LawsThis is going to be a very short article. Maybe it will be removed, but do we really talk RUGBY or are we just moaning, bitching, complaining about things that went wrong for OUR teams.

I want us to talk about the deeper things in the game we love. Laws, interpretations, bad coaching, player stupidity.

Let’s try and have a free for all on this article.

  1. The game we all watch goes through far too many changes.
  2. Every Referee interprets the game the way he sees fit.

Go on list your complaints…. and give your opinion!

16 Responses to In Depth – A true RUGBY discussion without Provincial bias

  • 1

    Morne Nortier
    9 minutes ago
    Last week visited the U/13 Craven Week lads, tomorrow swinging around the Academy Week tournament in Durbs. Registering all our young stars and their coaches so we can actively track and help with their progress and development through the ranks – awesome times!

  • 2

    @ superBul:
    Hope you dont abuse your possie and sign them all for the Stompoppies! Tounge-Out

  • 3

    superBul wrote:

    @ superBul:
    Hope you dont abuse your possie and sign them all for the Stompoppies!

    He he
    Ons maak hulle net mooi groot dan koop julle in elk geval vir hulle
    😀

    Your point number 2 is very valid.
    Even when doing something as inconsequential as making a SuperBru pick, it’s prudent to see who the ref is
    If it’s two equally strong teams and Steve Walsh is ref, go for the home side if in doubt.
    He generally favors the home team
    It’s sad when a ref pretty much decides the outcome of some matches
    The 1st Aus v Lions test I thought Pollock was blatantly cheating to get the Aussies the win
    I try not to moan about the ref as a rule, but he was so obvious and I’m sure everyone who watched knew a penalty was going to come right at the end.
    Next week it’s a NH ref who will officiate the decider.
    Will be interesting to see if it favors the Lions and how the Aussies will cope with his interpretations

  • 4

    @ nortierd:
    Refereeing is a well paid job, and i get peeed of when they get away with “interpretations”

    Someone started a debate on SS after the weekends matches about the inability of SA teams to create new innovative play. Almost half of the tries scored was from mauling, and like Naas, Nick and panel i am worried about it. Like them i feel it is blatant obstruction, but then again if a coach can interpret the game better than a ref , Great for Him.

  • 5

    superBul wrote:

    i get peeed of when they get away with “interpretations”

    Blow the Law, if it is a stop start game OK, soon they will play to the LAW and the game will come out with something new to mesmerize the Refs

  • 6

    @ superBul:
    I heard Mallet making that comment, and in a manner of speaking it is true.
    It’s almost as if each team has one trick up their sleeve that the others don’t
    Our strength is the 5m line out and subsequent maul
    The Kiwi’s on the other hand have perfected the art of decoy runners to make space for their back line players
    Some of our supporters get upset about it and call it obstruction etc., but we should also start practicing it and try to employ it, likewise the AB supporters don’t all approve of the line out maul
    The experiment of going to the TMO this year has failed IMO.
    Even then it boils down to a personal interpretation instead of what most of us can clearly see on TV.
    Let’s be honest, defenses are very structured nowadays and it’s not easy to break them down in tight matches.
    More often than not it boils down to one piece of individual brilliance from a player than a collective effort to get the result in an evenly matched contest

  • 7

    Here a complaint: Too much rugby and not enough time to watch it Happy-Grin On a less flippant note with the game being professional and bills needing to be paid s- players salaries etc, one of the down sides is that a lot of the rugby is on TV channels that you have to pay a lot to watch.

  • 8

    Am not a fan of refs ‘coaching’ players during a game, you will often hear them say get on side, feed it straight etc – I don’t think this is a remit of the referee at professional level they have enough pressure in blowing the whistle to deal, coaching the players is the coaches job. Sometimes you find one team gets more ‘ref coaching’ than their opponents, wonder if there is any IRB guidline/directive on this or do referees just take it upon themselves to do this? You can understand it helps the game at lower school boy level or maybe even social club level but not above that.

  • 9

    Certainly agree with the first point about the continual tinkering with the laws of the game, this must make it hard for the referees and players alike to have to constantly adapt. Makes it tough when you don’t get to watch much rugby then you can get confused by the whistle blowing at times withouth a proper knowledge of the latest laws, makes it even more confusing is that I think ok the ref has blown for team A doing that so he will do the same for team B and then sometimes he doesn’t.

  • 10

    Not enough international rugby and no real pro (club/provincial) rugby to go and watch in this neck of the woods, almost always involves quite a travel, we not even getting to see Japan in the Autumn as all 3 Scotland Autumn Internationals will be at Murrayfield.

  • 11

    6 @ nortierd:
    Hello nortierd thats one of the instances I refer to that don’t fully understand, maybe if I knew the letter of the law regarding mauls it would make it a little clearer but it looks like obstruction to me but so often gets allowed and then at times the ref blows them up for ‘truck and trailor’ – some kind of obstruction that to me looks similar in general to maul. Maybe am just too easily confused I-see-stars

  • 12

    @ Bullscot:I’m getting sick of VipBox now, would love to be able to see some rugby properly!

  • 13

    @ Bullscot:
    Hi bud
    Nope, I think we all sometimes get confused.
    We have seen instances where a team mauls from the 22m line or even beyond, yet when they reach the tryline it miraculously collapses and the momentum stops.
    How can you successfully maul for such a long distance without opposition resistance and then all of a sudden they managed to legally stop it on the tryline?
    Think I speak under correction, but wasn’t it Andre Watson who coined the phrase ” truck and trailer”?
    Then it took off from there, don’t think we would find it in any rule book

  • 14

    Now why would I have wanted to delete this one, BlommieBul?

    Go ahead…

  • 15

    nortierd wrote:

    How can you successfully maul for such a long distance without opposition resistance and then all of a sudden they managed to legally stop it on the tryline?

    Good question. What is the part of the mauling team in this collapse?

  • 16

    Superbul, great idea for a thread, but if I was to vent what I dislike about the game I’d need a few hours.

    Most of it surrounds the poor administration both here in SA at National level, as well as at the GLRU, and then of course the ever present question surrounding development of Rugby Union, firstly here in SA, and second worldwide.

    Not enough being done, and what is being done is done too slowly.

    Good points remain the ability of SA unions to unearth rich talent, but seem incapable of keeping them all, but that I guess is a consequence of living in a 3rd world country with a weak currency.

    And lastly, as already mentioned, the refereeing. Oh the refereeing.

    Too many controversies, and no accountability.

Users Online

Total 28 users including 0 member, 28 guests, 0 bot online

Most users ever online were 3735, on 31 August 2022 @ 6:23 pm