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Author Topic: Brian Moore Article re Law changes (Daily Telegraph)  (Read 46 times)

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deadlyfrom5yardsout

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Brian Moore Article re Law changes (Daily Telegraph)
« on: Monday 01-Jan-2024, 09:25* »
The law changes I would make to rugby
Tweaks to 50:22 law, and a willingness for referees to apply existing laws about kicking the ball away from a ruck, could transform rugby

BRIAN MOORE
1 January 2024 • 7:13am
Brian Moore
Danny Care, box-kicking
The box kick has become too effective – that needs to change CREDIT: Getty Images/Patrick Khachfe
What do I wish for rugby in 2024? Let me start by endorsing Warren Gatland’s recent call for less kicking and rugby to be a more attacking spectacle. I think Gatland speaks for most rugby union fans on this topic, but how you achieve this is far from agreed. Indeed, Gatland’s solutions were indistinct and herein lies the problem.

You cannot reduce the emphasis on kicking without attempting to disincentivise it as the most effective means of gaining territory and applying pressure to opponents. To achieve this end, World Rugby might have to make several attempts, as suggested changes might fail or have unintended consequences. However, if it does not take these risks there is no chance of changing what are presently successful kicking strategies. There needs to be a will to make positive suggestions, rather than sitting there and parroting “that won’t work.”

I agree with Gatland’s call to allow the 50:22 to be made even when the ball is passed back into the attacking team’s own half. This might mean the defending back three having it back more often, making attacking space available out wide.

I disagree with his call to remove the marking of a high ball in the 22. Under the old law, where the catcher had to be stationary and make a mark on catching the ball, the “up-and-under” was widely used. What stopped this happening was the change to allow a mark to be made when landing after catching the ball in the air. Removing it is likely to see a return to the former tactic. In fact, extending the mark zone to the 10-metre line might further disincentivise the high ball. If you supplemented this with a law that the marking player had to tap the ball and pass or run, you would speed up the restart and not allow time to be taken by kicking to touch.

All this would go some way to removing the bane of many fans’ matchday experience: the box kick. This type of kick has now become almost ubiquitous, not only as an exit from a team’s 22, but as an attacking option between the 22 and the opponent’s 10-metre line.

It is not just its frequency that had become baleful, it is because it takes an age to set up. For no good reason, referees seem universally disinclined to enforce the so-called five-second time limit for kickers to use the ball after being told to do so. I can only recall one instance of this happening in the whole of 2023.

To make matters worse, World Rugby have resiled from the outlawing of caterpillar rucks. We are again seeing the interminable spectacle of several forwards joining rucks and wasting yet more time as the ball is slowly rolled back through several extra feet before it is finally box-kicked. Once the ball is available at the back of a ruck the referee should call for it to be played and no player should thereafter be allowed to join the ruck. Yes, this would make the box kick more difficult – that is the point, and it would be the same for both sides.

As said, you cannot guarantee the positive effects of such proposals and it could mean that teams revert to long kicking duels, but at least during those there is the chance of counter attacking because there is space into which players can run. Box-kicking is a suffocating tactic from which it is almost impossible to counterattack; that is why is used so much.

While we are in wishing mood, referees should look at lineout formation. They seem to have stopped the papal conclave that used to happen before every lineout, but they are still allowing the throw-in to wait until the last second before entering the lineout. They already have the throw; they should not be given the further advantage of late entry which just wastes more time.

It is the same at scrums. They are again starting to take an age to ready, form and complete. I understand referees not wanting to hasten the engage sequence, but they would be aided by a law stating that if the put-in team is not ready to engage by a stipulated time they lose the feed. If the other pack is not ready, a free kick is given.

Lastly, I endorse Gatland’s call to reduce the number of voluntary substitutes. If we cannot agree to go back to only injury-related substitutions, at least drastically reduce the number of substitutions. The trend towards picking benches dominated by forwards is only going to grow, limiting fatigue from which attacking space becomes available. This is without considering the fact that it would make club squads smaller and possibly solvent. Wouldn’t that be a good thing after 2023?

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