Since when did line blockers become part of rugby? I’m talking here about players who are running ‘virtual’ interference for the ball carrier.
In other words, running ahead of the ball carrier to block the sliding defence (line of sight).
I first noticed this trend a few years when England was playing the All Blacks in New Zealand.
A forward crabs emerging from the breakdown, runs sideways or even forward and lets the ball carrier run him onside. A form of lazy running, if you will!
This has evolved subtly since then but it has become more prevalent as more teams use it. Players are still careful not to directly obstruct the defence but they are pushing it closer and closer.
Another form of this involves players virtually running obstruction in the breakdown against opposition forwards trying to join the breakdown.
A player will linger on his feet on the wrong side of the breakdown, blocking access, or just failing to roll away at the ruck slowly but not slow enough to incur the wrath of refs.
This is a technique employed by teams with a weaker mastery of the breakdown, where the players can’t, or won’t, get in and get their hands dirty.
Players on the attacking side are not above indulging in very blatant jersey pulling on their opponents to delay their defensive snipes at the attacking halfback.
The worse form of this is the extended cleanout, when the attacking player goes into to clean out a defender who is standing several metres clear of the breakdown. How is this not picked up as blatant obstruction?
Then there’s the kick-chase. Granted TV broadcasts are poor mediums through which to judge this, but it looks like a lot of kick-chasers are ahead of the kicker when the ball goes up, relying on the kicker (or whoever else) to run them onside.
Then there’s the crouching start.
The All Blacks were first to use this NFL technique to defend against pick-and-drives on their try line. By starting off so low, they are actually driving up into the ball carrier’s legs as they drive forward.
Thus the ball carrier, even with the support of his fellow forwards, is stopped before they make the advantage line (think a Tatafu Polota-Nau tackle but with support). The end result is that these pick-and-drives usually fail to make metres or actually get driven back.
I actually don’t mind this, as it is a way for smaller teams to defend their try line. It certainly seems to be very effective
Then there’s the breakdown which is fast resembling the old-fashioned ‘dog pile’. Players are literally flying into the breakdown and making no effort to stay, or even be, on their feet.
And don’t even get me started on the AFL aspects!
dmac
Guest
Try watching the All Blacks from above (say back row seats on Saturday night). Their kick returns are a thing of beauty. A perfect tunnel gets formed for the returner to run into, but you can't see it from ground level. I noticed this last year when I had the aforementioned seats. Not saying that all teams don't do, just that (like most things really) the All Blacks have it down to a fine art.
Dsat24
Guest
yawn I think we could have all spent our time better than flogging this dead horse all of the points of conjecture here entirely depend on the referee and for better or worse this is where rugby is but in saying this the cleanouts are much better now than 10 years ago...
Jean-Pierre Laguerre
Guest
Actually, Jock M has a good point. Rugby in Australia/NZ bears a far closer resemblance to Rugby League than it does to european rugby - the 2 versions of the sport look nothing like one another. Super15 rugby relies on handling, running, backline play, offloading, minimal numbers at the breakdown (therefore a very organised 'RL-esque' defensive line right across the pitch), speed, quicker players (therefore often lighter guys than the behomths plodding around the Top14 and england). If you glance at the average RaboBank league game, with no back play, the ball being hoofed downfield or crashed into (not avoiding) contact for a 2metre gain. This usually followed by a large-scale pileup in the mud, before the referee whistles for an infringement. I am 100% european, but seriously, Oz/NZ rugby looks far more like RL than it resembles Connacht v Glasgow. This is no bad thing!!
Expat matt
Guest
Push the rules until the whistle goes-until then it's all fair game. If you don't adapt to the game being played u have no cause to sook
Rassie
Roar Rookie
Actually no. That gap is the ggap which the referee creates. The ref stand in the defensive line at times and the SA players especially the Bulls players aim for that gap. Richard Bands scored a excellent try vs NZ thanks to that hole in the Tri Nation once. Sure you have seen it
Rassie
Roar Rookie
Actually the Brumbies perfected it
AJ
Guest
How about the kick receiver blockers? Lions, Lions, Lions...... One way to fix it is to poleaxe em.
Hopperdoggy
Guest
Except for the scrums, lineouts, rucks, mauls, general kicking, played everywhere in the world.... Yeah virtually the same game.
Hopperdoggy
Guest
God's been busy in the Middle East. Don't think he cares much about rugby. Except when he takes little Jesus to footy on Saturday morning to play half back for Nazareth JRFC (and chat up the angel footy milfs during the game).
Jerry
Guest
And every other team.
Rugby Andrew
Roar Rookie
I tried not to take a potshot at any particular side (I highlighted one example) because they ALL do it, to some degree or other. When one side tries it and gets away with it then the other teams will follow! As it stands, I do believe it's all in the timing and that the players walk a fine line with the decoy running. Get it wrong, off by even a second or so, and it's a penalty to the opposition.
Zero Gain
Guest
Its cheating, its coached, its by the All Blacks.
Jock M
Guest
What is all the fuss?! Modern Rugby is virtually Rugby League.
Jerry
Guest
Yeah, there are a bunch of penalties committed by the AB's in that clip, but you could do the same with any side. As you point out, there's a bunch of penalties by SA in there even though he wasn't even looking for them. It's a shame he's so one eyed about the whole thing as this clip has generated a fair bit of attention over the years and too often people just accept what the guy is saying despite him making some completely wrong conclusions. I love the bit where he freeze frames McCaw with the ball and 4 Boks bearing down on him and makes out that only some illegal play could keep the AB's in the game, then ignores the fact that 3 of them completely miss McCaw and the 4th puts an ineffectual hit that doesn't even take him to ground. Or the bit where he claims McCaw goes straight off his feet despite him then being driven back while obviously on his feet. And he seems to have no idea of what actually constitutes a ruck, maul or tackle.
Kuruki
Roar Guru
The dummy runners are meant to be legitimate options for the ball carrier to pass to. If they are not given the ball should they be immediately penalised? That would be ridiculous. They are penalised if they obstruct the opposition from tackling the ball carrier. If this rule needs to be looked at then they need to look at the very start of it and determine weather the runners were actually genuine options or if at no stage were they genuine passing options for which they should be penalised, this would rule out every runner that started infront of the ball carrier.
Kuruki
Roar Guru
I have only watched 2 minutes of that clip and already you can see the one eyed nature of it. Around the 1:40 mark in slow mo you can see Owen Franks trying to get back onside he tries to go around the player before the tackle players actually fall into his path tripping him over. Keven Mealamu is coming from the wrong side also retiring but what the one eyed commentary does not see is the only player he makes contact with is the South African Hooker who is coming into the ruck from the All Blacks side which is also offside, funnily enough no mention of this is made . I really don't need to watch anymore to know that this is another sore loser clip about the All Blacks which could be made about any and every other team.
ThelmaWrites
Guest
Rugby has benefited from creeping NFL-isation. In the 4o years that I've watched American football on-and-off, I have been impressed with the inexorable will of the NFL to get referees to make the right calls, and technology has obliged. In the 60s when I began watching NFL, there was NO instant replay. Now we have the Coach's Challenge, with the subtext that refs can make wrong calls and other participants should have the opportunity to question such calls. (Reggie Miller has been saying there should be a Coach's Challenge in the NBA.) To its credit, rugby has incorporated what technology can offer, in increments. But my main frustration with rugby continues to be the arbitrariness of refs' calls. My latest bugbear is "Unplayable". In the days of Gordon Bray, the scrum was awarded to the attacking team or the team going forward. Now I see the defense get it more often than the offense. Which is it? This should be simple to resolve. .
Tane Mahuta
Guest
FANTASTIC! I love it when Ausies start sulking. Gives me great pleasure. What they probably should start doing is filming the All Blacks games, get some kind of officials, 4 of them at least, call one the referee and two more the assistant referees and put them on either touch line, the last one they should put in the stands with a video feed. That would make it fair, no need to whinge then. They could even study the footage and watch for it in the next game. Then surely people wouldnt sulk and claim some kind of self righteous innocence as if they are victims of the ABs evil plot. But no, their team loses and they sulk. Grow a pair like the Wallabies have and be positive instead of focussing on the perceived unfair reasons for losing.
ohtani's jacket
Guest
Stupid cell phone made me post this in the wrong place: Decoy runners I can live with but when you have a forward crouching in front of the breakdown like he’s at the line of scrimmage then wrestling with the opposition so they can’t form a ruck then I think that’s taking pillars to the extreme. The Springboks work in a pod where sometimes there’s two or three players crouched one behind each other in front of the ball and the Brumbies adopted the same strategy in the final.
Zero Gain
Guest
That clip shows blatant cheating by the ABs. No doubt whatsoever, blatant cheating, nothing less. Plus incompetent refereeing. And the cheating is preplanned and executed by experts trained in the skill.