Match fixing in sport has probably been around a lot longer than we would dare to acknowledge. The sports that were most affected by suspicions of match fixing have been those which have enjoyed professional status for many years and there have been well documented cases in football, baseball, cricket, horse racing and boxing.
The most high profile match fixing in cricket involved South African Captain Hansie Cronje, along with Mohammad Azharuddin who supposedly introduced Cronje to mysterious book maker “Mr MK” and Herschelle Gibbs who “forgot” that he was supposed to be dismissed before he scored 20 runs in a One Day International. Cronje and Azharuddin received life time bans from the sport and Gibbs served a one year ban for his original agreement to partake in a spot fixing agreement.
Rugby Union was one of the very last mainstream sports to turn professional. This only happened after the 1995 Rugby World Cup and match fixing has never really been a focus of attention. Proof of match fixing has never been prevalent, with only the odd unsubstantiated accusation being thrown into the melting pot. The two most high profile of these accusations came from Graeme Henry in his biography “Final Word”, where he accused Wayne Barnes and his assistant referees of deliberately overlooking a forward pass which lead to the French try that knocked the All Blacks out of the 2007 Rugby World Cup at the quarter final stages, as well as the anger of 50 million South Africans who accused Bryce Lawrence of deliberately scuppering South Africa’s 2011 Rugby World Cup challenge with his diabolical handling of the breakdown in their quarter final against Australia.
Even though not in the realm of match fixing, the “Bloodgate” scandal drew many eyes to the sport after Harlequins facilitated a false temporary blood replacement by using fake blood capsules to bring Nick Evans back onto the field in their Heineken Cup game against Leinster in 2009. The fact remains though that there was a significant and intentional action to dishonestly circumvent the rules of the game.
At the beginning of August 2014, the South African Rugby Union (SARU) made a relatively low key announcement that they had appointed a lawyer to investigate accusations of match fixing in the amateur club leagues falling under the control of the Boland Cavaliers, a second tier team in the Currie Cup competition. The statement has made minor ripples in the sports media world as there has been very little further information or confirmation, but insider information indicates that the crux of this accusation is that referees were incentivised to influence the results of amateur club games.
So what do we have in front of us right now? An allegation of referees having a rather disproportionate influence over the results in a minor amateur rugby competition. So what? What’s the big deal?
The big deal here is that if this allegation turns out be true, it has happened without the motivation of any significant financial gain by the parties involved. As we work through the tiers of professional rugby, more money circulates through the game. Sports betting agencies take bets on results, points spreads and specific occurrences.
A quick visit to the to the resource provided to players on http://www.irbintegrity.com/index.php gives an interesting view of what the IRB informs players what they can or cannot do, along with the following warning on the home page:
You could be banned from Rugby or even go to jail, so:
1. Never bet on Rugby and never ask anyone to bet for you
2. Never intentionally perform below your best
3. Never reveal confidential information
4. Report anything suspicious to [email protected]
As much as we don’t want to face the prospect in the game we love so much, the possibility does exist that match fixing and inappropriate use of insider information could be happening right in front of our eyes. We can only hope and trust that IRB reacts without mercy to anyone who is found guilty of any form of undue influence over a game that has its roots deep in the concept of fair competition.
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