Official Rugby Thread

[StephenZA]

My sacrilegious rugby opinion is that scrums should be scrapped. They’ve been a complete shambles for decades, if they were fixable they’d have been fixed by now. They’re not even exciting or interesting when they work properly. The game would lose nothing of any value.

Restart with a free kick. Or a line out. Or literally anything else.

will get lynched in certain parts of SA....

 

[Uppercut]

I don’t know much about unicorn anatomy but I appear to have a serious neck injury, probably from all the scrummaging.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Lineout would probably be preferable cos it locks up as many forwards as a scrum does.

But then you might as well remove two forwards and introduce between four and six downs.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Lineout would probably be preferable cos it locks up as many forwards as a scrum does.

But then you might as well remove two forwards and introduce between four and six downs.

Quite so. There's always league for anyone who doesn't want to see contested possession.

My quick fix would be for the ref to stop the clock when the scrum is called and only restart it once the #9 actually puts the ball in.

We wouldn't lose any actual playing time from the resets and even the densest prop (a title for which I'm sure there's very stiff competition) might get the hint and stop effing about.

Refs who've actually played in the tight five would help too. Say whatever you like about Brian Moore, but his calls on scrums are very nearly 100% bang on.

 

[GotSpin]

My sacrilegious rugby opinion is that scrums should be scrapped. They’ve been a complete shambles for decades, if they were fixable they’d have been fixed by now. They’re not even exciting or interesting when they work properly. The game would lose nothing of any value.

Restart with a free kick. Or a line out. Or literally anything else.

Scrums are awesome

 

[GotSpin]

I initially thought this, but the fitness of modern players makes me suspect sides with great forward depth would just trust their backs to go 80. Also props might go from 40 minutes of scrumming to 60-80.

We could change it so instead of endless scrum resets (where a huge amount of built up brain injuries are happening) you get one reset max then the ref has to make a call. That way we still get the contest, the Crusader scum can still whistle hop down the field and we save some impacts and patience. Win win.

The big boy forwards would find it hard though

 

[Shady Slim]

The big boy forwards would find it hard though

yeah just as a league fan, the quality of play last season was really quite poor because they fiddled around with the rules too too much "to speed the game up", and all that happened was it meant that by about the sixty minute mark of each game the good teams would begin to absolutely throttle bottom of the table guys

 

[social]

Stopping the clock for resets is the opposite of what should happen

 

[Flem274*]

yeah just as a league fan, the quality of play last season was really quite poor because they fiddled around with the rules too too much "to speed the game up", and all that happened was it meant that by about the sixty minute mark of each game the good teams would begin to absolutely throttle bottom of the table guys

Slightly seperate issue. The top clubs are refereed differently to the lower clubs, so the top clubs can take a nap on a lower club during the tackle with no consequence.

If someone without a salary sombrero tries that they get nailed.

League reffing is just ****. At least Union is consistently strict right now. League has different standards for different teams.

The absolute state of southern hemisphere sport when cricket has easily the best officiating, purely due to 3 challenge DRS and technology to take the DRS decision away from the chaos of the bloke/blokette in the bunker (sometimes).

 

[social]

Slightly seperate issue. The top clubs are refereed differently to the lower clubs, so the top clubs can take a nap on a lower club during the tackle with no consequence.

If someone without a salary sombrero tries that they get nailed.

League reffing is just ****. At least Union is consistently strict right now. League has different standards for different teams.

The absolute state of southern hemisphere sport when cricket has easily the best officiating, purely due to 3 challenge DRS and technology to take the DRS decision away from the chaos of the bloke/blokette in the bunker (sometimes).

Rugby rules and officiating are dogshit

The only consistency is that nobody knows what’s going on as any number of infringements can be ruled against in a play & it’s up to the whim of the ref as to which way it goes

 

[BoyBrumby]

Rugby rules and officiating are dog****

The only consistency is that nobody knows what’s going on as any number of infringements can be ruled against in a play & it’s up to the whim of the ref as to which way it goes

There is some truth in this.

If a ref were so minded I'm sure he could find an infringement at any given ruck and it would completely destroy the rhythm of the game.

The best we can hope for is consistency; with a good ref he'll generally set a marker early doors so the players where on the strict-lenient continuum he lies.

 

[Uppercut]

I complain about rugby refs sometimes, but it's a tough sport to referee because the rules are so ambiguous. They do an infinitely better job than football, American football, or basketball refs.

 

[Flem274*]

Union just lives in Socials head tbh.

Union reffing is often frustrating, but as a League fan it's not a contest. The state of it for at least 5 years now...

 

[James]

Yeah, it has made a massive difference.

Back in the amateur days players were often big guys, but still within the realms of normal human proportions. Nowadays though players are just slabs of muscle.

Colin Meads, a lock (NZders would probably argue the lock) who in his era was nicknamed "Pinetree" because of his size, was 6' 4" and 16 stone.

George North, a wing, is the same height and over a stone heavier.

Yes exactly right, the size of the backs these days are the size of the forwards from yester year.

A name that suddenly sprung to mind is Terry Wright and he was a fairly decent winger for both Auckland and the All Blacks, but no way could he make it these days on the wing with his size.

 

[ashley bach]

Rugby rules and officiating are dog****

The only consistency is that nobody knows what’s going on as any number of infringements can be ruled against in a play & it’s up to the whim of the ref as to which way it goes

This is certainly one of the most frustrating parts of the game, even some of the most educated fans don't have a clue why penalties
are sometimes dished out. It is very much up to the man in charge, but yeah consistency is the most important thing.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Yes exactly right, the size of the backs these days are the size of the forwards from yester year.

A name that suddenly sprung to mind is Terry Wright and he was a fairly decent winger for both Auckland and the All Blacks, but no way could he make it these days on the wing with his size.

View attachment 32590

True. These days a player like Wright would need to put on 15kgs+, practise passing and box kicking, and hope to make it as a halfback.

 

[Burgey]

Yeah it seems to be something across both rugby codes that outside backs have more in common with the body shape of back rowers than they do inside backs/ halves.

 

[Howe_zat]

True. These days a player like Wright would need to put on 15kgs+, practise passing and box kicking, and hope to make it as a halfback.

Nah, 6’0 and under wingers are still around, it’s just that hardly anyone is under 80kg any more. He’d bulk up a bit with modern training so wouldn’t be that small.

 

[Burgey]

All the best to Hooper. Hope he’s back soon

 

[ripper868]

Speaking of head injury, Faf du Klerk in the first minute of Nz V RSA was not pretty. Can't imagine Caleb Clarkes knee is a soft target.

Malcolm Marx is a beast btw, his turnovers this half very impressive.