RUGBY MATTERS
A weekly look at the game’s other talking points
THIS 60-second shot clock twaddle. If we must continue to plough down this blind alley it needs to apply from the moment the referee awards the penalty. If the authorities are going to put some stick about at least do it properly and with conviction.
It used to take Barry John approximately 12 seconds, 14 on a slow day, to complete his kicking routine from the moment he was thrown the ball and even with a suet pudding of an old leather ball he didn’t do too bad in New Zealand back in the day.
It absolutely should not be 60 seconds, which is being allowed this autumn, from when the team deign to indicate a shot at goal to the referee. The pre-decision faffing around has become an art form in its own right and can take 30 seconds or longer, especially when a team in card trouble are cynically trying to run down the clock. They have it down to a tee and they think we don’t notice. You just can’t trust the beggars!
Players will take an eternity to rise from whatever situation or incident has ensued, shake themselves down, dust themselves off and then look around in a sort of mock bewildered way. A physio or medic might rush on, the referee will say he isn’t needed and then somebody will ‘helpfully’ throw the ball away which further delays matters.
One of the attacking team might then shape, perhaps for a quick tapped penalty, before thinking better of it and there will be lots of shouting and gesticulating while the team’s main dead ball kicker will start eyeing a distant touchline.
Then the captain will be summoned from 60 yards away for a conference and a long earnest discussion will ensue. Surely that’s worth a yellow card, ref ? Will there be time for a restart, ref ? If we go for touch we definitely get the lineout, right?
A couple of waterboys will run on for no apparent reason to add to the general confusion and I’ve even seen a couple of extra balls thrown onto the pitch to add to the chaos and cause even more distraction. Finally, seemingly almost as a last resort, the skipper will motion to the sticks. The clock starts running.
It’s all a bit of a farce but it’s been allowed to become the norm.
Logically it makes no sense. The authorities unnecessarily agonise about speeding up the game as if ball in play time is the Holy Grail when in fact those games with the highest BIPT are often unwatchable and a very poor spectacle.
Quality not quantity is what hits the bullseye – 31 minutes top quality action and drama trumps 46 minutes of mediocrity every time.
But anyway, ignoring that, if speeding things up is the raison d’etre, why is this pre-kick pantomime allowed while a scrum-half will get pinged if he takes six seconds, not five, to play the ball away from a ruck or scrum.
As I seem to be building up a head of steam on laws, regs and officialdom, I have a few requests for the coming month or so of top class Test action.
First, those pesky scrum-halves continue to get away with absolutely bloody blue murder at scrums and rucks, shielding behind this ruling that they are untouchable until they lift the ball. For years now they have been rolling the ball – often forwards (illegal) as well as backwards – into the position that best suits them and in recent months I have noticed a new little low life ploy as they drag the ball around along the turf – often two or three times – from one preferred position to another without technically lifting the ball.
The technical expression for this is “taking the bloody piss” but we see you. Scrum-halves already have way too much protection and the moment they start playing the ball they need to be fair game otherwise it’s not a fair contest between them and marauding flankers and indeed opposite numbers. If they want more time their forwards will have to do a better job delivering the pill or nines could always roll their sleeves up and learn the lost art of dive passing.
And the great thing about not giving scrum-halves such an armchair ride is that it will cut down the time needed to compose themselves for the abomination that is the box kick.
Secondly, can we please cut out the cheap shots on try scorers after they have grounded and the issue has been settled. This has long been an obscenity in our game with many perfecting the accidentally-on-purpose last ditch heroic challenge which arrives laughably late and is in fact designed only to cause physical damage to the scorer. You see them all the time yet too often we turn the Nelsonian eye.
There was a prime unpunished example recently when Freddie Steward went over for Tigers against Saints and a Saints forward did the dirty – you know who you are – and put a gratuitous shoulder to the neck/head area of the Tigers full-back. The ref might have missed it on this occasion, but the rest of the rugby world most certainly didn’t.
And finally my normal plea this time of the year for refs to be more vigilant on the final “try scoring pass” because in at least 50 per cent of the time – with try seemingly inevitable and everybody switching off – said pass is blatantly forward. Refs suddenly allow passes that, in any other part of the field, would immediately be pinged as forward. Be brave, show a bit of ticker. Players have the skills to pass legally, it’s just that it’s so much easier not having to bother with such stuff. Umpires don’t bottle it when a batsman moves gloriously to 99 and then nicks one to slip or is caught plumb in front and refs shouldn’t bottle forward passes that cost the perpetrators a try.
