Watched a fair bit of rugby last few days and something that really stood out from all sides was the players absolutely sprinting towards and diving off their feet into rucks at pretty much every opportunity. Has there been a Law change that I've missed. (Serious question)

I think this is a road crash waiting to happen personally.

---

If at first you don't succeed, Try, Try and Try again.

Mike williams' one yesterday was ridiculous. Of course it didn't matter as he was fortunate enough not to break anybody's neck. Of course, if a chiefs player had looked up at the wrong moment...

Quote:

Scaramouche
Watched a fair bit of rugby last few days and something that really stood out from all sides was the players absolutely sprinting towards and diving off their feet into rucks at pretty much every opportunity. Has there been a Law change that I've missed. (Serious question)
I think this is a road crash waiting to happen personally.

Dan Cole has been getting away with it for years...

Austin Healy explained his angle on this.... something like...as players can’t use their shoulders or heads the new styl is to fly into the ruck with your arms by your side and try to clear out almost but not quite with your shoulder. This seems reckless as guys can be caught as they move into a different position in the ruck so the flying clear out player can’t know where he will land. Williams wasn’t carded it seems because luckily Cowan-Dickie moved and wasn’t hit on the head.

Chris Robshaw and also Maro plus others use a grab and pull technique or a grab and roll.

I’d like to see more yellows for the diving clearout to stop the trend

Do you not have to be bound onto a teammate....apart from the first man in at the ruck...before hitting a ruck? Maybe I'm wrong on this. I'm sure there are some officials among you who can rubbish this theory. Just thought I'd read it somewhere and that it had become a law that was, like the straight put in to the scrum or the forward pass, being overlooked by officials.

Quote:

1908
Do you not have to be bound onto a teammate....apart from the first man in at the ruck...before hitting a ruck? Maybe I'm wrong on this. I'm sure there are some officials among you who can rubbish this theory. Just thought I'd read it somewhere and that it had become a law that was, like the straight put in to the scrum or the forward pass, being overlooked by officials.

Not a teammate but anyone entering a ruck must try to bind onto an opposition player. This doesn't mean you can't speed in, just means you have to bind when you hit....or at least make an effort to.

Quote:

QuincyJones
....or at least make an effort to.

usually interpreted as having your arms at least 5 degrees away from your side.

Quote:

Scaramouche
Watched a fair bit of rugby last few days and something that really stood out from all sides was the players absolutely sprinting towards and diving off their feet into rucks at pretty much every opportunity. Has there been a Law change that I've missed. (Serious question)
I think this is a road crash waiting to happen personally.

Back to the original point: I also have the impression that this has been a trend recently, that the refs aren't applying the laws as they used to and/or that players are being more reckless as they enter. Whatever happened to whistle .. "straight off your feet"?

all of these problems stem from the decision to outlaw what was previously known as rucking, i.e. driving over the ball, bound on to an opposition player, and playing the ball back with your feet and, if necessary, moving an opposition player lying on the wrong side with your feet.

So to cut down on a few stud marks on offending players' backs, presumably to make the game look less scary to newcomers and parents, the powers that be have created an absolute mess, which is impossible to read, hard for supporters to understand, and results in concussions, knee and ligament damage, dislocated hips, neck rolls, more congested midfields leading to bigger and more numerous collisions, etc. None o the laws are enforced properly and it could all be resolved by allowing proper rucking. Not stamping, just proper rucking. Sadly it won't happen, they'll just tweak or change the current laws every few years leading to another set of unintended consequences

Thanks for that Quincy.

Can I ask you another question?

You say that a player must make an attempt to bind on an opponent when hitting a ruck. What do they mean by bind? Gripping your opponent by the shirt...below shoulder level? Is contact below shoulder level with your shoulder allowed? Or do you have to make an effort to grasp a player with one or two hands to qualify as attempting to bind? It sounds like a minefield to interpret.

Of course, as T-Bone says, if only proper rucking was allowed then we might sort this problem out.

Yes bring back rucking!