Rugby is a game that emphasises respect. The ideals of the game mean that only one player speaks to the referee, and it's rare that players surround the officials trying to intimidate them into making a decision.
Which means it's quite confusing that the sport would show such a lack of respect for another sport.
World Rugby issued a directive to its referees for the upcoming World Cup. The directive is to clamp down on diving, or simulation - which will see offenders sin-binned for ten minutes.
That's not the issue. Actually, that's probably the hard-line stance that is necessary to stamp out this behaviour.
What shouldn't be acceptable though, is to brand another sport in a negative light with this announcement. John Jeffrey, the chairman of the World Rugby officials selection committee directly referenced avoiding a "football culture" as reasons behind this decision:
There is a culture creeping in – I call it the football culture – of simulation; people appealing to the referee, players – and it has happened a couple of times – diving.
World Rugby should be praised for trying to cracking down on diving, but this sort of disrespect for an entire sport isn't right.
It will do nothing to help attract fans in a time when rugby is relying on the World Cup to generate new interest.
It's not a good message from a game built on respect.
