Rugby

[Aggers]

I've watch a little Rugby these last few days, the first time for about twenty years,
and I'm shocked at the way the game seems to have changed since then.

I used to enjoy watching a match, but to me it is now not a sport at all. It's like a
lot of naughty schoolboys fooling about and piling up their bodies in heaps. They
all deserve red cards in my opinion.

What has happened to this so-called sport?

[Kaz]

I don't know Aggers, Mick has said similar. They don't move around the pitch enough, he says, the players are much bigger and heavier than they used to be, and always in a ruck. He doesn't enjoy watching like he used to.........

[Workingman]

I have lost it as well.

When we played schoolboy rules a maul had to have the same number of players from each side. Once that was established if a player, from either side, was held-up he was allowed to leave but join in again from the rear, not from the side.

With a ruck the attacking side automatically had possession when it began. The only way to get the ball out was to remove it with the boot - dangerous. Now the advantage is, to me, the other way. The tackled player has to release the ball, immediately, but the defenders can go in with their hands to try to get it back so long as they are stood up - their knees are not on the ground. The attackers do not get that.

Do not even get me started with feeding at scrums and lifting line-outs.

Love to know what Mick thinks.

[saundra]

I've watch a little Rugby these last few days, the first time for about twenty years,
and I'm shocked at the way the game seems to have changed since then.

I used to enjoy watching a match, but to me it is now not a sport at all. It's like a
lot of naughty schoolboys fooling about and piling up their bodies in heaps. They
all deserve red cards in my opinion.

What has happened to this so-called sport?

I agree they don't move about much h

[TheOstrich]

There seems to me to be far more emphasis on kicking for territorial advantage these days rather than attacking, running rugby, at least in the higher (professional) leagues in the sport - you don't tend to get it so much at grass-roots level.
It has been mooted in some circles that the current easy option of 3 points for a kicked penalty may be reduced to two points at some stage to try to encourage try scoring; in certain leagues in Wales this season, they've gone the other way and are trialing the award of six rather than five points for the try.

There's been rather a lot of tinkering with the rules over the years, including bureaucratic ones like interchanges (i.e rolling substitutions), and it's still ongoing. With rugby players now arguably fitter and stronger than ever before, expect a lot of law changes designed to protect player welfare - the proliferation of concussions, especially, are giving cause for concern.

I didn't particularly like the concept of lifting at line-outs when it was introduced either, but I guess I'm used to it now.

I must say, I haven't watched any of the Rugby World Cup. Like the soccer World Cup, I can't say it interests me that much - for enjoyment, I'd rather watch an honest game between two lower league or amateur sides ......

[Kaz]

Frank, I'll show him the thread later