Re: Why the new rules will make rugby shallow

On Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:56:22 -0800, simon s-b wrote:

On Mar 3, 8:42 pm, Lodi <l...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:35:54 -0500, William A. T. Clark wrote:





In article
<4e36349f-3775-4038-ab1c-39eb24dd9...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
 JD <_antipode...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Mar 4, 12:00 am, simon s-b <baitt...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mar 3, 12:40 pm, Ferdi <NoS...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

1. It fucks with the structure of the game. Spesifically the
choice between tap free kick or scrum. It sounds innocent but
the structure of rugby is the reff telling all this will now be
a scrum, here. Building a choice into the rules, weakens the
structure in fact as well as in perception. 2. The "Jonah Lomu"
rule that requires effectivly 10 yards running space for the
side getting the ball from set pieces. Get a big, fast
midfielder. Flip the ball to him on speed and scrore a try. He
does not have to have the blinding 2 paces of accelaration that
O'Driscoll has or the wicked step that Phill Bennett had. He
merely has to be big and bulky and to be moving at speed.

How to counter him? Get an equal big and bulky dude to stand in
his way, I guess. And wait for the collision. That will make the
whole thing superficial.

I want to see O'Driscoll at his best step and slip through the
narrowest of openeings. I want to see Phill Bennett step like
nobody else could.

I found Jonah Lomu boring, actually.

I must admit the overriding feeling I have had when watching S14
is that it's not rugby. I'll wait for the first comedian from the
SH to say 'that's what we think when watching the GP'. I think
it's simply too much of a step away from the traditional game.
Think back to some of the previous rule changes, and one of the
major ones was releasing the ball in the tackle. At the time, it
was hard to get used to, but it didn't really change what a game
of Rugby fundamentally looked like. These laws do, and I can't say
I like it.

Stop watching South African sides.

The problem with rugby is professionalism. Ferdi is quite discerning
bringing up Lomu, but I suspect for reasons which escape him. Two
predominant issues arose following professionalism - the players
became fitter, faster and stronger, and defences became immeasurably
better which have made the pitch smaller.

The current ELVs in the S14 permit room to defeat defences.

So did the old laws, if they were properly applied at the tackle so
that both packs of forwards had to commit to winning/retaining
possession. That meant there were no fatties plugging up the
midfield. Again, watch "The Match" form 1973, and you will be amazed
at the lack of loafers in midfield fouling up back play.

The scrum
is a weapon - it's a platform to attack from now rather than just a
restart.

It was always that, until a) referees stopped making scrum halves put
the ball in at least approximately straight, and b) weak scrummaging
sides like Australia were allowed to get away with all kinds of
neutralizing shennigans to cover up their inability to compete there.
If even the recent (not ELV) laws were rigorously applied, it would
still be that way. Penalties for collapsing the scrum will soon put a
stop to the nonsense.

Referees are now vastly less forgiving of the attacking team
being isolated which has brought an element of contest for
possession back into the game. There is more tactical kicking,
greater emphasis on territory by the best exponents of the current
laws. If you want to see how rugby should be played, watch the Blues
and Crusaders.

So it is all in the eye of the official? Who the hell decided that
they should only enforce certain of the Laws, anyway? That is where
the game got screwed up. We have seen numerous examples in the HC,
GP, and ML of well contested, wide open, running Rugby under the
present Laws, without the further drift towards RL that the ELVs
introduce.

William Clark

If the S14 really upsets you guys that much then DON'T WATCH IT!!!!

Stop posting about it. Stop whinging about it.

6N doesn't interest me so I don't watch it and I don't post about it.

HC/GP/ML doesn't interest me so I don't watch it and I don't post about
it.

NRL doesn't interest me so I don't watch it....etc etc etc

Stop wasting my bandwidth. I need it for downloading pictures of
unobtainable women in various stages of dishabillement.

Lodi- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

It interests me so I watch it. Does my location forbid me from
commenting on it in your eyes then?

Fair point.

Okay. Everybody except Simon.......stop watching it if all you're going
to do is moan.

Lodi
.

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