Wednesday, August 23, 2006

The Laws of rugby

Rugby is or should be a simple game yet it has 150 pages of laws not including variations and regulations. One would think that with that much detailed information it would be a straightforward matter to know if play is valid or not. The laws are written in english and the meaning of the language is clear yet many referees allow play contrary to the wording of the laws and no-one complains.
Consider the lineout. (law 19)
A lineout player must not lift a team mate. Yet jumpers can rise as much as 1.5m off the ground (higher than an olympic high jumper). The fiction is that the catcher jumps and the team mate supports him once he is in the air.
A player must not jump or support a player before the ball has left the throwers hands (i)
So why do we see players up waiting for the ball? It takes longer to jump to the height of the ball than it does to throw it to the front of the line. This law is not physically possible to comply with!
A player must not pre grip below the waist. Most pre gripping is on the shorts below the buttocks yet no penalties.
Why not dump 19 (g-k) and allow lifting above the knees?
19.5 The thrower must not step into the field of play when the ball is thrown; so why does no one care?
Tackle ruck and maul
law 15 definition
A tackle is when a ball carrier is held and brought to ground. The person who put him there is only a tackler if he too goes to ground! Just to make 15.4 meaningful because the tackler must release, get up or move away before playing the ball.
An opponent on his feet is not supported by the ground or any player on the ground. What is bridging? Why do so many kneel on the tackled player to reach the ball?
15.5 (b,c,d) a tackled player may release the ball by passing or placing the ball. 15.7(a) No player may prevent a tackled player from passing the ball, yet almost always an attempt to take the ball while the grounded player is trying to get rid of it is rewarded by the call holding on,
because 15.5(e), 15.6(b) any player on his feet may take the ball from the tackled player.
That is you can't stop the player laying the ball down, but you can take it from him before he can lay it down.
Offside at a ruck is the hindmost foot on your own side. A player not joining the ruck must retire behind the off-side line. What are those players on the side in possession who stand to the side of the ruck half way up and never get penalised while the defending side gets caught whenever the cross the line by a few centimetres? It is blatant off-side and obstruction at the same time.
What about the forward pass? nuff said
How can we simplify things? many of the laws are meaningless but we all know how to play, if badly, so why not reduce the laws to principles and leave it to the referee. Once you get on the field he/she makes the rules anyway.

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