The ruck directives have made halfback the most key role in the new rugby XV

Yep Racing used their enormous scoreboard for that, but goal kicks are on the clock already hey, #crowdentertainment :) How do you think the new 50/22 and goalline drop out kicks will go in Tests?

Yes! Earning 3 points from a dubious scrum penalty won in your own half, when you were nowhere near scoring ..... aahhh drives me crazy. Variable penalty points based on field position is a good idea. And also dropkicks for conversions - yes, & I would drop to 1 point too. 6 point converted try is 2x value of a penalty in 22m, and 3x value of penalty outside 22m. And a penalty point from your own half is worth bugger-all really. Better go for lineout and play from there instead of us watching 90 secs of a kicker placing the ball, stepping back into weird kick-routine (dance, crouch, visualise with head at funny angle .... :laughing: etc) before kicking from 40m out.

Yep, fully agree. If ref gave 60 secs from when the whistle is blown for a pen, then team has to decide AND kick in that time, instead of taking 30secs to decide, then have another 90secs to kick for goal.

Highlander, a set piece clock in the Top14? Not seen that, you sure? Anyway, yes or no, you’re right that a set piece clock is no good. It will just feed other problems. If players can take a rest with the clock stopped, they will. Impact then lands on total game time, broadcast schedules, player fitness, player size….. plus the safety risk of rushing the scrum set-up before it runs out. Just no. Despite our perceptions though, lineouts waste very little time over the course of a whole game. For around 25 lineouts a game, timing from when the ball goes into touch to throw-in, they average under 30secs. Barely enough for a quick tv highlight of prior play. And some are quick throw-ins taking a few secs only. Scrums though, despite there being only 10-12 a game nowadays, now average around 65 secs, from whistle-blow to ball-in-play again (or penalty :angry: ). The shortest scrums (no reset, quick play of the ball) last 41-42 sec, the longest (1-2 resets, holding ball in to win a penalty) can last 1.45-1.50. So over a whole game, total scrum time and lineout time is similar, 11-13 minutes each out of the 80. Though there’s very little deadtime in a 30sec lineout and refs already can award a FK for a team taking too long. Scrum timings though, can be improved. WR rightly is focused on safety so we wont change the front-end, ie. a stable set-up (crouch-bind-set). But we could speed up the second half (the shove and getting ball out) with same rule for rucks, 5 secs to play the ball once its won, or else a FK. If refs call “use it… 4… 3… 2… 1…” once the ball is at the No. 8’s feet, it forces quicker play of the ball. No holding ball in, wheeling or extended shove to pop the front row & win a penalty. So this is a way to reward faster scrumplay, rather than use a clock to limit slow scrumplay. We get quicker scrums, less neck compression injury risk, fewer collapses/penalties, more ball in play, fitter players, smaller players (smaller is relative, I mean fewer 120kg behemoths). Flip-side is also very little chance of 5m push-over tries, or weaker scrums being disintegrated, which are big crowd-pleasers, but still pretty unsafe. This doesn’t take away the ‘contest’ either, as defensive packs are still able to disrupt clean ball or win a tighthead etc just as now. However if scrums took only 30secs, as they used to in the 90s, we gain another 5mins of play, almost 15% more than now. Thats got to be worth it, no?

NZ halfbacks are brilliant, they are the link between the forwards and the backs & spin the ball wide every chance they get with the odd / unexpected run themselves. Then lets look at Wallabies half backs of not too long ago – Genia / Luke Burgess – spend more time running sideways before passing the ball. Virtually every phase 2-4 paces sideways. Is it any wonder the outside backs get smashed behind the gain line. If the Wallabies are going to copy any part of NZ rugby – it should be how the half back plays.

Having read all the comments, idle questions arise: With "two halfbacks" does that mean we should expect the Aaron Smiths of this world to learn to drop-kick? Will NZ Rugby import a top-flight UK ref next season? Benchmarking and all that.

Excellent article Highlander, sometimes the best way to view how well things can be done are by comparing it to when it is done badly. E.g. The Blues halfbacks, watching Ruru come on to replace Christie is like watching chalk and cheese. Sadly his type of play doesn't lend itself to the directives and to his other half (Christie). getting a balance like the highlanders have will be a big ask for a lot of teams I would think, but may allow some younger halfbacks with the skills more opportunities to move to SR teams than what they have had for a while.

Yeah the speed of the ruck ball was a key factor in the beltings that kiwi sides handed to the Aussies (along with some pretty average efforts in the set piece and lazy kicks/chases on a game by game basis). The ability of the kiwi sides to set and vary the tempo of the ruck speed as they desired with little resistance from the Aussie teams was (and has been) a key part of the reason that Aussies teams struggle too. All of the above duly acknowledged it’s also hard not to overstate the importance of the domination of the ruck contest and the glut of turnovers the NZ teams won. If you go back and watch the games most of the time whenever it looked like the Aussies teams were building some momentum or putting the NZ teams under pressure an in play ruck turnover stopped them in their tracks. My feeling is that quite often there was too much let go in terms of the supporting body weight / height in the ruck area – it’s just a personal view as there’s no right and wrong here – but if you require a player contesting the ball to be clearly on their feet and to have their hands clearly on the ball – and you ref it so that the benefit of the doubt goes to the tackled player first -your going to get (subjectively I guess) better rugby by actually giving a tackled player a right to a clean placement – and you make the game much safer by removing the incentive to have your head down at knee height where too many accidents happen with stray shoulders or knees. It will reduce turnovers but give you clean ruck ball and also I think rewards players who show timing and precision in the their pilfer attempts. Contrast that to a lot of the TT games where in some cases almost every second ruck had a second rower flopping hands into the ruck over the top of the tackler or the second man into the tackle diving on the tackler and latching onto the ball well before there was any chance of a placement. It meant a messy ruck and sloppy ball for the Aussies sides (good sides adjust to this sort of thing and it shows how much smarter that the NZ sides were that could play this way while defending but when attacking they generally had the reverse with clean and fast ball). I do think it was encouraged/allowed/a product of/ the NZ refs (but not always some of the refs Gardiner in particular are awful for this) who rewarded the defender most of the time (I also simply couldn’t fathom the number of forward passes they let go – for both kiwi and Aussies teams). Fair play to the kiwi sides – you can only play the game as it’s reffed but as a spectator (again a issue of personal taste) it got a bit boring watching stacks on any time it looked like the game might speed up for an Aussie team. The real question is if the NZ refs will play this sort of interpretation in the France series and how that might have an impact?

Thanks Highlander. Some of Aaron Smiths flat passes after quick ruck ball have been superb in recent times. The game is better when it is playing at a high tempo. Lets hope teams keep going this way and we do not got back to how things were a couple of years ago when a halfbacks first instinct was to box kick.

I remeber Piri Weepu playing both positions.

I agree with drop kicks for conversions. For penalties I would still allow the place kick but make the points variable depending on where they were taken: 1) between the opposition goal line an 22 - three points, as normal. 2) between the opposition 22 and halfway, two points. 3) From your own half, one point. To combat offending get the yellow card out early, or maybe bring in additional cards with lesser time penalties e.g. five minute and or two minute cards. As well as other stuff: https://www.theroar.com.au/2021/03/01/my-solution-to-rugbys-card-issue/.

Maybe we will see the 9 & 10 as interchangeable!!!

Would like to see drop kicks for penalties and conversions to speed up the game.

Ban the player for 2-3 weeks... ban the coach for 12 months+. Dean Richards has already set the standard. As for doctors at club level... given the Hippocratic Oath, I’d tend to trust the local club doctor. I don’t think they’d risk personal reputation for a game win/loss.

A risk worth taking though, mate! Any article with Aaron Smith on the front was always going to get me in! Thanks for the nice summation of the impact of the law changes too. Bang on about the impact on the English Premiership, and hopefully we can get more up to speed here over the rest of this year and into next year's SR.