the juiciest rugby survey ever commissioned. Feigning injury to pave the way for uncontested scrums, for example, was something either seen or participated in by 53% of players at senior level. A staggering 27% of coaches, medical and physios admitted to having been involved in such incidents. Thirty-two per cent admitted their club had illegally spied on opponents at least once. It is not only Harlequins who like to pull the occasional fast one.
"Ultimately, the rather pompously named Image of the Game Task Group may also reshape the entire game from The Stoop to Saskatchewan. There is widespread recognition that the root cause of the Bloodgate debacle was the unsatisfactory laws relating to substitutions. Rolling replacements is one possible consequence, a development which would change aspects of the game appreciably. Jonny Wilkinson will probably still be playing for England at the age of 50 if specialist kickers on the bench are allowed to come and go freely. Front-row forwards will simply be rotated when they start to blow, denying their opposite numbers the advantage of playing against a weary pack. For many, a central tenet of union would disappear overnight."
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