The Rugby World Cup seems to be garnering a lot more attention for the sport, even bringing topics to the forefront of rival games. Arsene Wenger was the first high profile football representative to comment on rugby, saying that it was fast becoming his second favourite sport, and how wary he is of Ireland for his home country.
Ahead of the visit of Manchester United to Wenger's Arsenal; one of his former foes has weighed in on rugby, claiming that football has a lot to learn from the sport. Former Manchester United striker Louis Saha wrote in the Huffington Post that football needs to catch up with the likes of rugby, cricket and tennis:
A key difference that’s been discussed a lot over the last few weeks is the way rugby has embraced technology, and something football should follow by introducing technology more widely instead of just relying upon goal-line incidents.
The new goal-line technology was only introduced in the last year, and has proved quite a success. Saha is looking for technology to be used more often, especially to replay disputed incidents:
Why not simply re-play disputed incidents, then and there, to get an accurate picture of what actually happened? Not only would this disclose the truth, but it’d also be more effective than goal-line (technology) and less costly than other more complicated high-tech methods.
Saha's argument is that football needs to embrace the technology if it is there. He says it would lead to less disputes, and could ultimately bring about more respect in the sport. Respect for officials, and refereeing decisions needs to improve according to Saha, and he looks to rugby as the ideal:
The ultimate and non-arguable respect for the referee in rugby is something which football could learn a lot from.
In rugby, players have respectful, polite discussions with referees during which they never swear,always address the master of proceedings as ‘Sir’, and take a submissive tone.
Does Saha have a legitimate point?
See Also: The Ultimate Guide To This Weekend's Sport
See Also: Arsene Wenger Has Given His 'Verdict' On The Irish Rugby Team
Picture credit: Brendan Moran / SPORTSFILE
