How to fix another red card ruining rugby

Thanks KCOL - I think some of the commentary may flow from a RWC with too many red cards. Maybe referees need to use red cards for unconscionable conduct and use the yellow card more liberally? Red cards can kill off a game as a spectacle, especially when punters have paid $100+ of their hard earned money for a ticket, plus travel and accommodation if its an away game.

I remember him putting himself in a silly position with his foot through a ruck and being rightfully cleared out. I remember the subsequent hysterics and prima donna behaviour from a player I’d previously respected… but no I don’t recall an assault or “act of thuggery”. I suspect you’ve misremembered the event

I understand that. I just think it’s wrong. Red cards need to stay

Check out reports of yesterday's (12 March) soccer/football match in Brazil between Gremio and Sport Club Internacional where there were 36 fouls (6 booked) and 8 red cards. There were 4 red cards for each side in a seriously brawling match. The report I read said that this is not a record. Apparently 19 players were sent off when Boca played Sporting Cristal in the same competition in 1971. The umpires and the ball boys would have outnumbered the remaining players.

Hey Piru, did you forget the act of thuggery and assault on BOD during his BIL tour to NZ in 2005? Apparently according to Short Arm, that's acceptable level of behaviour in a contact sport.

Brian O’Driscoll … enough said. wut

Punching should be allowed Do you Just pretend you are back in the 1980s all the time .

A large part of that is that though is that you can pass forward, except for the offside rule. Even then you get around that when you just kick it into space for your man to collect. Tactic can be used in rugby too, but that’s why there is a fullback to tidy up. Also, you cannot he in front of the kicker in rugby, or else you’d be offside - so can’t just leave a guy hanging around halfway :silly: . Yep, agree that territory isn’t really important to most teams in soccer. And yeah, agree the All Blacks at their best played the lost soccer like in many ways :laughing:

Kiwi teams in general but yes AB’s are lethal. The master class they put against Salakaia-Loto being a case in point.

I love both games. I have no preference or an agenda trying to sell soccer. Just calling it as I see it. Certainly, I know more about soccer than rugby hence I grow up with it and played and worked with it for almost all my life. But rugby has been a passion of mine for more than 20 years now. I am no expert, far from, but I am an ambitious student of rugby. If I know more about soccer or rugby than you, well, who knows? One little discussion can’t decide that. It could be any of us.

Been reading Bishops articles for years mate. I love them. They are my rugby high school so to speak. Hakatime rugby is a superb YouTube channel about rugby that focus on tactics. https://www.youtube.com/user/IsaacJury Have a look, mate. The guy who hosts the show is also very positive about interacting with his viewers, so good times ahead if you like the channel.

I think the counter-attack tactics from soccer - with some modifications - can be used in rugby too. Overall, soccer pays a lot less attention to territory than rugby. Actually many times in soccer you want the opponents close to your goal, hence if you win back possession you have so much more space to attack. I think it fair to say that the AB's - on good days - is the premium example of a rugby team that uses these soccer counter-attack tactics both the most and the best.

I'd be interested to see it, even at a high level summary such as I supplied for social level rugby above. If you are trying to get a deeper grasp of what is happening at a detail level in rugby then Nick Bishop's openside article and the detail he shared on Wright's role for Qld gives a glimpse https://www.theroar.com.au/2020/02/05/the-great-australian-openside-debate-round-1/ More anecdotally, you can look at: 1. how bad the Waratahs defence with it's musical chairs was under Grey 2. see what a quality defensive coach in Tandy was able to achieve last year 3. and look at how quickly that defence has unraveled after Tandy's departure this season.

Certainly not agree. The only tactics that are more advanced in rugby than soccer are how you work the ref in rugby. In that regard rugby players are much better. Stating the obvious that rugby is more physical and that proves it needs more advanced tactics is a bit thin in my book. One can both attack and defend in a lot more different ways in soccer than rugby, and by being a far more fluid game than rugby (and fast), players have to be extremley aware of tactics to avoid getting played off the park.

One of the big differences in my eyes is how difficult it is to defend effectively against counterattacks in soccer. If you lose the ball when attacking near the opposition’s goal you can be burned in just a few seconds - look at how France and Mbappe burned Argentina in the World Cup off counter attacks again and again. In rugby, at least you can control territory and defend against counter attacks much more easily.

I would love to get into a deep discussion with you about tactics and try to explain all the subtle little details to watch out for in soccer, so let's hope our paths cross soon and we will have an allnighter with beer, tactics, and gossip. Why not do it here right now? I don't have the time to write something with substance now. Maybe next week hence it looks like Sweden is heading for a complete Corona lockdown very soon. Might be spending the next couple of weeks at home doing very little. For a long time, I have actually dreamed of having a proper sitdown with a high-level rugby coach and talk tactics and ask a couple of hundreds of questions why they don't do like this or that. I might be completely wrong, but from what I can see, there is still huge potential to develop more advanced tactics in rugby.