This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with the power of an eyelid and the pressure on Leinster…
Wink and you’ll miss it…
He winked. He winked! Bring out the stocks and tomatoes, warm up the tar and fill up the bags of feathers, clothe him in the trousers with the seat cut out and unleash the rampant wildebeest! He winked, he must be sent to Coventry, if not further, in shame. Forever. Never let him darken our doors again.
The entire wink-gate saga has turned into a tiresome debate. Unacceptable gamesmanship or simply an athlete trying anything possible to win? It’s the latter. We don’t recall a line in the lawbook about winking. Faking injury or genuine issue? Photographic evidence is reasonably clearly on the side of Jaden Hendrikse there as well: calves do not bunch up like that of their own accord.
The entire brouhaha in the wake of it all has generally neglected a much bigger picture: namely that Hendrikse was already up with a tent, campfire, sleeping bag, warm stove and simmering porridge in Jack Crowley‘s head long, long before that calf seized up.
Even before the first penalty the pair had exchanged words, with referee Mike Adamson first ushering Crowley away, then, after Hendrikse had nailed the first, needing to calm Hendrikse down. Crowley and Hendrikse had already bumped shoulders as the former made his way to the tee – it would appear on balance that the ‘contact’ in that instance was initiated by Crowley. And it was in Hendrikse’s head at this point too, Mr. Adamson was brought to the point of saying to Hendrikse “Hey. If you shout at him like that again, you won’t be making any more kicks.”
At this point, Crowley actually had the ‘advantage’ in terms of rag-losing, but then he proceeded to undo that by first knocking over a wholly unconvincing kick and then starting shouting at Hendrikse for no readily apparent reason. 1-1 in terms of rag-losing now. An advantage shouted away.
The shootout progressed. Rory Scannell missed his kick, which heaped pressure on the visitors. Eventually Hendrikse nailed his second – a real beauty. And then he went down.
And if ever there was a mistake made, if ever a mentality snapped, it was Crowley at this point. He could well have expected referee Adamson to stop him taking his kick while Hendrikse was treated, yet he tried to impose himself upon that interruption as well, lining up the kick, insisting ‘I’m fine’ when Mr. Adamson told him to stand down for a moment.
Referees do not take kindly to perceived threats to their game management and the juxtaposition of Crowley setting up to kick with Hendrikse was bound to be on a fine line. Mr. Adamson this time ordered Crowley to stand down a little more forcefully, upon which Crowley ought to have gone back to a friendly place to reset. He did not. He began muttering to himself, shaking his head, glaring at anybody and everybody, Hendrikse included. At which point came that fateful wink. 2-1 to Hendrikse as words flew and tempers frayed.
It’s also important to note that it was not entirely Hendrikse to whom Crowley aimed a few well-chosen words as the former was helped off, but rather the Sharks‘ team doctor. Whatever he said or did to start that all off will remain a secret between the two, but while Hendrikse’s wink is the moment that has gathered the headlines, it seems to have very, very little to actually do with any of the kerfuffle, just as it appears to have become a poster-boy moment for all those who love a good polarising debate on gamesmanship.
And how material was it really? Crowley did land his goal after all. The damage done to Munster was on the unfortunate Scannell, not on Crowley and not even vaguely caused by Hendrikse.
It’s a crazy debate everyone is having. It smacks of Irish fans creating a sense of injustice to excuse a heart-breaking URC defeat, of finding a reason to cry foul when the truth, however unpalatable, is that not one piece of foul play has occurred and a game has hinged on a missed penalty kick. It’s time to suck it up and move on.
Leinster’s star fading
Leinster‘s season hangs by a thread. A sturdy one, but a thread nonetheless. Fans are staying away, the cobwebs continue to gather in the trophy cabinet. Performance levels are slipping and there’s no obvious reason why.
It’s possible that the whole thing has simply become a little too much, that this is a province team which has become a little too important within its own nation to be comfortable. Making the national stadium a home, with the starting XV practically the national side, embellished with a couple of world-class squad-deepeners.
They’re expected to sweep all aside and generally do, yet when others stand up to them in the moments where it counts, something goes missing. Perhaps it is the ‘raw emotion’ Tony Ward referred to, perhaps it is the silence of arrogance, of arrogant disbelief that others can raise themselves to the heights Leinster have so often hit on a one-time basis and not simply stand aside in awe.
Whatever it is, Leinster – and the fans who were once so raucous in the days of the RDS and the BOD generation – need to rediscover it, otherwise you sense that this is another season which could derail at the last, leaving the finest team of the post-pandemic era with nothing but runners-up medals to show for their travails.
READ MORE: Stuart Lancaster makes shock return to Ireland after signing deal with URC province
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/loose-pass-time-for-irish-fans-to-suck-it-up-over-wink-gate-while-leinsters-season-hangs-by-a-thread
