The Current State of Rugby
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@taniwharugby said in The Current State of Rugby:
But the ambiguity of the rule book and quality of current crop of refs ends with a game struggling with its direction and identity.
Guess the problem is, the money in the NH game means WR thinks all is well
In recent internationals the refs haven’t called the hands on the ground prior to turnover. But there are so many rules that aren’t managed very well and I feel for refs - wingers in front of box kick or just players at restart, not straight feed at scrums, players making a mistake then playing the ball on the ground - penalty? players joining in front of players at maul..etc
Like you say the issue is the rules and the product that results. The thing I hate most is lineout mauls because so much of the game has become about this phase. We are seeing 3 or more tries per game at this phase. It reduces back play. Just seems out of whack - I would like them to make this more of a contest or just referee the attacking team more.
The oddest rule is the held up dropout. The reward to defender seems unfair on the attacking team.
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@voodoo said in The Current State of Rugby:
@taniwharugby said in The Current State of Rugby:
@Steve said in The Current State of Rugby:
Dane Coles can be seen running in from 20 yards away for some biff
Funnily, after that time wasting scrum was awarded, Coles came storming in aggressively trying to snatch the ball off whoever still had it, such a muppet.
He had to be restrained TWICE. Couldn't believe it
That's a guy you definitely want to shake hands with.
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@Steve said in The Current State of Rugby:
@Crucial said in The Current State of Rugby:
@Steve said in The Current State of Rugby:
@Crucial said in The Current State of Rugby:
@Steve or you could have just posted....”French ref”
That linked article barely hits the low bar of fact of a forum.
It’s not just French ref though…..the whole thing is a mess.
You’re post was just “French ref” though and the “article” linked to was so full of hyperbole and outdated comments it might just have been written by David Campese.
Had to laugh at how the writer completely tangled up their logic to support refs not being the centre of things by praising Gardner for taking control and not listening to anyone else.It’s a thread about how they are making a bollox of it . And my post is about the latest ref to make a bollox of it.
The article is about the possibly of said ref making a bollox of it.
I’m not sure if your angle here? Do you think Thursdays game was a judicious tour de force ?
Or have you inserted yourself into the thread to be an intentionally disagreeable conversational speed bump.
Hardly. If you actually read the thread you'd see that it is generally more constructive than a whinge about the latest performance and I have hardly just inserted myself in.
Your post wasn't about the state of the game and what could be done it was just your list of the latest ref errors or strange decisions. Match threads are good for that
The article had one line wondering how Reynal would go. WHOOP-DE-DO.How about discussing consistency (or lack thereof) across countries and comps. Or the deliberate ignoring of laws for unknown purposes? That kind of stuff.
Otherwise you may as well have typed 'French Ref'
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On the topic of consistency. I was googling about this weekend's ref and came across this
'Bottled that': Wayne Barnes leniency over high tackle sparks drama in Premiership final
Referee Wayne Barnes, officiating his third Premiership final, was reluctant to go with a red and explained that there
So apparently Barnes is the only ref that going that works on a theory of the ball carrier being the dominant person in a tackle even if they take a hit directly to the face.
I kind of get the concept (same as Porter v BBBR) but why is it that no other ref rules this way, the citing commissioners send it to judiciary then judiciary side with Barnes?
Both this case and the Porter ones look to be clear instances of what the guidelines are trying to remove from the game or discourage as technique from tacklers. Quite strange.As an aside I did laugh to see that despite all of his experience Barnes is still the ref most likely to get in the way of play. His positioning has always been terrible and he has often managed to do so in big matches
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In Bledisloe 1, the ball was in play for 12 minutes in the 1st half.
12 minutes out of 40. And this test was supposedly between 2 sides who like to have have a fast match with free flowing rugby.
In the Argie - SA game a few hours later, there was over 30 penalties. So, essentially he blew 1 penalty a minute for the time the ball was in play.
International rugby is slowly creaking to a halt and you know it will only get worse at the World Cup.
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@DaGrubster said in The Current State of Rugby:
In Bledisloe 1, the ball was in play for 12 minutes in the 1st half.
12 minutes out of 40. And this test was supposedly between 2 sides who like to have have a fast match with free flowing rugby.
In the Argie - SA game a few hours later, there was over 30 penalties. So, essentially he blew 1 penalty a minute for the time the ball was in play.
International rugby is slowly creaking to a halt and you know it will only get worse at the World Cup.
Ball in play time is a bit misleading but it is still a comparable stat.
Rugby by design has times when the ball is not in play eg lineouts and scrums. Also the more teams score, ironically the more the ball is 'out of play' by some measures. eg a goalkicker lining up a kickThe increases in out of play time measures I would prefer to compare is how long it is taking to set and complete scrums and lineouts (that would indicate fundamental issues with game management). How long players are taking from penalties/free kicks from hand. Those stats from last week seem to point to 20 secs max being the aim.
There are certainly some tweaks that can happen without major complication. One being clamping down on players throwing/kicking the ball away after the whistle as in 7s.The biggest problem, as always, is that the NH (especially UK) teams have no problem wanting a confrontational and slow game. Their sporting culture is based on football where the fan experience is more about tension and moments than it is about entertainment and fast play. The current state works for them money wise (debatable at club level) and they resist change.
That was the actual feedback given to the ELVs and replacing minor penalties with free kicks. -
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@canefan said in The Current State of Rugby:
The faking injuries, prolonged drinks breaks, tying and re-tying of shoe laces, and endless TMO scutiny by some refs, detract from the product big time
TMO is by far the biggest culprit.
If the ref and AR make an on field call they shouldn't have to go to TMO to check every time. Just be clear on the TMO quickly reviewing footage every time without stopping and only chipping in for clear and obvious.
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@Crucial said in The Current State of Rugby:
@canefan said in The Current State of Rugby:
The faking injuries, prolonged drinks breaks, tying and re-tying of shoe laces, and endless TMO scutiny by some refs, detract from the product big time
TMO is by far the biggest culprit.
If the ref and AR make an on field call they shouldn't have to go to TMO to check every time. Just be clear on the TMO quickly reviewing footage every time without stopping and only chipping in for clear and obvious.
I don't like the TMO interjecting without being asked by the ref. If the ref and assistant refs don't see it, it better be serious to warrant stopping the game for
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@canefan said in The Current State of Rugby:
@Crucial said in The Current State of Rugby:
@canefan said in The Current State of Rugby:
The faking injuries, prolonged drinks breaks, tying and re-tying of shoe laces, and endless TMO scutiny by some refs, detract from the product big time
TMO is by far the biggest culprit.
If the ref and AR make an on field call they shouldn't have to go to TMO to check every time. Just be clear on the TMO quickly reviewing footage every time without stopping and only chipping in for clear and obvious.
I don't like the TMO interjecting without being asked by the ref. If the ref and assistant refs don't see it, it better be serious to warrant stopping the game for
That's what it was meant to be wasn't it? If TMO sees a clear and obvious knock on or forward pass in the lead up he chips in otherwise keeps out of it.
That sadly became the TMO chipping in to say 'wait, there might be something, have a look' -
@Crucial said in The Current State of Rugby:
@canefan said in The Current State of Rugby:
@Crucial said in The Current State of Rugby:
@canefan said in The Current State of Rugby:
The faking injuries, prolonged drinks breaks, tying and re-tying of shoe laces, and endless TMO scutiny by some refs, detract from the product big time
TMO is by far the biggest culprit.
If the ref and AR make an on field call they shouldn't have to go to TMO to check every time. Just be clear on the TMO quickly reviewing footage every time without stopping and only chipping in for clear and obvious.
I don't like the TMO interjecting without being asked by the ref. If the ref and assistant refs don't see it, it better be serious to warrant stopping the game for
That's what it was meant to be wasn't it? If TMO sees a clear and obvious knock on or forward pass in the lead up he chips in otherwise keeps out of it.
That sadly became the TMO chipping in to say 'wait, there might be something, have a look'Best intentions, unintended and undesirable consequences
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@canefan said in The Current State of Rugby:
@Crucial said in The Current State of Rugby:
@canefan said in The Current State of Rugby:
@Crucial said in The Current State of Rugby:
@canefan said in The Current State of Rugby:
The faking injuries, prolonged drinks breaks, tying and re-tying of shoe laces, and endless TMO scutiny by some refs, detract from the product big time
TMO is by far the biggest culprit.
If the ref and AR make an on field call they shouldn't have to go to TMO to check every time. Just be clear on the TMO quickly reviewing footage every time without stopping and only chipping in for clear and obvious.
I don't like the TMO interjecting without being asked by the ref. If the ref and assistant refs don't see it, it better be serious to warrant stopping the game for
That's what it was meant to be wasn't it? If TMO sees a clear and obvious knock on or forward pass in the lead up he chips in otherwise keeps out of it.
That sadly became the TMO chipping in to say 'wait, there might be something, have a look'Best intentions, unintended and undesirable consequences
On that topic, two recent changes that haven't had the intended effects are the Goal line dropout and 50/22.
Even Nigel Owens, who I think was on the panel that brought them in, has said that the goal line drop out hasn't worked. The idea was to encourage teams to get the ball away from bodies when close to the line yet players will still take the chance of burrowing over and hope the camera works in their favour. As a result the attacking team is 'punished' for having a go and defending teams encouraged to dive onto the ground from all angles to block the shot.
With the 50/22 the idea wasn't to reward the ball control skill (or luck) of a kicker that finds themselves with time and space it was to encourage defensive teams to pull their outside backs out of the frontline defence and cover the sidelines, thus creating more possibility of a linebreak and running rugby.
Does it work? Nope. Teams see far more value in bolstering the d line than covering the risk and now we have simply added a new element to te game that was never asked for. -
@Crucial said in The Current State of Rugby:
The biggest problem, as always, is that the NH (especially UK) teams have no problem wanting a confrontational and slow game.
Was interesting to tweet about the modificiations that QRU will run in their Challenger Series i.e. cracking down on time taken to clear rucks, set scrums, take kicks etc.
In response to this I posted to the effect of "NH will hate this" and immediately several Poms and Irish jumped in stating that some of them are already Law but not enforced properly.
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@NTA That last one about advantage could backfire a bit. At the moment teams do have to keep playing as there is a risk that advantage is called over just before they try to claim it .
Why not allow a response to the advantage call? Ref calls advantage, team can call for it within two phases or it is over. Teams can know quickly if the act that caused the advantage has compromised them.
More use of the free kick would be the biggest time saver. -
I don't see the point of this arbitrary three phase - what if it took you three phases to build the opportunity that a blind ref can't see and now blows the pea out of the whistle?
If it's up to the refs discretion, no more needs to be said.
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@antipodean I think they're trying to create clear parameters around time limits in order to keep the game moving. Throw in the fact that a referee's perception of advantage is about as consistent as anything else in the game.
I can see what they mean in one context - maybe one of those offside penalties 10m out results in the attacking side going multiple phases over a minute to try and score, but they knock on so you come back. You've burned a minute of game time.
OTOH what if there are a lot of offloads as the opposition look to score and we get to 3 phases well over a minute later?
I assume they've got some basis for 3 phases from data they're looking at on a timing basis.
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@NTA said in The Current State of Rugby:
@antipodean I think they're trying to create clear parameters around time limits in order to keep the game moving. Throw in the fact that a referee's perception of advantage is about as consistent as anything else in the game.
I can see what they mean in one context - maybe one of those offside penalties 10m out results in the attacking side going multiple phases over a minute to try and score, but they knock on so you come back. You've burned a minute of game time.
OTOH what if there are a lot of offloads as the opposition look to score and we get to 3 phases well over a minute later?
Who gives a fuck how many pick and goes there are if the ball is in play? Isn't that the overriding issue?
I assume they've got some basis for 3 phases from data they're looking at on a timing basis.
I'd be surprised if any decisions they amde were data driven. They just don't seem bright enough.
