And about as effective as if Helen Keller was wielding it…

No whipping post, boiling oil or thumbscrews?

Harden up.

Massive problems with refereeing and I would almost guarantee a ref will decide an important game in the WC this year. All the players need is some consistency. Last year every player was pinged for diving over the ball or slowing down the ruck, this year (as seen in several games but especially the Kiwi games), players have illegally cut off the attacking teams ball by diving over or not releasing the tackled player. This is kiwi play at it’s best and for some reason isn’t being penalised this year. One of the main reasons they didn’t do to well in Super rugby last year was that tacklers were forced to release the player and roll away from the ruck. Suddenly in 2011 this rule has been forgotten again. What has happened in 4 or 5 months that has rendered this law obsolete?

Also – forward passes have worked their way back into the game. Haven’t seen so many go unpunished since the late 80′s, early 90′s when you could basically throw a ball anywhere and get away with it. What are the sideline refs doing? It’s not like they have much else to do, surely they can call these things.

As for scrums – totally agree with what has already been said. It feels like the refs are trying to “trick” the packs into engaging early so that they can penalise someone. There have been some ridiculously long pauses before the “engage” call this year. If they are going to do that, why don’t we just let the scrums engage at the start, make sure everything is lined up, and then call “push”. Takes away half the contest but what is occurring now seriously isn’t working.

Most worrying part is that we haven’t even seen the garbage from the NH ref a SH team yet this year. I dread the day when Allain Rolland or someone equally incompetent is given control of an SA / NZ final or similar in the WC. Too often bad decisions are dismissed by saying ” well it was only a couple” or “that was only worth 3 / 5 / 7 points and they lost by 10 etc”. People fail to recognise that momentum and rhythm plays a massive part in any game. One or two bad calls or penalties can alter the entire flow of a game, knock a team out of rhythm and ruin their patterns while they try to find a way of playing around the refs interpretations.

Lets hope we can get a consistent set of ruling before September so at least teams can alter their play accordingly before anything important kicks off.

Lol. I’ll probably be right behind you after the weekend.

Hey Hugz. I tried to reply last night but my internet wouldn’t let me. But I got the same email from Superbru as well. So don’t worry, they weren’t picking on you for your wall street style crash

The problem comes in at younger ages particularly. There special rules can be brought in, like a phased scrum down etc.

I personally have played in the front row, and see no difference to the way that the scrums collapse now or before, except in the force with which it happens. Some guys used to practcally take a running start as they packed down.

Most scrums were won and lost in that initial hit. To a large extent that is still true, but i can see how the IRB has tried to even the playing fields there.

For me the biggest inconsistancy that I can see is the way that the Northern Hemisphere Refs treat the collapsed crum vs the Southern Refs.

Northern Refs by and large have been more tolerant and happy to keep resetting for longer before penalising, whilst Southern Refs are very quick to penalise a collapsed scrum, often making a snap judgement and getting the culprit completely wrong.

We are seeing it now, in the Super 15.

I say let them have at each other, and they’ll soon sort each other out.

As far as injuries are concerned, it is my contention that the most threatening scenario for any frontrow forward is when the scrum collapses and we are seeing more collapsed scrums nowadays than we ever did before.

I think you have a good point about injuries at that time because of lack of control in the collapsing.

Jaysus you’re repetitive, predictable and monotonous!!!!!!

Someone give him a whack to get that stuck needle loose!!!!!

This will cause front row forwards to see to it that their scrumming techniques are good. For instance, if the tighthead wants to push in on the hooker to put pressure on him on his ball, the loosehead must be strong and streetwise enough to keep him scrumming straight.

The problems in scrums for the most part is that front row forwards do not have the skills necessary to keep scrums up and to scrum straight. Allow the front row forwards to sort the problems out for themselves and you will see that, before long, all the **** surrounding reset scrums will be something of the past.

As far as injuries are concerned, it is my contention that the most threatening scenario for any frontrow forward is when the scrum collapses and we are seeing more collapsed scrums nowadays than we ever did before.

One of the spinoffs of contests in the front row is that it will take much more energy out of frontrowers, they will have to be heavier and, therefore, slower. This, in turn, will cause locks and loose forward to have to commit to the rucks and rugby union will once more look like rugby union and not the rugby league copy that it now is with players lining up over the width of the field on defense. Forwards committed to rucks will open gaps for backs and rugby will once more be a spectacle for all to see.

My suggestion, however, will never be considered because it will favour our big and athletic forwards. The truth is that the Aussies have, as the biggest driving force behind law changes and as the so-called advocates of expansive rugby, transformed the game to suit them and the way they like to play it. They want to remove the physical contact and contest out of the game because they know it will put them at an advantage.

superb.

Unless it changed since the day that I reffed, a ruck is formed when two players – one from each team – are on their feet and bound to one another over the ball. I saw countless occasions were the tackler would release the tackled player, gets to his feet and by this time one of his opponents has bound to him. He still puts his hands on the ball and tries to rip it away. According to the law, he is not allowed to play the ball with his hands because a ruck is formed. It is no longer a tackle and therefore the tackle laws do not apply. Regardless of this, referees still applied the tackle laws when the ruck was already clearly formed.