Rugby union is now officialy over as a sport

Watching Exeter would be enough to put u off watching this sport.  They have been BRUTAL

Exeter got worse in the latter stages -

Hookers are non existent, men like Sean Fitzpatrick, Phil Kearns and Brian Moore who were masters in that position would not get a look in now. Scrum halves just feed the ball into the second row, no need for a specialist hooker, it makes my blood boil as that was my position.

I hope your ears are not too bad Slippy :)

Agree spyker over the top refereeing is ruining the sport. I wouldn't mind so much if with all the advantages of technology they were right 99% of the time but they're far from it. Their success rate is not much better than a park ref who at least has the decency to not rob us of 10 minutes of our lives before making a decision. So over it!!!

The scrum feeding is a complete joke. What does the law actually state anyway??

Actually, with the growing understanding that repeated concussions lead to problems in later life, the changes were inevitable.
As a father of a player, who plays semi-pro, I welcome the changes.
The game has become driven by defence and particularly the League driven desire to stop the offload. This has led to the tackle becoming higher year on year with defenders looking to wrap carriers up, leading to more and more concussions (there were 5 in the Sarries V Exeter game at the weekend). If players are forced to tackle lower and take men to ground then we may see a quicker, offloading game as players pass out of the tackle (y'know, like they used to), which has to be more entertaining than the sideways stuff we see today as big men try and grind a yard over the gainline.
It may also reverse the obsession with giants all over the pitch, a faster offloading game suiting more nimble types. There will always be a case for big tight five forwards, but nippy centres rather than 17 stones monsters might make the game a little easier on the eye.
Simulation may become a problem, but if it's cracked down on hard from the outset, unlike in soccer, then it will soon be stamped out.

Good Post DO, totally agree.

Beginning to think Soccer players have more intelligence than this lot. What don't they understand?

Munster v glasgow was definitely not for Nancy boys. Big hard hits in a 80 minute physically energetic game. You couldn't take your eyes of it

Desmond the problem isnt league style tackling as League doesn't have as many issues with concussion as Union.

The issue with how union players are taught to run in to the tackle. A league player runs straight up, a union player is running in head first to hit the deck and release the ball, hence why so many of them get hit in the head. Tell players to run upright and this won't happen, but they wont do that because they know they cant hit the deck to release the ball. Can of worms if you ask me.

Jan 17, 2017 -- 8:15AM, der_der_73 wrote:

Desmond the problem isnt league style tackling as League doesn't have as many issues with concussion as Union.The issue with how union players are taught to run in to the tackle. A league player runs straight up, a union player is running in head first to hit the deck and release the ball, hence why so many of them get hit in the head. Tell players to run upright and this won't happen, but they wont do that because they know they cant hit the deck to release the ball. Can of worms if you ask me.

Excellent observation-in union if you stand up you get held up and scrum feed goes against you hence players often are diving for the floor well before hitting the opposition line -in league players do exactly the opposite and keep upright head held high to off load the ball.In union high contact is usually with the body weight rather than just the arm as in league hence less of a problem.

There's loads more legs tackling in union than league. A legs tackle leads to a contest for the ball. League is all about slowing down the play the ball. Three tacklers holding an attacker up forever and then taking an eternity to get off him once he's grounded.

I've not heard that league doesn't have as many issues with concussion as union. That surprises me.

I think union is a bit ahead of league when it comes to cracking down on dangerous play. Alex Mckinnon broke his neck from a tackle that in union would've seen a red card. Yet the same type of tackle is seen in every match and no one does a thing about it. It's just an 'accident' when someone gets hurt.

Good points Kamikaze

imo Union need to look at the maul rule as this encourages a choke or much higher type of tackle to gain the advantage at a subsequent scrum this is surely an easy issue to address

Somebody now gets a yellow when a player slips and the head is 1m off the ground and there is minimal contact (but the player reacts as if shot). Refs now corral together and basically decide pretty much every game of (top) rugby and is only a few steps from arguing itself into becoming non contact and therefore non existent!

Agree. My pet hate is kickers putting up a kick then running into some poor bugger suddenly realising he has to brace himself for a collision with a 95kg bloke chasing a kick and finds himself in the sin bin for 10 minutes.

`League is all about slowing down the play the ball. Three tacklers holding an attacker up forever and then taking an eternity to get off him once he's grounded.` OK yep but that`s not going to lead to concussion injuries.
Research in Oz showed `•From 2002-2003, 1,612 people were admitted to hospitals across Australia for Rugby League injuries, at a rate of 678 injured persons per 100,000 Rugby League players. `also `types of injuries-concussion (7%) -so it`s not common also not common in union either-RFU `studies in professional rugby
have shown that it occurs at a rate of about 3.9 per 1000 player hours (i.e. 1 concussion in
every 6 games amongst all the players involved) whereas studies at amateur adult level
suggest that concussion occurs at a rate of about 1.2 per 1000 player hours (i.e. 1 in every
21 games).So it`s not common in either code`Now -don`t get me wrong player safety is paramount and it`s important-both codes now have protocols to deal with the problem-Union have just introduced a protocol that recognises the type of hits/tackles that occur League has had one for longer that deals with the contact in the game-rugby will always have risks but it`s still a lot safer than eg nearly all sports involving horses which are big and unpredictable beasts

anyone else bag some 1.03 england 7's v papua new guinea ?

papua new fookin guinea ....

what does your program look like ??

.............. we don't have a program

1.03

oh dear

They've turned what is supposed to be an 'unsegmented' game like football, into a 'segmented' game of 'plays' like the NFL or RL, and it doesn't work. RL and NFL work as segmented games because there's a 'game system' in place to suit.

On top of that the rules are now a cross between Kafka and the Common Agricultural Policy.

I'll still be watching though.

The biggest threat to rugby as a sport is the elephant in the room ie drugs and particularly steroids. American football has had to put up it's hands and admit the problem is huge and only a question of time before rugby admits the same.

Cut penalties to one point and we would see a more open game. Also cut scrums down to 5 forwards and penalize 10 yards for collapsing. A good penalty kicker can win a lot of games for teams that don't even look like scoring a try.

If penalties were only worth one point, the incentive to infringe and slow the game down is increased, not decreased.  To achieve the open game that you crave, shirley you would increase, not decrease, the value of the penalty.

As an old-timer, it would be nice to see the ball fed into the middle of the scrum, skilful hookers hooking, the ball thrown straight down the middle of a lineout, and no lifting in the lineout.

Penalties given for scrum offences are so difficult to fathom and seem to be based on pre-conceived views by the referee against one of the front rows.

Warrington v Castleford last Friday was a better spectacle than anything I have seen in Union for many years.

Completely agree Arleystation, an old time hooker signing who was coached by the man who went on to be forwards coach for the British Lions.
Scrum halves feeding into the second row makes my blood boil, how many times do you see a strike against the head in recent years? Answer is never.
The days of a technically talented hooker are but a distant memory, striking against the head was my forte but that skill is long gone.

I forgot I posted on this last year!

Check this from Rd 1 Brumbies v Crusaders. I can't understand how refs and TMOs can be so wrong.

Watch from 31:00 mark.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph-LpKmi7CE&t=1941s

brilliant  bix 26 Feb 2017
The biggest threat to rugby as a sport is the elephant in the room ie drugs and particularly steroids. American football has had to put up it's hands and admit the problem is huge and only a question of time before rugby admits the same.
Rate reply: *****

Of 50 UK athletes currently serving drugs ban 28 are rugby players. 4 are cyclists. Of all banned athletes since start of UKAD 46% were from rugby.