Jiffy makes a lot of rucking sense

JONATHAN Davies – that’s “Jiffy”, not “Foxy”– the cross-code creator from decades past rather than the Lions centre from the here and now – fears rugby has become “boring”.

He’s not alone, but when one of the most compelling of all No.10s makes such a pronouncement, the people running the sport should cock an ear.

Davies mourns the disappearance of quick ruck ball – the inevitable consequence of the eradication of the ruck as he and his generation understood it – and says that while those old-style doses of “shoe pie” were painful for those on the receiving end, he would far rather see a child of his being stroked by a few studs than risking life and limb attempting to “jackal”.

Dead right. If rugby’s custodians removed “jackalling” from the game by declaring hands to be off limits when the ball is on the deck, who would cry themselves to sleep? Not the medical profession, that’s for sure.

The ruck was the dynamic that gave the Union game its light and shade. It made attacking play possible because the numbers of forwards around the ball opened up space for the “Jiffys”.

Let’s find our way back there, before we all nod off.