The scavenger is no longer needed in rugby

Might as well watch a game of Rugby League and throw away your brain. !!! These are New LAWS will not last but will bring a few people back to the game. Rugby has lost its way to the other codes RL, AFL and Soccer... With the RWC 2011 coming up the code will need to generate TV followers as NZ will not be able to cope with traffic to the small Island. And for bringing back Rucking, it will NEVER happen! To many soft laws and administrators have taken over the game also quite a few players as well. I would love to see the cleaning out of the ball but there have been to many incidents where over zealous players have rucked off ears and caused serious injuries to upcoming athletes.

Yes, we much prefer the endless 12-12 draws up here, as opposed to the thrilling 79-62 stuff down there. Grow up.

I don't know why Southern Hemisphere teams and their proponents seem so loathe to consider standing in the tackle and off-loading. Because it's so League-y? Because, as in the case of Australian teams, they have been so habituated to phase play that on the lightest approach of defenders, the Aussies go to ground? Because it requires the ball-carrier to be exceptionally strong to stand in the tackle? That the off-loadee has to have finessed the sprint so that he has both timed and propelled himself well? (My son is researching sprinting for his MS in Sports Science, so it's quite prominent in my thinking at the moment.) Done well, it can be awesome. I keep referring to the British Lions tour of NZ in 1993 (the first test) and the Wales v England 6 Nations last year as classics.

counterruck If competing at the ruck has become harder though not impossible as you have said then its up to the defending team to put more pressure on the attacking teams in the tackle, around the ruck, set piece and general defense. I would ask any Rugby fan what would they prefer. The kick heavy penalty riddled past 3 seasons we have witnessed of the more open play thus far in the S14. Stuart Barnes in an online rant regarding the 'new' interpretations he refers to these as reverting back to the way the game was played in the 90s. Now I'll admit that nearly all of my Rugby memories are from that era but the Rugby was superb. Why not look to emulate that once again.

There's been a lot of hypothesising going on, but perhaps that's a result of how strictly the refs have enforced the new interpetations, making the changeover somewhat extreme.

Yeah, but he was essentially double teamed like in basketball.

Andy S You'd love Stuart Barnes' comments on Planet Rugby then. Basically a big whinge on how these interpretations could remove all sense of competition in the ruck. Complete rubbish. All that says to me is as an Englishmen he prefers to watch stodgy 12-12 GP scorelines as opposed to the high scoring ande most importantly entertaining S14. Evidently Rugby isn't in the entertainment industry.

I'm curious - where is the claim of endless phase play coming from? By my count across all seven matches last weekend, there were 20 instances of >7 phases, with only 7 greater than 10. I would hardly say that was excessive, or is everyone getting all conservative and knee-jerk about something that merely might happen, maybe, perhaps?

You'll enjoy this then... http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/new-refereeing-philosophy-puts-accent-on-running-rugby-for-2011-world-cup/story-e6frg7mf-1225833622374 ;)

That's correct. The Boks policy was that whoever was opposite Lomu when he had the ball in hand would have to tackle him.

Well if you're experimenting with a new set of interpretations/laws/adjustments then tweaking is the order of the day. I think it's a positive move by SANZAR refs to recognise what's working and what's not. Funnily enough, even though the new tackle laws are also being trialled in the 6 Nations, there's been less fuss about them, even though occasional penalties are being handed out for the tackler not moving away.

" I hear the worst coach in the world Martin Johnson says he will not go with this… well England will be the only ones left outside again, and Martin will once again prove to be the worst coach and dissension maker in the rugby playing world… at least he will have something new to blame." Where did you hear/read this, TembaVJ? Apparently the tackle interpretation is being played in the 6Nations despite rumours to the contrary.

but having said this i cant believe they have already tweaked the laws after two weeks!! that is amazing ok i can find endless phase rugby extremely boring, almost as boring as aerial ping pong but give the laws a chance to work ! bulls showed how to compete at the tackle - counterrucking brilliantly on a couple of occasions when the brumbies were on attack. there is a way to complete without hands in the ruck, its just a lot harder to execute than under the old interpretations and requires committing more players to the ruck!! if we have to have radical solutions id prefer to take a leaf out of the NFL than league. if a team isnt making ground over the advanatage line then hands are allowed in the ruck, if they are going forward current interpetations apply.

I think Union is going down the League route. The emphasis on entertaining rather than the actual playing is too much of a temptation for Unions law makers. Baby and bath water etc.

Then the attacking ball-carrier should stand in the first contact and off-load. If his backline is ready, quick, and skilled, they can beat the defense who would not be strung all along the field. Wales in last year's Six Nations were magnificen in their off-loads; the Wales team which the Wallabies faced were a shadow of the former.

The point of the gang tackle would be to prevent the ball-carrier from going to ground which therefore means the tacklers don't have to release him or the ball.

The Boks didn't mark Jonah one on one. James Small funnelled him into the midfield. This was a ploy they came up with when they noticed he liked to go on the outside of the defender.

That will be interesting then, if there is no basis in law for such lee-way. I hope it is not the thin edge of the wedge, where local interpretations again start to take over from the actual laws. That is very much the sort of thing that touring sides could challenge and could get the whole exercise kicked into touch.

After two weeks the priorities for refereeing the breakdown have been tweaked to allow the second tackler more rights to contest the ball and create more of a balance between attacking and defending teams of what they can do at the breakdown. http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/super-14/3364061/New-rugby-rulings-tweaked-already

Good old fashioned RL one-on-one strip.... Hmmm mate in Rugby that is called a good old fashioned rip. Its been around since Moses... well almost. All Walla-kids are taught to get in there and rip. So far as ensuring the tackled players stays upright... Yep exactly the way to go... By holding the tackled player up the defending team is rewarded with a scum. Or hold him up, maul and rip the ball. Either way defending team effects a turnover of possession. Nothing new just adherence to the 'Laws of Rugby'... a return to how the game has always been played. Now we will see a return to driving over the ball and dominant defending coming back... BIG TIME. Ah if only the IRB could harden the @#$K up and Bring Back Rucking. Not talking mountaineering, stamping/stomping or kicking the life out of players.; cleaning the rugga buggas out of the way - simple basic stuff.