Mick Cleary in Tuesday's Telegraph:
1. Toby jug Props
The game for all shapes and sizes has morphed into one where even the front row are able to step and swerve, pass and accelerate as if they were the Barbarians’ Phil Bennett under the posts at the Arms Park.
2. Ten yards back
We can accept the need for the metric conversion but still rail against the fact that referees so rarely invoke one of the best laws in the book, the ability to quell dissent with a blast of the whistle and a march backwards.
3. Rucking
The banning of boots on bodies was a safety initiative that originated in New Zealand of all places in the early nineties when there were fears of injury to young players. It was a poor decision, effectively failing to differentiate between rucking, which is a backward movement of boot and desirable, and a stamp which is a downward motion and wholly reprehensible.
4. Half-time oranges
Erica Roe might never have entered the annals of folklore with her topless streak at Twickenham in 1982 if Bill Beaumont had not been gathering his England team round him for a slice of orange and a pep talk out on the field rather than back in the dressing-room as is the modern way.
5. Straight feed at the scrum
How many times do we have to moan about there being no straight feeds at the scrum before proper, decisive and lasting action is taken? The law-makers insist that they have urged officials to crack down and yet, time and again, the ball is shovelled into the second-row. Enough!
6. Proper punch-ups
When was the last honest-to-goodness free-for-all in a high-level match? Will we ever see the like again of the classic, mean-edged England-France matches of the early nineties or the ’99 clarion call-to-arms of the Willie John McBride era? Too many cameras these days, too many citing officers.
7. French flair
No sooner do we raise questions about the brutality of French rugby than the mind’s eye throws up more wholesome images of Serge Blanco in full flight or Jean-Luc Sadourny’s "try from the end of the earth" against the All Blacks at Eden Park in 1994, the last time that New Zealand were beaten at that venue. There is/was no finer sight in rugby than the French in full flow.
8. A yard of ale
Whatever happened to those raucous gatherings in clubhouses up and down the land where bumps and bruises would be anaesthetised by yards of ale? Even the media trade has suffered as a result of the demise, because many an ad-hoc interview took place at the bar.
9. Accepting that the referee’s decision was final
No matter how great the howler was – remember Andy Haden’s dive from the lineout at the Arms Park that cost Wales victory over the All Blacks in 1978? – there were no arms thrown in the air or any mobbing of the official. Now the game itself questions the ref’s once inviolable authority through the TMO system.
10. Wings throwing in the ball at lineouts
Funny to think that this used to happen, although I have a vague memory that the scrum-half used to do it in France, often using an arched-back one-handed method of throwing. The lineout was a jungle with the accepted wisdom that last man standing won the ball.
11. Mudheaps
Mud, glorious mud. Where has it all gone?
12. Eskimo Nell and sundry other bawdy, inappropriate songs
Thank goodness that society is more enlightened these days and will not tolerate what was once seen as innocent fun as burly blokes, bonding over beer, belted out distasteful tales of rape and pillage.
13. Sexism, homophobia, racism
It may be a claim too far to suggest that we no longer see evidence of such vile prejudices but even if there are isolated pockets of reprehensible behaviour, rugby has done well to change outlooks. Women’s rugby is promoted and there have been several examples of gay players and referees feeling confident enough to declare their sexuality without fear of reproach. England also fielded a commendably diverse team at the World Cup in Japan.
14. Low tackles
Perhaps, just perhaps, we are seeing a reversion to the once-conventional practice of going low to bring your man (or woman) down. The textbook knee to mid-thigh height of tackle had the simple, laudable intention of stemming the flow of the attack. As rugby league coaches came into union so the higher double-hit became the norm to prevent the offload.
15. Ankle-high boots with long studs
No self-respecting forward would ever be seen dead with the sort of fancy lightweight apparel that the backs used to weak. Slick football-type shoes enabled the smaller men to skim across the surface while the beastie boys up-front needed maximum protection for all the kicks and stamps and rakes, hence the need for those long studs.
16. Sidesteps
The modern game has given us many advances in conditioning, notably muscularity and athleticism, but where have the jinkers of long ago disappeared to? Where is the new Gerald Davies or Phil Bennett, leaning, feinting, side-stepping their way past even the most resolute defenders? A lost art.
17. Players carrying the ball in two hands
When was the last time you saw a player attack a would-be tackler with his cargo in two hands — the ball an extension of his body, poised for use as a dummy, suggeting a pass to left or to right, to encourage the defender towards the man in support?
18. The 2.30pm Saturday kick-off
That used to be the universal kick-off time across the land, 3pm at a push, just enough time for a Saturday lie-in before the afternoon’s exertion and into the clubhouse bar with that warm, bruised glow before 5pm for a few sherbets and home to fall asleep over dinner. Now there are all manner of kick-off times to suit the whims of television.
19. Handshakes after scoring a try
The stiff-upper-lip response to scoring a try has long since gone out of fashion as rugby players embrace their sensitive inner selves and congratulate anyone who gets over the try-line as if they have managed to split the atom.
20. Genuine 15-a-side rugby
When did we last see the same 15 players trot back down the tunnel as emerged from it 80 minutes earlier? What started out as a means of replacing injured players has become a system whereby eight players sit on a replacement bench, all itching to join the fray. When they do, they invariably cause the flow of the game to fracture and increase the risk of injury as fresh bodies go up against wearied ones.
21. No-nonsense round-the-corner kicks at goal
It would be wrong, perhaps, to blame it all on Jonny Wilkinson for there were other kickers before him that took deep breaths, visualised, balanced, joined their hands in front of them, picked their spot and shut out the rest of the world before kicking the ball. The rituals have become overbearing and you yearn to see a Barry John take a few paces back and then swing the boot.
22. A crowd being left to sing on its own
It does happen occasionally, when stadium controllers choose not interfere with the moving, soulful, bonding noise of a crowd as they sing a national anthem but it is rare indeed. Instead there is invariably a hired voice, and a decent voice to be fair, charged with belting out the words. It baffles me as to why there should be such a need.
23. The referee making his own mind up
The television match official is master of all that he surveys. Well, not quite. There has been some claw-back in the past couple of years when officials have taken the initiative but too often still they defer to the technology when it is obvious to all and sundry that a collective drive over the line is a try even if the ball is not visible.
24. Spiral kicks deep into the opposition 22
You had to do a double-take when you saw Henry Slade drill the ball into the Saracens 22 a few years ago, from where Exeter Chiefs were to get their reward for Slade’s nerve and technique with a late try that put them through to the Premiership final. Too many kickers opt for safety and merely punt the ball end-over-end a measly few metres.
25. An 80-minute match
The watch is stopped at every conceivable moment, particularly at scrums, in order to ensure that the ball-in-play time is as high as possible. It is a laudable aim but the heart still sinks (especially for those filing on tight newspaper deadlines) as the clock ticks ever onwards and the run time amounts to almost two hours. The onus should be on eradicating scrum resets and other faffing-about habits.
No 4. When I was playing the half time instruction was 14 slices of orange and a fag for the full back!
Always a Wasp
Topic: Rucking, ankle boots and mud: 25 sights you no longer see in rugby. (Read 1759 times)