Rugby today

‘Tis truly a terrible thing to grow old and lose touch with the game you followed for so many years.

It used to be a great idea for you to get good ball and whatever ball the opposition got had to be bad ball – you know, the standard things – slow, untidy, disrupted etc.

Well, maybe both of those ideas are still honoured today – but too often in the breach.

Dependable set play ball was there to be one of the key foundations on which you could grow your tactics and strategies.

It was always wise to get the opposition defence thinking about what you might get up to next – variety was a useful tool here.

It always helped if you set out to maximise your own strengths and cover your weaknesses. Of course, the idea was to minimise their strengths and make the most of their weaknesses.

Possibly, this might even apply to the All Blacks – perhaps real pace, variation from the front to the back, a sound structure and native initiative could still pose them a problem.

Well, in the good old days it did.

It also used to be a great idea for your backs to run straight – OK, it still is – but it is another thing that seems to be more honoured in the breach.

Basically, the inside centre was charged with the responsibility of straightening the play, given the flyhalf can find this difficult to achieve in many circumstances.

It used to be that the inside centre was not expected to attack the sideline with great gusto – as I have now sadly seen, over time, on a recurring periodic basis.

Kurtley Beale is merely the latest practitioner I have seen.

The relative positionings of the flyhalf and inside centre form one of the more critical factors in this matter. Well, that was how it worked in more ancient times.

I have now seen running across field (for no planned benefit) happen so often that I have to wonder; why?

I suppose long term, but uninvolved, supporters such as myself are unlikely to have any idea of how much defensive pressure might apply in the modern game.

Would the same principle of positional relationships – as a way to straighten play – apply in other circumstances today?

So on and so on.

In general, it paid to respect worthy opposition and put some thought into how they were likely to go about trying to beat you. Their existence and their threat were actually acknowledged.

The stated claim at the national level (if the report I have read is accurate) that only your team warrants consideration in how you might play a game is a more modern concept.

Oh! How the game has changed on me.