How I’d cut down on a blight in modern game
Northern Ireland , United Kingdom - 14 April 2023; Tom Stewart of Ulster scores his side's second try during the United Rugby Championship match between Ulster and Dragons at the Kingspan Stadium in Belfast. (Photo By John Dickson/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
What is happening to our game? There were plenty of cheers for Ulster hooker Tom Stewart as he made it back-to-back hat-tricks with his three-try salvo against the Dragons on Friday night. It was a performance that took his league try tally in the URC this season to a record 16, overtaking the previous highest of 14 by wings Tim Visser and Rabz Maxwane.
Now, this isn't just a rant from a disgruntled ex-winger, but it seems to me that the professional game is being dominated by driving lineout mauls and that far too many tries are coming from this highly technical phase of play.
But when you strip it back, do you really want to be watching matches in which the kick to the corner, and the inevitable drive for the line, is the most dominant technical and tactical objective. Quite frankly, I'm sick of it!
Fans are crying out for more entertainment for the increasing sums of money they are spending to watch professional rugby. They want to see the ball being thrown around, not stuffed up the jumper by the big fellas who then flex their muscles in a squeeze for the line. Back in the early days of rugby there used to be giant mauls, some of which went on for minutes. It looks like we have reverted back to those boring days.
So, here is a plan to change the laws to try to cut down on this blight on the modern game. It was back in the late Sixties that the biggest, and arguably the best law reform was introduced by the then IRB. Aussie inspired, this outlawed kicking directly to touch from outside your 22. Soon the game was transformed. We now have the chance to do the same thing today. Instead of allowing a team to kick to touch from a penalty and get the lineout all over the field, you simply change the law to read ‘no penalty kicked to touch from inside the opposition half will earn a throw-in to the team kicking to touch'.
If you wanted to be even more radical, you could take the rule back to any kick outside your own 22 will not end in a throw-in to the kicking side. Instantly, teams would have to find another way of scoring. Tap and go penalties would become the norm, ball in play time would dramatically increase and brain would overtake brawn in tactical thinking.
If you concede back-to-back penalties these days you find yourself defending a five metre lineout, with the inevitable outcome. Every kick to touch eats up a minute of the game by the time the ball is thrown into the lineout. For heavens sake, we've seen sides this season kicking for a lineout when they've received a penalty in front of the posts five metres out!
Coming back to Tom Stewart, great achievement that it is to score 16 tries in a single season, how many of them came from driving mauls when he was the man at the back merely holding onto the ball? I don't want to detract from his undoubted skill, but do we really want to see tries driven in from five metres out, or created from some sleight of hand further out?
Another hooker, Johnny Matthews, scored five tries in the Round of 16 win by Glasgow Warriors over the Dragons in the EPCR Challenge Cup. His replacement added another one in the second half, meaning six tries from hookers on one time. Elliot Dee then replied with two from the Dragons.
I don't have anything against hookers, but they've already had their job made much, much easier at scrum time by their scrum halves being allowed to put the ball into the second row. What is going on with the law makers?
There is also no check made on hookers when they throw the ball into the lineout. The World Rugby law book states: The player throwing in the ball stands on the mark of touch with both feet outside the field of play. The thrower must not step into the field of play until the ball has been thrown. Sanction: Option of lineout or scrum.
Now, how many hookers do you see standing on the line, edging their heels onto the line so they can get closer to their jumpers. It is a joke – and there is an assistant referee standing right behind them. Then we come to another pet hate of mine, kickers stealing metres when they kick to touch from a penalty. Just take a look the next time you are watching and see how many extra strides the kickers take through the mark, rather than complying with the law to kick from behind the mark. My old mate Dan Biggar is a past master at this, while Adam Hastings is probably the biggest culprit.
If the target is a five metre lineout, then stealing two or three metres at a penalty can be vital. This is why the kick to the corner needs to be stripped back and teams encouraged to play the ball from a penalty, rather than turn to primitive act of forming a Romanesque phalanx to drive the opposition into submission. Let's be fair, there is little or nothing you can do to defend a driving lineout other than concede a penalty.
So many of the yellow cards we see in the game come from that phase of play and I really believe it has become the scourge of the modern game. So, let's get rid of it, or at least make it harder for teams to earn their tries. The longer it remains as it is, the more the younger players coming into the game will be encouraged to get bigger and stronger, rather than faster and more creative.
Then, perhaps, we will see wings, full-backs and centres topping the try charts once again!
