I am getting so sick and tired of rugby experts bitching about the laws of the game in the mainstream press.
If it is not victim number 1, Graham Henry then it is his NZ counterpart columnist Mark Hinton or just about every single team who has lost against a team who employs a more conservative approach.
Here is the thing, the Springboks beat New Zealand this year with their conservative, or ‘booooring’ kick-chase approach under the current laws – but then New Zealand absolutely smacked France under EXACTLY the same laws!!!
And please let’s not forget that the boooring Boks were the only team to actually score a 4-try bonus win during the competition – so much for that fallacy…
How is it then that the problem according to some is with the laws?
From where I sit, the problem is actually with the coaches and teams who fail in executing whatever approach they want to adopt.
This was proven to some extent at the end of the year tours where South Africa could not buy a win on their 5-match tour (only beating a lowly Italy) with the same approach that saw them win 5 out of 6 matches against the top 2 teams in world rugby in the Tri-Nations.
The reasons for the losses of course range from poor selections to fatigue to someone’s dog who ate the actual game-plan but the fact remains, South Africa simply failed in executing their game-plan on the day and to my mind, got beaten at their own game most of the time (a conservative territorial based approach with a strong physical defense).
Just the same as New Zealand and Australia failed in executing their preferred approach against the very same team – forget the losses of player personnel, lack of depth or whatever excuse these guys come up with – at the end of the day you simply did not execute what you planned to do and the other team did.
Now we have calls for radical changes to laws from all corners? Why?
It is not up to the laws or referees to make the game more entertaining (if that is what you want), that is up to highly paid professional players and coaches. And just for the record, I never find winning boring and fully packed stadiums in South Africa seems to prove my view.
If it is entertainment you want, adopt your approach and execution to provide that, or go and watch league, but wanting to change the laws to make the game more ‘exciting’ is simply daft.
29 – Superbul
Wat rook hierdie ou? Dit is lekker om te kla as jy verloor.
I am not convinced that the lack of passing back into the 22 has uch to do with the plenty of kicking in the game.
The laws promote a defensive game and we see this at the breakdown. The breakdown is what makes union unique.
Currently the attacker has the ball gets tackled he cant do anything with the ball other than release. He has the defender on him so is weighted down until he gets up. Defender is on his feet and can play the ball the attacking player is now in a vulnerable spot. he needs to position himself to get up whilst the defending player(tackler) is over him playing at the ball in that time he has to free the ball.
Thats why I believe that in the tackle the attacking team must be allowed one extra player, other than the tackled player, into the tackle area without it being called a ruck.
This will allow attacking teams to keep the ball in hand.
Currently in essence it is best to kick the ball deep into opposition territory and tackle the player. You are more likely to get ball there than run it from your own territory.
Problem with the ELVs is that aus and NZ were pushing for their inception due to them trialing the new rules in their domestic competitions.
England saw it as a coup to weaken them so blinded themselves.
Now they have a problem and they are waking up.
Aus and NZ struggled to get back to the old laws as they had played more with the ELVs. The aus players played a whole year more with the ELVs.
To switch back to them some time whilst having a young side.
Yes it has to do with the coaches but there needs to be some tweaking to ensure the attacking team does not get punished for carrying the ball.
One amendment has passed …
The first player to get his hands on the ball at the ruck is allowed to hang on to it.
Much like when in a pub…first dude to get his hands on a woman gets to keep her.
a charming analogy 😆
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