Additionally players may be playing to the ref’s interpretation on the field i.e. he allows holding on for say 2-3 secs but the video assessors disagrees and then they get suspended whilst following the refs direction on the field. That is wrong.

I abhor the intentional cheating.

My preferred solution is mandatory yellow card for the 3rd offence of a type. Mandatory yellow card for a cyncial foul / cheat in the 22 red zone stopping attacking moves. Each and every cycnical foul.

Finally 2 referees should be on the field, this will catch most cheats and punish them vigourisly.

But don’t let the truth and common sense get in your way Damo and Grandpa,

Oh don’t bother replying we all know what you are going to say the All Blacks and Richie are cheats yes we get it.

A lot of what people call “cheating” here, defences would be stupid not to do, but I’d argue that it can’t really stop a good attacking side. It just makes the game ugly.

I played a game 2 weeks ago against a team full of young blokes – the eldest would have been 22 and would have never played snr rugby with rucking allowed. They were lying all over the place slowing it down and, while the ref was onto it, my team plays pretty fast paced up rugby. So even when they were pinged we would play on under advantage meaning the ref really never got stuck into them….I got sick of it and gave a couple of what would have been considered kisses back in the day…well you should have heard them! you would think I had just shit on their lawn…crying like little girls.

Oh, and they also put in a post match complaint to the Union about foul play…was one of the cleanest games I have played in for a while yet this other mob actaully took some pics from the game coupled with post match pics of their boys and put in a complaint…….whats happening to the spirit of our game?

Firstly, I think you have to acknowledge that not all infringing is cheating just like not all contact in basketball is a deliberate foul. You also have to acknowledge that sometimes teams are forced to infringe by the opposition and that a penalty in that case is a forced turnover and not cheating.

Secondly, I think people have to abandon this idea that rugby has ever been a game where sides constantly attacked each other with running rugby. Rugby has always been about moments of brilliance mixed with long passages of incomplete play.

And thirdly, I don’t think the breakdown is as much an issue right now as attacking sides’ failure to breach the defensive line. The whole idea behind running rugby is that you avoid rucks by passing the ball. There may be a lot of slowing or killing of the ball by defences these days, but play breaks down in the tackle before a ruck has even formed because the support play is so bad. The support play is poor because the attack is directionless. If you ask me, rugby is suffering a hangover from Brumbies phase ball and sides currently have no idea what to do from a static ruck. They either have a forward hit it up or try to fling it wide where there’s no space. I saw this in person at the final of the Japanese Top League and it led to turnover after turnover.

You insulate the All Blacks from never cheating because they are winning, but you say that rugby is all about winning when it is not. The Bledisloe is relevant to the point in hand and what the topic is about and the All Blacks are part of that last time I looked!!

Professionals look to play and push the the boundaries whenever they can and step outside the boundary and dance around a line making faces at the ref while he’s not looking – that’s what McCaw is all about. And yet you say that Australian teams and others are too stupid to embrace this and they really should start thinking about selecting players who will. Players do what the ref is allows them to do and more whenever they can get away with it and McCaw does. The All Blacks are good at cheating the laws and thats why they sometimes win – live with it.

Going to a video analyst after a game has been played and handing out naughty points to players is a good way to pinpoint players behaviour in a game – they do it already. Just doesn’t need to have any effect on the outcome, it would serve as useful teaching material for refs and some All Black fans though.

Like I have said on previous occasions, look at the IRB first and get them to sort their officials out, give the touchies some more power to intervene in a match. Going to a video analyst after a game has been played and handing out naughty points is absolutely ludicrous and is one of the stupidest ideas I have heard of. Cheating needs to be nipped in the butt when it occurs and that is why these officials get paid to judicate in a game.

Every Flanker in the world worth his salt has that video tape

If you want something like this, simply formalize the yellow card process. Pinged 3 times = off..

but even that would be hard for refs to keep track of in club land and would see the end of quick taps while the ref writes numbers in him book.

An article like this waas always going to lead to the Aussie bandits accussing Richie of being a cheat and to be honest it seems it was the intended undertone of your article. I personally believe that it would be ludicrous to start pouring over tapes and awarding pts to players not playing to the book. I think you’ll find most players would accrue some points. What really should be happening is giving touchies more of an input and making sure the match ref is on the ball. As is with society people will stretch the rules when they know that they can not be seen it is human nature.

The suggestion I believe will further ruin rugby as teams will be too scared to do anything for fear of big brother.

Good refereeing is still needed but this should highlight to players those aspects of their game that is questionable.
@mattamkll
I don’t think this does need to go down to club level. The intention is to clean up the top level (that everybody sees) to hopefully make the game more watchable and even filter down to the lower levels that this is the standard you are expected to play at. Obviously, internationals would be good but they couldn’t be applied across the board, but tournaments (RWC, 3N, 6N) could apply it. I’ve just suggested something like super 14 in order to trial it.

Funny thing how it’s never their fault that they lose it’s always the ref, someone cheating, the planets weren’t aligned get a grip and start playing rugby and quit the rubbish excuses.

Who has a spare ABs match on tape, to go back and tally up McCaw’s points?

Don’t forget the bit about releasing the tackled player before you get to your feet and play the ball – his single biggest push of the rules. He made an art form out of that one (not letting the tackled player play the ball) and the refs seldom spotted it.

The general NZ one is having blockers in the pillar position in front of an attacking ruck, blocking defenders. The defenders would push the gridiron style blockers out of the way and sometimes get penalised!

We Aussies never break any of the laws, of course.