RuckedOver's Christmas Wishlist

 

Righto, I should apologise for the absence of any posts for a week.  Shocking behaviour I know, but I do have good reason.  Well, sort of.  Firstly, it’s the LV Cup, which most sides treat as a week off anyway – I am simply following suit, with the only difference being I don’t have some younger and more talented blogger jumping into my shoes to try his hand at it.  Secondly, I have actually laced up the boots and pottered out onto a rugby field again.  This whole site was started because of a snapped ACL, and 2.5 years and 2 reconstructions later I have finally gotten 80 minutes under my belt.  To say I am rusty though would be an understatement – I’m pants.  In fact, one chap actually said I should stick to writing.  That bad.

But I feel compelled to write a post today because it’s a time of year which always gets me excited.  Not only because we are on the cusp of the November internationals and the ritualistic slaughter of the northern hemisphere pretenders by their superior counterparts from the south – although you can’t deny it does throw up some great games and even, occasionally, the odd shock.  But also because it’s when all that Christmas marketing mumbo-jumbo and festive merchandising (led by Primark displaying their Seasonal Jumper selection in mid-October) gets into full swing.  Some people get grumpy about it, but I love it, and with that in mind, I’ve put together a big of a wish list for our game which will be sent (by email, this is the 21^st century) to the big man himself. 

Santa Claus that is, not Dave Wilson.

 

1. Sort out the tip-tackle rule.

I get the need to eradicate ‘spear’ tackles, I do.  It could have seriously injured Richie McCaw, it ruined a Lions Tour for Brian O’Driscoll and it ended the career (and nearly killed) league player Alex McKinnon. 

So that’s the serious bit, but on the other side we seem to have reached a tipping point (excuse the pun – actually don’t, I’m proud of that one) where the instant somebody is taken off their feet, the tackler is yellow carded as a minimum.  Part of the reason for this is because of the rule that if the tackled player goes beyond the horizontal, it’s a dangerous tackle and an automatic yellow.  But just because a player’s knees go above their torso (which is often unavoidable due to momentum) does not make it dangerous, and this has created a huge amount of inconsistency.  Check out Owen Williams’ big hit below – under the letter of the law, is this not a yellow card at least?

 

In my view, this is a hard but fair tackle.  And not dangerous.  Why should the tackler be penalised even if he has a control, as Williams does here?  To take away some of the element of doubt, I’d suggest a two stage test – firstly, has the player landed on his head, neck or shoulders?  Secondly, has he been driven into the ground?  If it’s a yes for either, it’s a yellow card.  If it’s a yes for both, it’s a red.

2.  Bring in a global season

There’s been plenty of chat about player welfare of late, and sometimes it is easy to forget that just because some guys look like Chuck Norris on juice, they are still human and can suffer some appalling injuries.   Not just isolated injuries that take place on the rugby pitch or at training, like Thom Evans all those years ago, but the slow burner injuries are becoming increasingly prevalent.  Whether that’s in the form of too many concussions, like Geoff Parling, or nerve damage due to continual pressure on the spine, like Dan Cole, it is becoming increasingly clear – especially given that players are bigger and more powerful than ever – that these guys play too much rugby and don’t get a proper break.

The game is, like it or not, a collision sport now and – with domestic seasons and summer tours taking place – the elite players are being put through the mill all year round.  I think it’s no coincidence at all that we are now seeing a higher incidence of injury amongst international players compared to others who will get a much longer summer break, during which they can put their feet up and let their bodies properly recover.

There are 52 weeks in a year (I am a fountain of knowledge like that).  I think it is fair to say that the players require at least 3 months of rest/pre-season, so we’ll say that we have 40 weeks of rugby available in the year.  With domestic rounds in the Premiership (22) plus the minimum number of European games (6), we’re up to 28.  Add in all the knock out stages of both competitions (5 overall) and we’re sitting on 33.  The Unions won’t be happy unless their sides play at least 11 or 12 times a year, which potentially brings us over by 5 weeks.  Those 5 weeks could occur during the domestic leagues and (including lead in times) would mean that players aren’t unavailable for domestic duty any more than they are currently.  Scrap the LV Cup and re-ignite the ‘A-league’ competition to promote young talent.  That’s the maths, all that matters now is the time of year.  And the money.

3.  Referee Accountability

I’m just going to run straight in here and steal Steve Hansen’s idea.  Big Steve said during the Rugby Championship that international refs should be set at the start of every season with their touch judges and their TMO, so they can work together effectively as a team – it is effectively a four man job now, after all, and familiarity breeds consistency, which is what all rugby fans crave from officials. 

But what of the refs who make the real howlers.  I’m not talking about missing the odd knock on, but the real slap-you-in-the-face bad calls that no competent ref should make – we’ve already had a couple this season, check out rugby’s first ‘own try’ and the charge down that was, for some reason, a knock on:

When a player plays poorly, they are dropped.  It doesn’t always appear to be the same for referees though.  A formal reviewing system which ranks the officials’ teams’ performances and, at set points, offers the opportunity for ‘promotion’ and ‘relegation’ (if necessary) could potentially ensure that referees at the top level are under just as much pressure to perform as players are.

 

4.  Get rid of that ‘choke tackle’ rule

We’ve all been there.  Watching an attacking team get into a maul in midfield, splatter the opposition back 15 metres at a rate of knots, and then the scrum goes to the defending side.  The rule was brought in to quicken the game up, to avoid those nasty close quarter pushing contests which occasionally invaded the rugby pitch – it’s a rule which states that if you take the ball into a maul situation, and the ball is subsequently unplayable, the ball is turned over.

As mentioned above, the rule was meant to speed up the game, but instead we are seeing a plethora of players ‘choke tackling’ to force a maul and win back possession – meaning we are seeing more scrums than ever and the game is actually slowing down.  Meanwhile, the actual type of maul which does classify as an art form (in my book) – the lineout drive – has become less and less common unless sides are 5 metres out, such is the fear of the maul collapsing and the referee deeming the ball unplayable. 

Bring back the old, simple rule.  If there’s a maul and the ball become unplayable, it’s the team going forward which wins possession. 

 

5.  Shut up Stadium Announcers

I was at a Bath game at the Rec for the first time a few weeks ago and I have to say it is a great place to watch rugby – a beautiful city, a ground that serves great beer (in 2-pint glasses!) and knowledgeable fans.  If only that berk on the tannoy would shut up with that ‘COME ON YOU BATH’ nonsense every 5 minutes (even when there hasn’t been a score). 

The announcer’s job is to tell us the score and about any substitutions, to tell noisy kids to shut up when players are kicking and to alert sheepish gentlemen that their wife is at the front desk wondering when they are planning to return to her mother’s birthday lunch.  The geeing up of the crowd should be left to the more enthusiastic (or drunk) fans, with the announcer focusing on the important responsibilities above and not forcing his own brand of encouragement down everyone’s throats just because a microphone in front of his gob.

 

Reading back over this, I really do sound like a bit of a grumpy Scrooge but, honestly, it’s all for the good of the game.  That said, maybe I should write to the Grinch instead...