Opportunity to use Wallaby Nic White’s Oscar-worthy antic as a teachable moment for rugby

After Nic White’s Oscar-worthy performance in Adelaide, the memes started even before half-time was over:

Who’s the best “Golden Girl” – Betty White or Nic White? 

Dallas Cowboys court Marika Koroibete; Eastenders court Nic White.

Wallaby Coaches announce secret collaboration with Lee Strasberg Acting Institute.

Poor Faf was just trying to shoo a shongololo from Nick’s upper lip.

After the match, with the Boks having (deservedly) lost, the comments were a little more caustic. Former Bok captain John Smit tweeted that White “just killed a bit of rugby’s soul”.  

Respected former referee Nigel Owens, who would famously dismiss theatricals with a terse “this is not soccer”, tweeted that the Wallaby scrumhalf “certainly was” lucky that he had not been officiating.

Legitimate frustration and sour grapes aside, this incident offers an important teachable moment for those – especially among young people – who love rugby and sport in general.

Some rugby fans may remember how in the quarterfinal of the 2010 Soccer World Cup, a Uruguayan player named Luis Suárez cynically used his hand to stop Ghana from scoring the winning goal and becoming the first African country to make the final four in a World Cup.

Essence of sport

In conversations with American friends, they were mystified that I was offended by his actions.

“Heads-up play,” they called it: you play to the rules and if fouling and suffering the consequences helps your team win, then that is what you should do.  

Since we were mostly lawyers, they likened it to the concept of an “efficient breach” of contract: if you sign a contract but it is more efficient to breach it and pay the damages than to fulfil it, then breaching it is economically rational and, in their view, morally defensible.

I strongly disagreed then and still do, in the case of sports at least. Is that really the lesson we want to teach our children: that it is okay, even desirable, to cheat, if that helps you win?

The contract comparison is a false analogy (and even there, parties who routinely breach contracts lose credibility and become undesirable partners).

But sport is not commerce: there is a concept – a spirit and an ideal – of sportsmanship that is the essence of sport. This ideal – encompassing fair play, integrity, honour and goodwill towards one’s opponent – is an ancient one.  

Sophocles said: “I would prefer even to lose with honour than to win by cheating.” That is why we teach our young players that, even as they should practise and try their hardest to win, it is ultimately not whether you win or lose but how you play the game that matters. 

Nowhere is this more true than in rugby where, as I have written before, rough justice – even injustice – is just part and parcel of the game. Given the rules and the difficulty of applying them, when two teams are closely matched on the day, the winner will usually be decided by the bounce of the ball or the referee’s whistle.

The only way to be assured of victory is complete domination (which the Springboks certainly did not achieve in their last matches against the All Blacks or the Wallabies, despite some unlucky officiating decisions).

Rogue’s gallery

In terms of how he played the game, it is likely that Nic White is feeling a little sheepish right now. He has for the moment joined (in a minor role) that rogue’s gallery of athletes whose legacy lies not in their sporting brilliance but in their willingness to cheat to win. 

These include Luis Suárez, the biter, Diego Maradona with his “hand of God”, Aussie cricket captain Greg Chappell, who instructed brother Trevor to bowl underhand to stop the possibility of a six off the last ball against New Zealand, and Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds with their doping shenanigans. 

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2014-06-26-soccer-chewy-luis-sings-the-blues/

While clearly not as dreadful as the sustained violation of those using illegal substances, White’s dramatics were in a sense worse than the “crimes of passion” committed by the likes of Suárez and Maradona, or your typical everyday soccer dive.

He had the ball in hand and could have ensured a solid clearance, but instead chose to jeopardise his team’s possession and position by acting mortally wounded.

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Faf de Klerk drove him over his own goal line and, had the officiating been sensible, the result would have been a Springbok scrum (or even penalty) with the high likelihood of a score.

It is bad enough to ham it up when the ball is not in play, but choosing to act rather than play while the ball is alive – in the hope that the referee will reward your antics and knowing that if they don’t fall for it, your team is screwed – is the height of cynicism.  

Rugby is dangerous! You should be thankful for every close encounter you survive pic.twitter.com/vlReuYX7lw

— Radioraps (Rikus de Beer) (@RadioRaps) August 28, 2022

Not to linger on the officials’ error, but the absurdity of yellow-carding the Springbok scrumhalf for accidently (and admittedly stupidly) touching his opposing number’s face, is heightened by the juxtaposition with their refusal a few seconds earlier.

Cheat to win

They refused to even review the dangerous high-speed flying shoulder charge of Marika Koroibete on Makazole Mapimpi that denied a certain try.

Even if the officials considered that Faf had committed a violation (and if accidently touching an opponent’s face is a violation, they certainly were not applying that rule consistently), White’s unsportsmanlike conduct (in violation of law 9, rule 27) provided more than enough grounds to flip the penalty or disregard both and go to the 5m scrum.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JuOoQBxZRM

The sad outcome of the episode is the lesson that young players will take away from all of this. After being dangerously assaulted, Mapimpi stood up immediately, shook off the pain and played on.

After being pinkie-snicked, White fell to his knees and raised his eyes to the heavens like Bottom’s Pyramus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (“Thus die I, thus, thus, thus. Now am I dead. Now am I fled; Tongue, lose thy light; Moon take thy flight…”) and was rewarded with a game-changing yellow card. Lesson for youngsters: cheat to win.

In truth, Mapimpi probably should have stayed down for a few minutes – no one would have begrudged him that after being hit by a runaway freight train – so that the officials would have been forced to look at that no-arms “tackle” even if they didn’t want to.

As was evident in the last Springboks-All Blacks tussle, the referee’s decision of when to employ the powerful review technology available to them can be outcome-determinative. It can also – as I wrote before – be affected by implicit bias and deference, something World Rugby should train its referees to be aware of and counter. 

The good news for the Springboks is that they will not have to wait long for their opportunity to redeem themselves or perhaps just to re-establish rough justice.

The good news for Nic White is that he does not have to stay in the rogue’s gallery. He can easily redeem himself and take advantage of this teachable moment by announcing that he recognises his actions were wrong and unsportsmanlike, with a promise that he will not do it again. DM