Brüssow rugby’s supreme jackler

Jackler? No not a misspelling but a new word in rugby for a player with all the attributes of a jackal.

Cunning, alert and the supreme scavenger – that’s the jackal and when it comes to rugby that’s Heinrich Brüssow. He’s what’s known as a “jackler.”

Not my word but gleaned from an e-letter from Dan Cottrell, editor of a web-based rugby instruction manual called Better Rugby Coaching (dan@rugby-coach.com) in which he touched on a development in the application of rugby’s laws, something I think is downright illegal, that has been bugging me for some time.

And, seeing as Brüssow is the ultimate exponent of the “transgression” I am on about, the implication is that the Free State and South Africa’s ultimate fetcher is an outlaw.

Hold onto your hats Free State fans and read on!

Dan Cottrell put it succinctly when he wrote: “There is a player on the opposition who could ruin your season. He is known as the "jackler". He is the first defending player to get his hands on the ball after the tackle has been made. He will slow down your ruck ball or even worse steal it.

“There are two reasons why he is more dangerous than ever:

1. Knowing the old law :

“The first is that "jacklers" know something about the laws that we sometimes forget. When a tackler completes a tackle, he is the only one who can enter the tackle area from any angle. That means he does not have to twist round so he comes from the direction of his own goal line.”

Note: “I always thought the tackler had to get to his feet and get on-sides – i.e. behind the ball. However the Law 15: Tackle: Ball Carrier Brought to Ground reads:

(a) When a player tackles an opponent and they both go to ground, the tackler must immediately release the tackled player. Penalty: Penalty Kick.

(b) The tackler must immediately get up or move away from the tackled player and from the ball at once. Penalty: Penalty Kick.

(c) The tackler must get up before playing the ball and then may play the ball from any direction. Penalty: Penalty Kick.

The last bit, in the latest laws on the IRB’s website, has been highlighted although two former first-class loose forwards I spoke to said they had not been aware that you “may play the ball from any direction,” and also believed you had to be on-sides first.

Dan Cottrell continues. “How does he do this? A good tackler has a ball winning mindset. He will get his man down to the ground quickly. But he does not stop there. As he feels the ball carrier going down, the tackler is twisting and turning. He wants to be on top of the ball carrier first and foremost and second, he wants to be on his feet straight away.

“He can then grab the ball. Some tacklers will even enter the tackle with their backside to the opposition. Perfectly legal, though it does look a little strange.

2. Knowing the new law:

“Since August, the "jackler" has become even more important. Any player who gets his hands on the ball, legally that is, after the tackle has now found he has been given more rights.

“Before, when a tackle was made, a defender could lean over to gather the ball. If he didn't pick it up cleanly before an opposition player engaged with him, then the referee would shout "hands off". A ruck had been formed and so no hands on the ball were allowed.

“But now the IRB have said that this first player can keep his hands on the ball, no matter whether a ruck forms around him. And he is only player allowed to have his hands on the ball from then on in the ruck.”

Sound like Brüssow to you? My fellow scribbler at the Sunday Times, Simnikiwe Xabanisa, summed it up perfectly by describing the way the stocky flanker steals the ball as “the Heinrich manoeuvre.”

There is little doubt Brüssow is the best in the world at completing the exercise but my contention is that he, and all those who are now trying to emulate him are off-sides.

Something very strange happened while we were picking our way through the various Experimental Law Variations (ELVs) that turned up in various guises in 2008 when it was suddenly made known (as I recall there was never an official announcement) that the tackler could stand up and play the ball no matter where he found himself to be after executing the tackle – in other words he could be off-sides. Remember how we used to complain about flankers like George Smith playing the ball “from the side” rather than “on-side?”

I was immediately puzzled by that because as far as I was concerned, having covered the game for nigh on 40 years and watching, I would estimate, a few thousand games that the fundamental tenet of the game is that you cannot play ahead of the ball – i.e that the only way you could go for the ball was to get back to your feet and ensure that your body was between it and your own goal line before playing it.

There had always been players amazingly adept at throwing themselves back on-sides (George Smith, Phil Waugh, Richie McCaw, Neil Back) and then reaching over to grab the ball (even though I always thought that 95% of the time they had their knees on the player on the ground) and work it back to their side.

But then came Brüssow and the compelling influence he had on the Lions series. Instead of getting back on-sides he remained where he was, grabbed the ball, and held it up for his teammates joining the maul.

Legal? I thought not but we were told that it was – to the extent that Wayne Barnes, the referee in the match against the Free State Cheetahs, was moved to say that he had never known a player so adept at, well, completing the manoeuvre.

One of the ELVs talked of the “offside line occurring immediately at the tackle” so I presumed that this was another instance of rugby moving ever further from the law book with referees controlling games according to a set of rules which no longer appear in the law book.

The reservations expressed here are by no means a criticism of Heinrich Brüssow. I think he is a helluva player who is making the best of a situation that favours him and who would be effective no matter what he is allowed to get away with.

The problem, though, is that having permitted a situation in which a player can be off-sides officials have in fact created a breach that has allowed the dyke to burst with players being encouraged to remain, or hurl themselves, off-side when making the tackle and waiting for the tackled man to place the ball – in fact I’m sure they’re practising it.

The upshot is that is very easy to stifle an attack, the availability of the ball has become ever slower as too often the tackle situation ends up in a pile-up and the game is becoming ever more tedious.

The key to rugby is players being on-sides and, just like the fringing scrumhalf who is allowed to play ahead of the ball, I find it staggering that referees, who have such a hard job as it is, have allowed a situation to develop in which a player can be off-sides.

I have said it before… get them back on their feet, get the hands out, let’s get back to rucking!