Biting. There’s something particularly reprehensible about it when it happens in any contact sport. It is particularly shameful and dishonourable in rugby, with so many frequently in close contact there are plenty of opportunities. The game could not survive if an atrocious act, which goes far beyond the borders of foul play, became a regular feature – fortunately we do not see it often.
Iffley Road in Oxford is most famous for Roger Bannister’s extraordinary run when he broke the four-minute mile for the first time ever in 1954. It was also where, 12 years after Bannister’s wonderful feat, the 1966 touring Australian rugby team played Oxford University. It was a strong Wallaby team, but that is not why anyone remembers the third match of the Australian tour.
Ross Cullen was the Wallaby hooker. Opposing him in the home team’s front row was the Irishman, Ollie Waldron, an immensely strong prop forward. Whether or not Cullen found himself under pressure makes no difference as to what happened next. The state of Waldron’s lacerated ear left no room for any doubt that the hooker had sunk his teeth into his opponent. Waldron was removed to the nearest hospital to be stitched up and repaired.
Bill McLaughlin, the Australian manager, had stated before the trip that he would not tolerate foul play by any member of the touring party. The previous Australian tourists to these islands in 1957/58 had gained something of a bad reputation and were widely accused of dirty play.
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This time around, McLaughlin was determined that his group of players would demonstrate nothing but good sportsmanship. So, he was true to his word and applied the ultimate sanction by sending Cullen home on the next available flight. The hooker would never wear the gold of Australia again. A high price, but a very necessary one.
Fast forward to Sunday last, and another Irish player has been bitten. This time the victim was the excellent Aoife Wafer, France’s Axelle Berthoumieu the perpetrator.
While this was extremely difficult for the on-pitch match officials to pick up, South African referee Aimée Barret-Theron needed to do a whole lot better. When a captain or player reports a bite, then fire-brigade level alarm bells should ring loud and clear in a referee’s ear.
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There wasn’t the slightest possibility that it was a made-up complaint and the referee seemed not to realise the seriousness of what was being said. Without any doubt, she should have asked to see the bite, even if the culprit could not have been identified.
However, identification would have been much more likely if the referee had informed her TMO, Ian Tempest, that there was evidence of a bite, and he could have tracked the movements of Wafer. If the French player had been identified, then there would surely have been no nonsense about sending it to the bunker – it had straight red written all over it. And France would have been down a player.
In the event, the referee did nothing, and she must be indicted for that failure. Leaving it all to the TMO was an important error. The citing commissioner quite correctly did his business and Berthoumieu has faced the judiciary. Examining the video replay, things did not look good for her, and she has indeed been found guilty.
But she did not agree with the length of the net 12-week suspension handed down, although she did accept her guilt, that she had bitten Wafer. So, a full judicial hearing was triggered. The outcome of the hearing is to give the player full mitigation, principally because of her remorse. It reduces the suspension from 12 to nine weeks.
I have no idea how, or why, a biting offence can have the sanction reduced for saying “sorry,” it’s sheer bloody nonsense. Rugby needs to look after itself much better. Berthoumieu’s legacy will be, like Cullen’s, seriously tainted by this bite. She has let down herself, her team, her country, and the game itself. Others, please don’t copy.
