Rugby’s disciplinary mess deepens as body count rises and grey areas grow | Robert Kitson

Rugby is now cleaner but no safer and as New Zealand’s brutal, bruising clash with Ireland – and the citings that followed – showed, something must changePlaying rugby is always going to hurt. That is why some people play it, just as boxers, racing drivers and mountaineers take their own calculated risks. The tricky bit comes when it is not your misjudgment that causes serious injury but someone else’s. At that point people rightly start asking hard questions and the blurred lines of contact sport have to be re‑examined.New Zealand’s massively physical game against Ireland in Dublin has g…