Things that get up my nose about rugby these days

[Lee Grant]

Part I

Our sport is more enjoyable to watch than it was in the olden times when I was young, but there are a few things about the modern game I would rather be without.

Some of them are trivial but hey, this is my thread.


• The try celebrations
Players in the old times were just as happy when they scored a try, believe me, and were probably more so because fewer were scored in those days. Team mates would give them a pat on the back too, and if the try won the game a few might jump up and down. But some of the convoluted celebrations these days wear a bit thin and others border on showing disrespect to opponents. One wonders if they would bother if the game wasn't on TV.

• Cheap shots
There were more punches thrown in days gone by, but somehow I find that old practice more acceptable than the cheap shots we see today. McCaw is a pain in the arse but nothing he has done was worth the sly knee to the head Quade Cooper gave him. Sure, it didn't hurt much and QC (Quade Cooper) got away with it, but I have no doubt a majority of neutrals would judge that it was done on purpose, even if the Commissioner didn't.

That's just one example. In the old days his lights would have been punched out and if the ref stopped it in time he would have been sorted out in a ruck later on.

• Yellow cards not being used
In the Baas v Oz game commentator Stuart Barnes mentioned that Barbarian games had been spoiled by the ref not awarding yellow cards. It's not just in the Baas games Stuart.

The card system was a good innovation but it has to be used more often than it is now. Some referees are too circumspect in fear of being assessed as too gung-ho. But if referees are too timid using cards they are going to be the same in other aspects of their performance and may as well be ditched or demoted anyway.

Sure, you don't want to go too far the other way but refs and their assessors, should be informed that they are expected to be firm – like Romain Poite.

• Tatoos
I hate them. Not on the Polynesian lads: it's part of their culture, but a white fellow whose arms look like road maps? Give me a break. If they want to look tough, they should show it on the park.
.

 

[Sully]

Patting opposition players on the head when the stuff up. Gutless!

 

[Bardon]

What's know as simulation in soccer creeping into rugby. See this normally in 2 instances.

First: When a player puts up a high ball and realises he's no going to get there so he purposely runs into an opposition player and goes to ground hoping to win a penalty.

Second: Increasingly anytime someone makes contact with a players face, throat etc. (not talking about eye gouging or punching) the player is going to ground clutching his face in an attempt to get him yellow or red carded.

 

[Lee Grant]

Part II

• Citing Commissioners
Firstly, they miss too much, like the Schalk Burger repeated raking of Pocock's face with his fingers in the RWC, and secondly, they are too weak when they do review it, as with the Cooper incident.

There is lucky dip lack of consistency in the treatment of offenders. I wrote a post a couple of years ago about how a cheap citing system could work in the Super14. It involved three Commissioners linking by Skype. It wasn't rocket science but it would be a lot better than what they have now and it could be tweaked for test matches too.

Incidentally, unless a player is suspended for 6 months or a year for a major offence, he should be outed for a number of games, not a number of weeks – and for the level of rugby he was delinquent in, or higher. Thus a player who offends in a test match should be suspended for a number of tests. If a player transgresses in Super Rugby he should miss so many Super and/or test matches – whichever comes first .

I wouldn't be too fussed if he played at a lower level of rugby during suspension from the higher levels, but it would require a paradigm shift in thinking, and I doubt therefore that it would ever be sanctioned. My point is that the suspension of players for a period of time can be a nonsense when there is not much on for the player during the period.

• Players throwing their bodies into rucks and mauls without binding
It's a man's game but this habit is becoming chronic and it adds little to the rugby spectacle. I'm thinking of you Schalk: you're a shocker in that regard, probably the worst, but everybody does it, including “Aussie Dan” for the Wallabies.

There is a rationale behind the need to bind on a ruck or maul hit: it puts players in harm's way, especially their shoulder joints - yet it is a built-in safety feature for opponents in the ruck and maul. Likewise, unlike in league, it protects the ball carrier in a tackle.

Union players are entitled to rely on enforcement of the requirement to use arms.

• Disrespecting opponents
I'm sorry guys but patting guys on the head or mocking opponents when they make a mistake, and other such crap after the whistle has blown, makes you look worse than the guy who made the mistake.
.

 

[Lee Grant]

Part III

• Commentators saying there was nothing wrong with a high tackle when the initial impact with hand or arm didn't do a lot, but then the defender used his grip on the head or neck to judo throw the ball runner down, or twist him around. What about that guys? And whilst you are at it how about a few unfavourable comments about defenders twisting heads around in the maul. I'm thinking of you Bakkies; stay north of the equator son; nobody is going to miss you down here except a few chiropractors.

• Referees enforcing some law infringements they notice, but not others.
You have to give some sympathy to refs because there are too many laws, and materiality comes into play.

The trouble is that, over time, referees as a group unwittingly establish conventions about which laws are to be enforced, and which, ignored. These conventions are not all bad: who wants to ping the attacking scrummie putting his hands into his own ruck and tugging the ball loose?

But allowing feeds 30 degrees skew on a 1 metre (tops) throw into the scrum, yet pinging the 10 – 15 metre throw to the lineout a few degrees off? It sounds like something straight out of Kafka, but we see it in every game. All that does is destroy the old rugby union contest of hooking for the ball. Who cares? I do.

Er, Lee, havent you said that the power hit has caused instability and the tunnel becomes compromised; so that's why refs close a blind eye to the put-in behind the hookers feet? True, but why not enforce the law when the scrum is stable and the tunnel, credible?

And whilst we are on this subject: why don't refs invoke the law that outlaws the packs charging into each other at scrum time? Sure, it's a charge of only 6-12 inches, but it is a charge, and it is a law. Enforcing that would get rid of the power hit within 3 weeks as the ever pragmatic coaches deal with the new paradigm.

Engaging the front rows without the charge and enforcing the straight feed into the scrum will resurrect the hooking contest. Presently this is an endangered species of rugby combat, except in the far reaches of darkest amateur rugby,

 

[GaffaCHinO]

Something that has really begun to bug me is the lack of protection to players heads at the ruck. So many times in the last few years we have seen players get cleaned out by a choker hold and spin. If someone did this in general play it would be a penalty maybe even yellow but time after time nothing is done about it. Pocock was out for 6 weeks after Bismarck rapped his arms around his neck a cleaned him out and nothing was done about it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmXOx84qdCc

 

[Boomer]

The headshot call by boof-headed commentators is particularly egregious.

Not part of the game.

 

[waratahjesus]

The French.

 

[machiavelli]

Technology

I'm scizo about the bloody ball... can kick it miles now and this has spoiled the graft and craft to get terretorial advatage whilst the old leather one was like a bar of soap.

the aspect I like least about todays rugby :

gobing off to the ref by players and refs telling the players what to do in order not to penalise 'em !! Grrr

 

[Brumby Jack]

LG,

I know NFL's not for everyone but I do like them giving penalties for taunting an opponent or excessive celebrating after a touchdown. Maybe taking a few ideas from there wouldn't hurt.

And on your players throwing their bodies into rucks etc..

 

[EVERYFWDTHINKTHEYREA6OR7]

Agree with a lot of what you are saying there Lee but like you said. We enjoy watching the game as a whole more now. I guess these few things are the bad we have to take with the good.

 

[Brisbok]

Part I

Our sport is more enjoyable to watch than it was in the olden times when I was young, but there are a few things about the modern game I would rather be without.

Some of them are trivial but hey, this is my thread.


• The try celebrations
Players in the old times were just as happy when they scored a try, believe me, and were probably more so because fewer were scored in those days. Team mates would give them a pat on the back too, and if the try won the game a few might jump up and down. But some of the convoluted celebrations these days wear a bit thin and others border on showing disrespect to opponents. One wonders if they would bother if the game wasn't on TV.

Eg. the Digby Ioane 'Turtle'? I can't believe the number of posts I've read on the forum where people refer to that moment as a 'highlight'.

 

[Cutter]

I think there's a fair bit of grumpy old menitis (GOM) in this thread.

No one complained about Ben Tune's aeroplane celebration back in the day.

 

[wamberal]

I really dislike the half-back meerkating. The referee should order "play on" immediately the half-back is able to pick up the pill, and the other side should be able to attack immediately, not only "through the gate". I also dislike the fact that the rolling maul is still legal, plus the scrum fetish in the modern game. The scrum is there to restart play, or to go for a push-over from five metres, it is not an end in itself. Scrum penalties, let alone cards from scrum infringements, should not decide who wins and who loses.

 

[Swat]

Didn't agree to with one of Lee's points but couldn't agree more with the piss-weak judiciary. I would have given cooper 4 weeks minimum, not for any damage caused to the opponent but for being a dick. Is this the kind of sporting display that we want to show our kids? I'm sorry but what a douche, and just cause Richie kicked you in the knee way back in HK be the bigger man and let it go...

Booing... In general, your team, the opposing team, anyone kicking etc. I find this utterly despicable... I know many won't agree with me but is a bug bear of mine...

The attitude of players towards the rules of the game, especially at the breakdown. I know it is widely practiced but it shits me no end... the whole, I'm only breaking the law if I'm caught attitude...

That is all.

 

[Brisbok]

I really dislike the half-back meerkating. The referee should order "play on" immediately the half-back is able to pick up the pill, and the other side should be able to attack immediately, not only "through the gate". I also dislike the fact that the rolling maul is still legal, plus the scrum fetish in the modern game. The scrum is there to restart play, or to go for a push-over from five metres, it is not an end in itself. Scrum penalties, let alone cards from scrum infringements, should not decide who wins and who loses.

Are you having a laugh? If so, you forgot to add the :fishing emoticon! The scrum and rolling maul are crucial aspects of rugby and along with the lineout are the main points of difference from other codes.

 

[Swat]

Are you having a laugh? If so, you forgot to add the :fishing emoticon! The scrum and rolling maul are crucial aspects of rugby and along with the lineout are the main points of difference from other codes.

Maybe if he meant 'pulling down the rolling maul is still illegal'???

 

[Swat]

Pretty much sums it up... Courtesy of Matt Stone and Trey Parker (the creators of South Park)

 

[boyo]

Rugby commentators should have to learn/know "The Laws of the Game" before they are allowed to commentate on a game, or else viewers/listeners can be misinformed.

 

[MajorlyRagerly]

No rucking. You need rucking.