What was that for, ref?

Who, pray tell, are the top stakeholders in he game of Rugby Football Union? The nations? The clubs? The sponsors?

No.

I would say the major stakeholders of the game – any game – are the players and the fans. If one boils the facts down to brass monkeys, the fans are who pay for watching the players on telly. They pay for sponsor’s product. They show up to the gate. The players play. The referees ref. The coaches coach. What I saw on the weekend was a step towards rugby union become a cross between association football and rugby league. Line drop outs, cards flying around with gay abandon and fans disappointed with the product.

Head injuries are a problem. Having suffered from a few an have long term effects I can sympathise. However, I’m not sure the rule makers have got to the root of the problem. There is more front on defense. The players are getting bigger and stronger. There are bound to be injuries in this case. In fact, in any contact sport there will be injuries. What we can deduce is that if there is spread defense then there are too many forwards in the backline. From this we can assume that if there are too many forwards in a backline, they are not being committed to rucks, mauls or breakdowns. Why do they not have to commit? Because players are allowed to go off their feet. Now a ‘ruck’ can be a tackled player and one or two other guys strewn about loosely. That leaves 27 other guys across 50 metres of paddock. What if we had players staying on their feet in a genuine contest for the ball? Teams would be forced to commit players to the ruck to win the ball. Thus, we have space on the outside and more running rugby. I would love to see the likes of the French backs sail around the field with space. Of course, defensively, teams won’t have as many players and will adapt to showing his or her opposite the sideline and tackling side on. Rather than tackling becoming a game of who has the least amount of neck visible, tackling becomes a skill where pace and technique are important.

Tell me, if players are penalised for not rolling away quickly enough yet the opposition is lying on top of him, how does that make for a good game? Players are frustrated, refs can see the problem (but are being told that’s what they have to do) and spectators become shitty. If all the arriving players did their best to stay on their feet and bound on to each other it’s a lot easier for the tackler to actually roll the fuck out of there. Plus, having 900kg+ of no-neckism striding above you, you’d want to get the fuck out.

We can’t blame the refs. They are just doing what they’re told. We can’t blame the players or coaches – they will always try to find a way to bend the rules in their favour. We can’t blame the fans – we are served up a different version of footy almost monthly. Let’s make the game as simple as it once was. These large, fast humans playing the game now would make for one hell of a product.