Captain's challenge should be dumped

If Rugby wants to truly take a step forward, let’s ban the captain’s challenge – or at least limit it to something that will aid the game.

It was with a bit of a shock that Bulls coach Jake White last week revealed his side’s derby with the Stormers had taken more than two hours to complete.

White mentioned that the game lasted for 2 hours and six minutes and that across all the Rainbow Cup games that a massive 63 minutes were lost to stoppages.

With that in mind it makes it counter-productive to expect referees to speed up the game and look for more and more ball in play, while allowing stoppages that take away from the momentum and flow of the game in its entirety.

An American football game takes three hours to complete, even though there are only four quarters of 20 minutes, and nobody wants to see rugby go the same way.

Plus like any law there are unintended consequences and this is one law that has too many of them.

We’ve seen players try and use it as a weapon, to try and reduce opposing teams by employing the tmo and way too many replays to try and determine if a player is deserved of a card.

Now let’s be clear, rugby is a physical game, a game of collisions and nobody condones foul play. The game must be made safer at all levels, but as has been pointed out over and over, any tackle, played at the right angle, could look bad.

There are over 100 breakdowns in the game and often more than 150 tackles and with slow motion and replays all of these could look illegal and bordering on foul play.

Not only does it stop the game’s momentum and isn’t in the spirit of the match but it is also hardly what the rule was intended to do.

Trans-Tasman rugby has already ditched the idea knowing it does more harm than good while in the Northern Hemisphere there have been a lot of unhappy coaches about the challenge.

Pro14 champion Leinster coach Leo Cullen called it “distracting” while Dean Ryan, who coaches Dragons, warned PRO14 bosses about the challenge.

“It’s difficult for referees but those who have imposed a trial on us need to be very careful what they’re after," Ryan told Walesonline.

“We’ve got people asking for high shots to be reviewed and ultimately somebody could get sent off. Is that really what we want our game to be?

“It’s a trial and it’s great learning. Please learn from it and do something with it. You’ve got to look at its unintended consequences. I understand why it was introduced but I think elaborating on what the TMO can come in for might solve it.

“We certainly don’t want to find ourselves in a situation where professionals [players] are looking at things like foul play. I don’t think that’s where the game needs to go.”

"We need to ask ourselves what the trial is designed to do. Imagine if they’d have hit one of the Lions players.

“We all run the risks of hitting rucks and at the moment that’s a real risk of the game at the moment.

“The last thing we need to do is add to that risk.”

There are already enough grey areas in the game and the officials have to contend with so much already. Players challenging every tackle doesn’t add to the spectacle, it takes away from it.

And for that reason the Captain’s Challenge should be dumped.