Chwarae Teg neu Budr

The big controversy from the weekend, amongst rugbyphiles[1], was about Jonathan Davies (center for Wales) tripping Chris Ashton (wing for England) in their recent Six Nations[2] match. Tripping is illegal in Rugby (but not in Glastonbury[3]) and considered quite dangerous, leading fans to wonder/worry whether Davies would be disciplined for the incident[4], seen here:

Most commentary so far has been based speculation on Davies’ mental state and/or the perceived cultural slights visited upon wealthy European Caucasian males whose grandfathers owned the Earth by international grade referees. The main point is, none of these pontificators seem to have the first clue about how the human body actually works or realize that it might have some bearing on this issue.

For a rugby player of any experience, it is obvious that Davies intended to kick the ball, until Ashton interfered. The question is whether Davies intentionally or unintentionally kicked Ashton’s shapely calves. Having previously committed to kicking the ball, he would need to go through a few steps to change his action: his brain would have to perceive that Ashton had cleanly recovered the ball, decide not to kick at the ball, tell his leg, “You know that kicking thing I told you about, don’t do it.”, and the leg has to stride instead of kicking. The first step takes about 200 milliseconds for an average human. Off the top of my head, I’m not sure how long the other steps take off the top of my head, but I will bet my sweet bippidi that it is more than 0 milliseconds in each case.

Now, watch the video again and tell me how much time you think there is between Ashton clearly controlling the ball and Davies’ leg starting to kick. For those of us who are not BBC commentators with a Victorian view of human decision making.

NOTES

1. Lovers of rugby union. Lovers of “rugby league” are known as “Australians”.
2. An annual rugby competition in which Northern Hemisphere nations gather together their best players in the vain hope of playing 15 matches of which at least 3 will reach a level of skill and excitement that might mildly entertain the residents of New Zealand.
3. Yes, that is a England geography joke. No, it is not very funny.
4. He was not, and it appears that the time frame for such action has passed. In my opinion, a penalty should have been awarded as Ashton was prevented from advancing the ball through illegal contact. No further action was necessary as there was no clear intent on the part of Davies. Rugby rules (created in the environment of English jurisprudence) are quite happy to penalize for interfering actions that are unintentional with increasing penalty for negligence, repeat infringement, and intent.