Last Sunday at the Aviva the rugby world watched in disbelief as a deeply flawed law forced high farce onto the Six Nations match. Early in the match, Italy had lost both hookers. The starting hooker, Gianmarco Lucchesi received a serious arm injury and his replacement, Epalahame Faiva was red carded for a high tackle. With no hookers available the referee had no option but to call for uncontested scrums.
At this moment confusion descended. As Italy were the team that could not scrummage, the Georgian referee, Nika Amashukeli was forced to implement a law that was so obscure that very few were aware of its existence. The law stated that Italy had to remove another player.
Amashukeli, who did a commendable job in his first Six Nations match, had his hands tied by the ridiculous mandatory sanction World Rugby had linked to the scrummaging law. It was a situation that was c …
- March 5, 2022
