Not a moment too soon

How apt it was that an IRB laws project group convened in Stellenbosch on the day after the first round of Super 14 matches.

The group was formed by the IRB’s so-called Rugby Committee (what else could they be?) to undertake a critical review of the tackle, ruck and maul laws “with a view to trialing and evaluating new versions of these laws.”

According to an IRB communiqué “the fundamental reason for such a study is that it is well recognised by stakeholders in the game that these areas of law are proving to be the most difficult to interpret in a practical manner. The group will (was to) start afresh with these technical key components of the game and develop experimental law variations.” Led by IRB council member Bill Nolan the project group included former World Cup winning Wallaby coach Rod Macqueen, former Springbok coach Ian MacIntosh, former Scottish coach Richie Dixon, former French player and IRB regional development manager Pierre Villepreux, IRB Referee Manager Paddy O’Brien and IRB Development Manager Bruce Cook.

The IRB needs to be commended for including Macqueen, MacIntosh and Villepreux, three of the finest intellects in the game, because the opening round of the Super 14 and, for that matter, ongoing play in the Six Nations confirmed my long-held view that the application of rugby’s laws, rather than the laws themselves, is in need of drastic review.

Last weekend again my blood pressure was raised a few notches and my sympathy went out to coaches and players at having to cope with the patent inconsistencies in the ways referees apply the laws from game to game; in fact sometimes in the same game!

It is well-known that the tackle ball has become rugby’s illegitimate child but there are other laws that need to be reviewed – something that is forcefully brought home if, as I did, you watch seven Super 14 matches and two Six Nations matches in rapid succession.

At times the variations, contradictions and omissions in the ways the laws were being applied left one with the impression that you were watching a different game. Small wonder the players can’t get it right.

I agree that the tackle ball needs to be looked at but what about some of the others? Some officials blew for the “squeeze ball,” others did not; some refs seemed to think their primary function was to count the number of players in the lineout, others seemed to care less.

In some matches the spaces in the lineout and non-interference were called for vigorously while in others the lineouts looked like a kids’ Jungle Jim with the way players were climbing all over each other.

Some refs watched the binding in scrums; others didn’t. In some games a prop could not put his hand on the ground to support himself in others it seemed to be okay.

In some games players were penalised for making contact with the ball-catcher in the air and in others they were allowed to get away with it. Is now acceptable to throw the ball in crookedly at scrums and lineouts, or for the hooker to step into the field of play when feeding a lineout? When did the forward pass become okay?

Whatever happened to the hindmost foot? From what I saw the back-foot at rucks and mauls has now become somewhere alongside the formation.

When is obstruction not obstruction? When is it? Is it permissible to hold or tackle a player without the ball? What of the way players near a maul, but nowhere near the ball, are smashed to the ground in the name of cleaning out?

It’s a mess and it needs to be sorted out; and not just the tackle ball, which I agree, is getting to the point that it is almost impossible to play constructive rugby.

If I may be permitted an observation it is that the tackler is often the culprit in the break-down of continuity. Tackled players are meant to release the ball immediately, but invariably the tacklers are most at fault.

Players have become adept at “getting back to their feet” to play the ball but they too have a duty to release the ball. What we’re seeing now, time and again, is a player making a tackle, getting his hands on the ball and then getting to his feet without releasing it.

Three things need to happen. Make the tackler release the man and the ball completely, give the tackled man a fair chance to play the ball (which doesn’t mean allow him to roll over a couple of times!) and make sure that those joining the contact or breakdown point come in from an onsides position – i.e. with their own goalline directly behind them.

All that said I still don’t think there is much wrong with the laws as they are written. The are just not applied properly or consistently enough for players to get in the habit of “playing by the rules.”