Interesting Comments on Law Changes

[Neils]

World Rugby law changes: Ex-Wales captain Paul Thorburn says they have destroyed game - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/63834165

Don't disagree.

[Shugs]

Yes, agree with lots of that. Apart from adding danger they’ve made the game impenetrable for any newcomers. Sometimes you have to remove stuff as well as continually adding - otherwise you end up in a quagmire.

[mike909]

Seems fair. I think the points that I've droned on about are about ruck, maul and scrum. Many issues arise from the officiating and it's inconsistency as well.

But the ruck officiating varies from general falling over, and hands allowed to virtually a "play the ball". Mauls have become almost impossible to defend and scrums a penalty generator, rather than a method of starting the game for a minor infringement. And teams are not made to play possession won which might help.

Now - whilst player safety is an issue - just applying the ruck laws would help - "flying in" isn't allowed and once a ruck (one player from each side) no hands and you have to push.....I read the laws on the ruck and didn't recognise the contest from the games I've seen in recent years, especially in the NH.

The maul has become legal obstruction and rewards dull repetitive play (kick, knock on, scrum penalty, lineout, maul)

I watched Wasps' win in the Euro Final from 2004 the other week. It looked like a different game. And I could relate to the player size too....they looked more like a "fit me" rather than the huge players common now.

But yes - ball in play is too often RL with 15 players. Too many RL coaches in RU?

[westwaleswasp]

Biggest problem is size of players
Remember when Jonah L was a giant wing running over Mike Catt size backs? When the whole game went that big- and why wouldn't you when you see what it does for the team I possession to have huge backs vs normal size ones we used to have twenty five years ago- it lead to the game we have today

And reducing subs won't work either, once there is clear advantage in monster sized players they won't go back, if you go to 15 a side the game would just finish with sevens.

Law changes might fix the maul, and the scrum, although to be frank the modest move by refs in the scrum to tell players to use it has reduced the frequency of pens a little. But the biggest blight is the size of the players.

[Mellie]

Biggest problem is size of players
Remember when Jonah L was a giant wing running over Mike Catt size backs? When the whole game went that big- and why wouldn't you when you see what it does for the team I possession to have huge backs vs normal size ones we used to have twenty five years ago- it lead to the game we have today

Very easily fixed. Have a team weight limit. That would still allow for a Lomu on the wing but would be offset somewhere else. So game reverts to being all shapes and sizes, as it was originally designed.

[westwaleswasp]

Would love it but we would be introuble when players tried to make weight and dehydrated to do it.

[JF]

To my uneducated eye what we used to have was a game where the ball was passed and kicked and there was some physical contact.

Now we have a game of physical contact with kicking and some passing.

[jamestaylor002]

To my uneducated eye what we used to have was a game where the ball was passed and kicked and there was some physical contact.

Now we have a game of physical contact with kicking and some passing.

Absolutely this. I'm fairly sure that the idea was NOT to get caught when rugby was first being played.

[westwaleswasp]

Indeed. Lots of kicking too, less invention. Perhaps we need wider pitches!