As an avid supporter and ex referee:-
1. Coaching. The principal of good communication from the referee was supposed to reduce the amount of penalties, there are several offences such as offside where you wouldn't penalise unless the players actions had a material effect, i.e. ref calls you offside or tells you to release the ball/roll away et cetera and you act on his or her instructions and the game flows. Having said that, at Professional rugby level it can be argued that they all know exactly what they're doing so it should be unnecessary, so at the highest level only, I agree.
2. Reduce TMO involvement. Agree to a point. I would like the three on field officials to make a decision and if they really can't agree it goes to the TMO
3. Scrum penalties. Absolutely agree. The game as a whole needs to get back to basic principals. The scrum is a method of restarting the game and should be a fair challenge for the ball not a way to "win" penalties (and frequently the match). A dominant scrum should mean that you win possession i.e. a free kick with no option of another scrum. I would also go a step further and have the engage done in stages; front row, when referee is satisfied with body positions he calls the second row, then the back row, then tells the 9 to get the ball in which he must do within 5 seconds. That should pretty much eliminate scrums collapsing on the engage and tedious resets.
4. Maul laws. Agree they should be "tidied" up but I also feel that good defence should be rewarded. There never used to be two attempts to move forward. If the defending team has stopped you moving forward or pushed you backwards, use it or lose it. That should reduce the inevitable penalty kick to the corner- maul - try. It's dull.
5. Ruck. Agree but it is easy to stop the caterpillar, just make it illegal to move the ball backwards once it's been positioned following a tackle. That encourages the defending team to counter ruck therefore the team in possession has to do something with the ball much quicker.
6. Goal Line drop-out. Agree.
7. Red Cards. Completely understand the need to protect players from high tackles but red cards for accidental head contact is ridiculous when it is likely to dictate the outcome of the match. I like the 20 minute Orange Card but would go one step further and say that the offending player stays off but a replacement can be bought on after 20 minutes including a previously substituted player as long as the substitution was tactical. That should encourage players to adopt better tackle technique, it does also punish the team but not to the extreme level of a red card.
8.Jackalling. There should be a contest at the breakdown and if a defending player is first to the ball he should be able to gain possession. Yes, the speed of the game at the highest level makes this difficult to judge but if you are overly harsh on defending teams the game becomes tedious, it will be near impossible to gain possession. I would prefer the breakdown to be drastically tidied up by enforcing the law that states that arriving players must stay on their feet. That stops the sealing off that prevents a contest and the highly dangerous clear-outs when players fly into a ruck with zero intention of staying on their feet and makes it far easier to judge if a jackal is legal.
9. Dummying. Agree but don't think it's a massive issue.
10. Forward pass. Complete and utter twaddle. As other have mentioned, this is basic laws of physics. The law used to say that if the ball travels towards the opposition dead ball line it's a forward pass. Problem is, if a player is running forward with the ball, the ball is also travelling forward at the same speed. Players would have to throw the ball backwards at at least the same velocity as they are going forwards or it will inevitably travel forward. Officials are trying to judge if the ball has moved forward with respect to the position and speed of the player and the way it leaves their hands is a decent way to make that judgement. This however can and should be automated. All players at the highest levels are wearing GPS style trackers which coaches use to monitor their performance. Fit a similar tracker in each ball and a simple bit of software will instantly tell the officials if a pass was forwards.
Topic: 10 Changes that should be made - Article (Read 2680 times)
Always a Wasp