Well anyone who has followed the end of year Northern Hemisphere tour test matches has by now had a chance to see most of the new IRB stuff coming into play at some stage. During the Currie Cup in South Africa we had a taste of the extra TMO involvement and concussion bin. The big one on tour was always going to be the new scrum engage requirement. Let’s face it scrums this November have generally not been that pretty a sight, and that was prior to what viewers got to witness on Saturday when England prop Alex Corbisiero had a field day compliments of Welsh referee Nigel Owens. This problem in the scrums did however bring one of the law amendments to the fore as the Boks opted to retake their 100% safe lineouts rather than risk being penalised at scrumtime. For the most part, all the other changes had little impact on the approach to the game. The TMO option will obviously not form part of schoolboy rugby in 2013 but what bearing do you think the other trials and law amendments will have on SBR?
IRB Trials & Law Amendments
Television Match Officials
As part of International Rugby Board trial Television Match Officials will be able to intervene in any instances of foul play. The match referee will be able to refer to the Television Match Official incidents that have led to the scoring of a try.
Pitch side concussion assessment for players
Trial of a five-minute temporary replacement and standardised assessment for players with suspected concussion will take place in all Premiership matches. A PSCA can be requested by the player’s team doctor and the referee if they suspect a player may have suspected concussion.
A new scrum engagement process
The change relates to the engagement sequence and will see the referee call “crouch” then “touch” and then “set” to engage the scrum. The word “pause” has been removed from the engagement sequence.
Rucking
The ball has to be used within five seconds of it being made available at the back of a ruck with a warning from the referee to “use it”. Sanction – scrum.
Quick throw-In
For a quick throw in, the player may be anywhere outside the field of play between the line of touch and the player’s goal-line.
Who throws-in
When the ball goes into touch from a knock-on, the non-offending team will be offered the choice of a line-out at the point the ball crossed the touchline or a scrum at the place of the knock-on. The non-offending team may exercise this option by taking a quick throw-in.
Penalty and free kick options
A team awarded a penalty or a free kick at a line-out may choose a further line-out, they throw in. This is in addition to the scrum option.
Conversion countdown
A conversion kick must be completed within 1 minute 30 seconds from the time that a try has been awarded.
@beet: Sure, but then there must be evident fairness in the citing and punishment. You get stupid suspensions, like 8 weeks for Schalk in 2007, then we see 1 week for a foot to the head (fairly innocuous really, but still) and we will still see what Andrew Hore gets for Saturday. It’s got to be visibly fair and it is not currently so.
Specifically with regards to Etzebeth, at his young age he should be paying his dues and focusing on the job at hand, not getting sucked into off the ball stuff. Even if not the instigator, retaliating in a manner that draws attention from citing committees is not warranted and totally unacceptable at age 21. Right now based on his lack of self-disciple in these situations I would say he is on a path to becoming uncontrollable once he’s a more established senior level player. He seems to have a low boiling point which opposing teams would have noted and will continue to target. It’s a vicious circle. He has the power to break it tho.
Generally I’ve always been a firm believer that no matter how unfair the practice, a player’s reputation should precede him on the field. Guys like Bakkies Botha and Danny Grewcock with histories should suffer a no tolerance policy under the ref. I believe this unfairness by officials would encourage dirty players to up their standards and start to play the game the way it is meant to be played: hard but clean.
@Gungets Tuft: Is there any legal precedent for this in other sporting codes? If it hasn’t happened in Gridiron – American jurisprudence being what it is – then we might be a long way off here in conservative rugby union. But I hear what you say and I think you could well be correct. If unfair victimisation can be proved – not difficult, you just need to show a whole bunch of clips where guys did the same or worse and got away with it – and the guy is suspended then there are damages due I guess.
@GreenBlooded: With Etsebeth, I said it on another thread when they cited him. It is a fishing expedition and they just want to sort it out at the start. Give a dog a bad name …
Mark my words, it is going to be taken out of the IRB and the various national bodies hands soon. They will cite unfairly and the victim lill have them in civil court for unfairly denying them an income. Print this – I want credit for it when it happens. Don’t want it or like it … but mark these words.
@Gungets Tuft: Yup – Nigel Owens got it totally wrong at scrumtime. Then he compounds his blunders by kakking out the Bok front row like naughty schoolboys. Very sad to see a Bok captain being forced to NOT take the scrum option due to a ref clearly having no idea how srumming works.
Then there was the uit-kak of Eben Etzebeth when the pom dude clearly started the hand-bagging but grabbing his throat. I think he’s become a target and will have to tread very carefully.
@BoishaaiPa: Your 86 year old mom knows more about rugby than Nigel Owens. And her eyesight is probably better as well.
@Gungets Tuft: Eng looshead slipped the bind and went down in that 1st penalty and Jannie got pinged…then he scrummed in on Strauss…even my mom said that looks wrong and she knows stuff all about rugby at 86 years old!
@Greenwood: Quote from the UK Telegraph
“Jean de Villiers was the guy who held it all together for them. With Ruan Pienaar out of sorts, and with Jannie du Plessis falling foul of a referee who failed to get to grips with what was going on in the scrummage, South Africa’s foundations were unusually shaky. But if their attacking shape was lacking, there was nothing wrong with their defensive commitment. “
@Greenwood: Greenblooded can correct me if I am wrong but the Poms were scrumming in – not just a little, just about bloody right angles and the ref just did not see it. Helen Keller’s labrador was barking from the sidelines it was so damn obvious.
They should just say “Crouch, Set” .. end of story.
can someone explain what was happening to Jannie Du Plessis in the match – something was not right there ! was the ref on his case ?
Also dont agree with “pause touch set” what a load of garbage
@beet: In my primary school “kaalvoetrugby” days there was a certain school in Eastern Cape who was known for having two sandbuckets for the kickers..one for them and one for the opposition…the opposition one being full of little stones and and very dry sand so that your kicker did not get the best deal when aiming for posts!
@beet: I think we are dating ourselves here. Told my lighties about the days when a bucket of sand had to be brought on for kicks. They thought I was kidding.
@GreenBlooded: Remember the time wasting trick from the good old days when the kicker would ask for more sand for that last shot at goal
was Jannie under pressure or was it the scrumming in from England?
Like I’ve said before – I think the game is way over-legislated. There have been too many iterations of trying to optimise the benefits to attacking and defensive play to supposedly make the game more attractive that it has made things overly complex and far too open to interpretation and human error.
TMO’s – where the hell were they when the Kiwi hooker threw the haymaker at the Welsh lock ending his game in the 2nd minute?
Pitchside concussion test – Great, why only at premier level? I’d like to see this at SBR level too.
Scrum engagement – Horse-shite. Drop it completely. Front rows know when and how to engage. We never had this when I played and things worked fine.
Quick Thrown In – just a correction of a badly worded law to get to the original intent.
Who Throws In – OK. Whatever.
Penalty/Freekick option – Allows a team options to play to their strengths. More laws to remember. Grrr.
Conversion countdown – good!! Timewasting has become a common tactic by teams who are slightly ahead at the end of matches.
@Gungets Tuft: If Strauss had eased off on the pressure he was applying to Youngs, I wonder if this would have helped the scrum to straighten on the problematic side.
That knock-on into touch law is going to catch some sides out before they get used to it. Often that sort of knock-on is during a close quarters attack, you can run back as far as you like to take the throw (see Quick Throw In) and launch while everyone is still getting organised. Going to suit the quick okes like Gio Aplon who make the most of a little space.
The choice of a line out for the free kick (from a lineout) is interesting, especially when it is close to the opposition line. A free kick almost becomes a penatly in the red zone.
Would really have liked the penalties for scrum binding dropped to a free kick. I still cannot believe that a failure to get a grip on the opposition jersey is the same as a dangerous tackle or offside. Ridiculous (throw Nigel Owens in there and it is absurd!!).