Some random rugby thoughts

Why would a TMO want to check if a player scoring a clear, unchallenged try had his hand under the ball? Surely if it is over the line and no other player could impede the player, what is the point of even considering a try had not been scored? That’s not even taking into account that a player might be carrying the ball that way for a reason, especially if it was wet. There’s a greater chance of that sort of try being correct than there is for some others that have been awarded this season.

Check the 8min 50sec mark

And while on the topic of TMOs, why don’t they just adopt the American Football rule allowing forward passes so players running from an onside position can take the ball and run ahead? Given the margin balls are now moving forwards, ‘as a result of being thrown backwards out of the hand’, it would seem it would save a lot of time waiting for decisions to be made off the field of play. It’s a joke, of course, but when is enough enough in deciding how far forward these non-forward passes can travel?

With kicking and chasing high kicks becoming so prevalent in tactical options, why are the assistant referees, at least, not more vigilant in ensuring chasers start their pursuit from behind the kicker? Players are creeping ever so marginally ahead of kickers but are rarely pinged. It’s just as bad at restarts, while the players in front of a kicker attempting to put a penalty kick into touch are also going unchecked. Do the laws, or their intent, not matter any more?

On another matter, when the player attempting to convert tries has only 60 seconds to complete the act, why are tryscorers so thoughtless in their post-try celebrations in throwing the ball away, or even just leaving it in place for someone else to pick up and deliver to the kicker? A small thing, yes, but every second is vital for the person attempting to kick a goal.

Where has this increasingly frustrating habit of ball carriers, usually tight forwards, suddenly stopping, looking for their next option, and then inevitably charging into a group of defenders, thankful for the vital second or two to assemble themselves and beat off an attack? Whatever happened to keeping going forward no matter what? It looks like something out of Sevens, or possibly Touch Rugby, that has wormed its way into the 15-man game. The way it has become such a common occurrence, All Blacks coaching great Fred Allen would be spinning in his grave at the basic rugby notion of Pace, Position and Possession having seemingly departed from the game. Allen’s words were, “Rugby is a game which should be played at speed all the time. The speed at which the game moves depends on the individual player and it is in his hands to dictate the tempo at which it will move.”

Colin Meads, Ken Gray, Kel Tremain, Ian Kirkpatrick and BJ Lochore et al never needed a breather when they had the ball in hand to work out what they were going to do next.