Rugby - not set pieces

[Lee Grant]

Hickey was a backrower in Yr. 10 and in the trials in Yr 11. He then went to hooker but later in the season was playing 13 though I don't know for how many games.

In Yr. 12 he was back to hooker. I didn't see every game; so he could have been playing elsewhere in Yr. 12 as well..

 

[Bruce Ross]

I think Saffy was initially a back-rower. His move to the front row was a Br. Anthony special - he loves mobile, ball-carrying props and hookers. Another Joeys back-row to front-row and back to back-row transition in more recent times has been Dave Hickey. I know Hicks missed out on the highest schoolboy honours, and is still eligible for colts at Uni, but watch this space. He spent two years at hooker for Joeys 1st XV, but he's playing in the loosies again now and killing it.

Hickey was a backrower in Yr. 10 and in the trials in Yr 11. He then went to hooker but later in the season was playing 13 though I don't know for how many games.

In Yr. 12 he was back to hooker. I didn't see every game; so he could have been playing elsewhere in Yr. 12 as well..

Albert and LG, my strongly held personal view is that coaches of young kids should be focussed on player development rather than winning premierships. And that philosophy should also apply at Colts level and in the initial years of Grade.

 

[Eyes and Ears]

I reckon a rugby ref would apply the random decision generator and come up with a scrum.

On another point...
Jarrod saffey was picked for oz schools as a prop in 2001. He has subsequently played all his rugby as a back rower.
Lots of players move up to the front row as they age but I can't remember too many moving back. Usually once you stick your head in there it's a life sentence.
Anyone think of any others?

Didn't Tilse go from front row to lock during Colts and then back to the front row?

 

[Bruce Ross]

Didn't Tilse go from front row to lock during Colts and then back to the front row?

That's right, E'nE, and IIRR it was the Waratahs academy coaches who suggested to the Uni Colts coaches that he be played there to improve his work around the park.

 

[Scarfman]

superlock!

 

[Lee Grant]

Players

• Dud Roodt is in the Cheetahs squad. Haven't seen him on the park yet.

Referees

• Marius Jonker [Hurricanes v. Chiefs] “Zero tolerance on no bind up”. I don't know that this is the answer to so many scrum collapses in this era of power hits but am willing to give it a go. I want early engages, without power hits, and then wait for the scrummie to put the ball in even if they have to wait like that until he picks the ball up. The dominant scrum will dominate after the put in with the push, much more than it does today on the power hit engage. Now the inferior scrum benefits from guesses by the referees after the collapses caused by power hits.

But I digress. The LHP's use of the left arm on the floor to steady himself is an old thing and Olo Brown used to use the rebound from it to launch himself up and cause mischief. Let's see if no tolerance works. It's a pity that this no-tolerance was not in force when we played Ireland on the 2009 EOYT. Hayes had his hand on the ground but Ireland got their ball and BOD scored enabling Ireland to draw the game.

But Hayes is a THP and should have his bind inside the bind of the opposing LHP; so how could he get away with that? Excellent point.


• Steve Walsh [Stormers v. Highlanders] said in chat to Bekker that a receiver going into the lineout must act as a jumper (not a lifter). Didn't know that or had forgotten it. I thought he could do anything the other guys in the lineout could do. Will have to look up the lineout laws but there are so many of them I'll leave it to later on.

• Steve Walsh – same game – good to see him ping a guy for stopping a player standing up then walking around so that his body went to ground on the opponent's side of the ball.

• Forget the ref and the game but some ref pinged a defending player in the starfish position at the breakdown. His weight was not 100% on feet and would have needed a power move to stand up with the ball should he have got it. Good call – he didn't have “all the rights” after all.

Warning to David Pocock when he comes back: we applaud when you scrape the ball out of a ruck with one arm but we know you do that because you have weight on the other one - on the floor, or a fallen player. Keep doing it though Poey until they get wise.

• Keith Brown [Cheetahs v Lions] called play back when the Cheetahs went over for a “try” and I thought “Good call”, but it was a scrum to the Lions and not a penalty. Must have been a forward pass.

I saw a penalty - Brüssow running sideways from a ruck (or set piece) ahead of his team mates and held a guy without the ball at the breakdown more on the Lions side of last feet than his side, which was also illegal. This was a So'olialo special and McCaw is a dab hand at blocking defenders like this too, oh so accidentally, not. Good on them: they got away with it most of the time. Our players should do it more.

Watch Brüssow on Saturday night and maybe learn something lads.

 

[barbarian]

Thought they had changed that lineout law Lee. In fact I am sure of it. The 'receiver' can lift, jump, do a handstand, whatever he wants.

 

[Lee Grant]

Yeah me too - vaguely. Anyone else remember the comment that Walsh gave to Bekker?

 

[rugbysmartarse]

I liked in the cru v hld game that before the ref produced the yellow card he made the man turn around so he could check he had the right whitelock

 

[Lee Grant]

Referees

• Keith Brown [Bulls v Stormers] has a chat with Matfield. Stormers skipper JdV asks him “Is that a warning Keith, or not yet?” and Brown says: “Yes it is, but it's none of your business really, Jean.” Ouch; not nice Keith.


What gets up my nose

• Tackled players being allowed to pass off the floor way too long after going to ground. How immediate is "immediate" supposed to be? Well done to Steve Walsh [Scotland v. Italy] and Craig Joubert [France v Wales] for pinging, respectively, Italy flanker Barbieri and Wales lock Davies for this infringement.

• Players being allowed to stop the other team using the ball. Well done to touchie Nigel Owens [Ireland v. England] for dobbing in Pom scrummie Ben Youngs, who tossed the ball away so that Ireland couldn't have a quick throw-in near his goal line. He got a yellow card from ref Bryce Lawrence for his sin.

• “Rodneys” - Example: Bulls v Stormers – Francois Louw of the Stormers gets tackled near the Bulls goal-line and, after running in support, the excellent hooker Deon Fourie accidentally flops on the Bulls side of the tackle. Nothing much wrong there, though he could have been penalised; but then he stays on the Bulls' side of the tackle and pulls a Bulls' player away from it. Not noticed by ref Brown. [This practice is named after Rodney So'oialo.]


RWC

• One of the Eurosports co-commentators of the Top14 is an ex-Puma and the France kicking coach. He mentioned recently that Argentina have no test matches between November 2010 and the RWC . Rough. Almost all of their squad will be in Europe though and they will have camp there.


Commentators

• Ryle Nugent: “It looks like they haven't eaten for months.” Indeed, the Ireland forwards did look hungry versus England.

• Conor McNamara, after the first playable ball emerged from a scrum 35 minutes into a game: “2011 has been the year of the collapsing scrum.” Actually not this year down south Conor - so far.


Trivia

• Italy “earned” the 6N wooden spoon in their last game of the series, versus Scotland. One of the commentators mentioned that this undesirable honour was first awarded a couple of centuries ago at Cambridge University to the student with the lowest mark in mathematics. Why a wooden spoon though? Dunno.

• By the way: congrats to Scotland for avoiding the spoon and in doing so scoring their first try at their home ground since Nov. 2009.

• Springboks John Smit and Juan Smith. The surname of the first makes it appear that he's an Afrikaner and the second, a soutie, or non-Afrikaner, but it's the other way around.

According to John his forebears were originally Afrikaner, as his surname would indicate, but the family switched in recent generations and are English speaking now. According to Juan, who is very Afrikaans: an English soldier, one of the visiting side in the Boer War, had his way with his great-grandmother.

As for the derivation of the word “soutie”: that's another story.

 

[MrTimms]

Great stuff Lee...

And

congrats to Scotland for avoiding the spoon and in doing so scoring their first try at their home ground since Nov. 2009.

Unbelievable...

 

[DPK]

As for the derivation of the word “soutie”: that's another story.

Oh go on, Lee...

 

[topo]

Great to see you back, Lee. I was beginning to worry that the events of last Saturday night had sent you into an acute depressive catatonia.

 

[Lee Grant]

It did - but then: why should I be different from the players?

 

[Lee Grant]

Sevens

• Fiji v South Africa - Hong Kong - The Saffers try a maul but are held up. They get a penalty though and take a lineout on the 5M line. They win the ball and all 7 (i.e. including the thrower running in) maul it over for a 5 pointer. Hadn't seen that before.


Commentators

• Matt Pearce (I think it was) Stomers v Force was calling the Force 12 as Fairbanks the whole game. The 12 didn't have a great game as it was too much of a step for the young man, whose name was, in fact, Brian Sefanaia. He's a recent acquisition from the Manly club and has played for Oz Sevens. He's a brown man and looks nothing like Yabbie Fairbanks.

• Greg Martin just before oranges Reds v Cheetahs and the visitors likely to kick the ball out to end the half: “We know they can put the ball into touch quite nicely: they've been doing it on the restarts.” Ouch.

Marto was on fire. Later in the game he said: “The Cheetahs are taking their time with the restart – mainly because they don't have a ball.” Made sense to me too.

• Rod Kafer Brumbies v Tahs after Kepu had caught a ball off a team mate and was not necessarily behind him at the time - and referee Jonker had indicated that it was an accidental reaction: “It was definitely a reaction: the reaction of an offside player,” said Kafe.

• Miles Harrison and Stuart Barnes It was good to hear different commentators do the Crusaders v Sharks game at Twickenham wasn't it?


Players

• Ever noticed that Pom hooker, Dylan Hartley, looks like the fat brother of Saints and England team mate Chris Ashton?


What gets up my nose

• Players running in front of the ball in backline moves. Example: Timani runs ahead and trips Andrew Smith so he can't get to Beale who grubbers for Cross to score. Sure, I'm glad my team scored the try but there is too much of that and all teams do it.

Sometimes a ref sees a player run in front of the ball carrier and stop a defender, even knocking him down, but he waves play on because the ball has gone wider. But what he doesn't usually check for is that when the ball is moved back inside, the player who is knocked down can't get to a hole created because he isn't there on time.

Ironic that this happened to the Brumbies the other night. Remember the squeals of SAffer teams playing against them 10 years ago and complaining about their dummy runners?


Referees

• Keith Brown when one of the Cheetahs speaks to him but confuses him with someone else: “Don't call me Vinnie.” OK, Brownie.


Trivia

• Reds v Cheetahs - According to the Foxtel stats at half-time: the Cheetahs missed 26 tackles. Ouch. The total for the Reds? Zero.

• Same game – the Cheetahs have their first scrum feed in the 50th minute !! Along those lines: can anybody remember the longest a game has been played without a penalty? Why I ask is that I was watching the Mighty Dragons league team play the Hopeless Warriors and the first penalty was in the 52nd minute.

• Talking of that rugby league game: the ref made the Warriors reset a scrum !! The scrummie had thrown it against his prop's outside leg and it bounced off it and the scrummie bolted away. The referee warned him how to do it properly next time: “Put it over the prop's feet to the second row.”

At least the league boys have made it official.

• Twickenham - Isn't it good to see a field like that for the Crusaders v Sharks game. The field is mowed in 5 metre strips, each in an opposite direction to the next one, so you can see a line to judge forwards passes e.g. a pass from Carter to Dagg at 31 min 32 secs. Don't blame ref Walsh though: he was knocked over and was 20 metres behind.

 

[Newb]

there are mauls in 7s??

 

[Lee Grant]

There were in Hong Kong yesterday. Would have been a bit embarrassing if they had lost that lineout before the maul formed though as they were all in one area.

 

[lincoln]

Talking of that rugby league game: the ref made the Warriors reset a scrum !! The scrummie had thrown it against his prop's outside leg and it bounced off it and the scrummie bolted away. The referee warned him how to do it properly next time: “Put it over the prop's feet to the second row.”

At least the league boys have made it official.

In the Manly/New game the New half rolled the scrum feed 90 degrees back through his locks' feet - penalty. Next scrum does exactly the same thing - play on. Go figure.

 

[Lee Grant]

Wow - that must be new this year but I don't see the point. The mungoes have long ago stopped the scrum contest in the interest of enabling the non-offending backline to get the ball with 12 players isolated in one spot.

No, it doesn't figure.

 

[Godfrey]

Fast becoming a favourite thread of mine. Great work Lee!