Saracens are calling for a significant overhaul of rugby union’s disciplinary system after describing the citing this week of the England lock George Kruis as “a travesty”. The club’s forwards coach, Alex Sanderson, believes citing officers now have excessive influence and are placing potentially innocent players at risk of a “public lynching”.
Speaking before Kruis was cleared by a Rugby Football Union tribunal in Bristol chaired by Christopher Quinlan QC, Sanderson said he felt there was insufficient evidence to cite Kruis for an alleged bite on his fellow England international, Bath’s David Wilson, and hinted that leading players were losing faith with the disciplinary processes.
“It’s been an absolute travesty for him to be cited for something that obviously didn’t happen,” said Sanderson, whose team face Northampton in the European Champions’ Cup quarter-finals on Saturday. “I don’t know the ins and outs but David Wilson seemed pretty embarrassed afterwards that he’d brought it to the attention of the referee. It might not have been, in his own words, a bite. He just felt something.”
Sanderson also feels Wilson, who was cited for making contact with Kruis’s eye area in the second half of a feisty Premiership match at the Rec last Friday, has been harshly done by. “I had a look [at the TV replays] post-game when they showed what apparently happened to George’s face. George said he wasn’t eye-gouged and it didn’t get him in his eyes. It’s just one of those things that happens in the heat of battle.”
As a combative former flanker himself, Sanderson believes that the game needs to re‑examine the issue of eye-gouging, having seen his club’s winger Chris Ashton suspended for 10 weeks for making contact with the face of Ulster’s Luke Marshall. The absence of consistency between tournaments and hemispheres also irritates him. “It’s so frustrating. Back in the day you’d shake hands, it was heat of the battle and you get on with it. No harm done.”
Sanderson believes the increased number of camera angles is not the only catalyst. “ They’ve built up the citing officers to look after players, which is a good thing. But the power they have, the way they have to wield it and hold people accountable sometimes make it a public lynching.
“I think it has gone too far. That’s my own personal opinion. It’s [been] over-stepped for the likes of Ashton. He didn’t go for [Marshall’s] eyes. His hand was around there and that has never been any rugby player’s idea of illegality.
“ Like I said, they are trying to make a public example of him. They’ll come back like they did with high tackles last year. That almost took the aerial contest out of the game and they’ve had to redress that. They’ve found a happy medium as they will do with this eye area stuff. It’s gone too far the other way but I’m sure they’ll find a happy balance.”
Sanderson was equally keen to stress he did not attach any blame to Wilson. “He’s a solid bloke. I have known him for a long time. He’s not the type of guy to go running and telling the head teacher about what may have happened. These things do happen … both parties accept that.”
Saracens are still hopeful their other England lock, Maro Itoje, will recover from a knee injury in time to face Northampton at Allianz Park. “The injury is probably an eight to nine-day layoff but he’s young and a quick healer so we’re hoping he’ll come through,” Sanderson said. “If he’s fit we’ll play him because he’s in outstanding form.”
