The modern game has become boring
Roar Rookie By maul trash, 28 Aug 2009 maul trash is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- Bledisloe Cup, rugby referees, Rugby Union
Something is wrong when even a close Bledisloe Cup decider is largely a boring spectacle, but I reckon that’s what Saturday’s match was – and what most rugby matches are these days.
And I think it’s because of the changed rules at the breakdown.
Allowing the first player from each side at the breakdown to play the ball with the hands means that possession is a done deal before most of the forwards even arrive at the breakdown. The result is that defending forwards don’t commit to the ruck-maul because they are of more value out with the backs preventing a line break in the next phase.
Line breaks, and the random broken play they lead to, are the exciting part of rugby. But there’s so few of them these days that the game has lost its sizzle.
Allowing lifting in the lineout improved the lineout, but allowing hands in the ruck has been a dismal failure. We should go back to no hands in the ruck – at all – with its built-in penalty for those who want to lie over the ball – being spat out the back of the opponents’ side of the ruck with a complimentary set of thigh souvenirs.
Seeing a man rucked at Test level looks awful, so it satisfies the crowd’s blood lust, but it actually doesn’t hurt a solid fit young buck that much.
But it eliminates the referee from having to watch umpteen hands at the breakdown and guess which team to penalise (first hand to touch the ball = advantage other side / penalty), but most importantly it forces all the forwards from both teams to commit to the breakdown because possession is up for grabs each time for the team that rucks the hardest, leaving room for the backs to make breaks and set up the running and passing of the ball in space – the glory of rugby.
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- Explore:
- Bledisloe Cup, rugby referees, Rugby Union
August 28th 2009 @ 7:54pm
Ben J said | August 28th 2009 @ 7:54pm | Report comment
I think another dimension to this whole breakdown saga has been the “finding” of Heinrich Brussow. Neither the Wallabies or the All Blacks have historically been bothered by the Boks at the breakdown, they simply never had an answer to either McCaw or Smith for frankly the last 5 years. South Africa’s employment of a absolute sabboteur has been a revelation as big as the South African cricket teams’s use of effective spin. With Brussow at the helm the jigsaw pieces are falling into place for the Boks. I saw the Bledisloe game as 2 teams who received the shock of their lives similar to a cavalry charge coming face to face with a panzer division. They were just not prepared for it and the effectiveness in the Boks ability to stay clear of the ref’s wrath has to point the finger at the All Blacks and Wallabies, not the laws.
August 28th 2009 @ 9:40pm
Jerry G said | August 28th 2009 @ 9:40pm | Report comment
I’d say a fair bit of the Boks effectiveness to stay clear of the ref’s wrath has been the fact that they’ve not set foot outside of the Republic. Refs tend to favour the home team, especially when in a cauldron.
August 28th 2009 @ 9:57pm
Ben J said | August 28th 2009 @ 9:57pm | Report comment
And that brings us back full circle where the refrees’s influence on the outcome might be under the spotlight again. So is it the referees or the laws, chicken or egg?
August 28th 2009 @ 10:28pm
Jerry G said | August 28th 2009 @ 10:28pm | Report comment
It’s not the refs or the laws, it’s the players. Professionalism has increased the pace of the game and raised the stakes meaning teams are well versed in how to bend the rules. You can’t expect a ref to be able to pick everything up with 6 or 7 forwards hurtling into a ruck from either side and no rule change in the world is gonna help if the players mindset is to slow the play down.
August 28th 2009 @ 10:58pm
Working Class Rugger said | August 28th 2009 @ 10:58pm | Report comment
Limit the total player’s in the ruck. Three for each team not including the tackler or the tackled. It would open up the ruck for the Ref’s to be able to see what’s going on allowing them to prevent any illegal play.
August 29th 2009 @ 3:51am
Dave said | August 29th 2009 @ 3:51am | Report comment
Keep working rugger!