Wallabies win but game a failure

VICTORY covers all ills but the fact the series remains alive is the luckiest break rugby has had for some time.

VICTORY covers all ills but the fact the series remains alive is the luckiest break rugby has had for some time.

The game started as if the Suncorp Stadium epic of last week was going to be continued. Thirty minutes in and 10 penalties later and it seemed the code would blow a classic opportunity to convert the masses. Unfortunately, not enough of the penalties were for offside.

I'm sick of carrying on about the disregard for the offside law, but Craig Joubert and his assistant referees seemed intent on ignoring it completely.

Both teams were offside all night, and when that is allowed to occur, real rugby won't happen.

The IRB should be less concerned about misinterpreting physical contact as foul play and more concerned with allowing the game to be played as it was intended.

I watched the game with a 10-year-old girl who made the point that by the 71st minute neither side had even got close to the tryline. Who needs to be a devotee to tell it how it is?

Adam Ashley-Cooper's try saved Australia and the game from embarrassment, but the reality is that it was not what it should have been.

The players were not blameless. The error rate, particularly handling, was well below international standard.

Forget the atmosphere and the economic benefits. As an advertisement for the code in AFL-obsessed Melbourne, the game was a failure.

Even before kick-off, the IRB, James O'Connor and Kurtley Beale had all done their level best to belittle what was labelled the most important rugby game in this country since the World Cup final a decade ago.

O'Connor and Beale do not appear to be fast learners. Perhaps, if they were rolling drunk, there would be some excuse for being at a Hungry Jacks at 4am on the Wednesday before a Test, but apparently they were stone cold sober. Unforgiveable!

It is easy to make high and mighty pronouncements when you don't have to face the consequences, but by any measure the decision to allow them to play lacked courage.

Heaven only knows what the four cricketers banned from a Test match in India for forgetting their homework think about the discipline structures surrounding rugby.

As for the IRB's decision to re-hear the foul play case against James Horwill, it really is a matter of how low you want to go. Not only have they embarrassed the judicial officer they themselves appointed but at the same time, questioned the Australian captain's integrity.

Horwill probably wishes he had the same retrospective rights as the game's ruling body because he would then be able to have the last few seconds of the first Test played again and get someone else to attempt that match-winning penalty.

The whole issue is almost as farcical as the one-week suspension of Rebels winger Lachlan Mitchell for a perfectly legal tackle in the midweek game. His Lions opponent Simon Zebo fell awkwardly, but that was in no way Mitchell's fault.

It's all very noble of the IRB to make the game as safe as it can be. To go crawling to those who have no concept of what a contact sport entails is ludicrous in the extreme.