This makes for fun reading:
http://tinyurl.com/js2m4
RFU complaining inter alia that their refs are taken away for international games!!!
Do they now realise what Premiership CLubs feel when their players are taken???
RFU
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Bill I actually think this bit is the most interesting bit:
"10.4b Stamping or trampling. A player must not stamp or trample
on an opponent.
16.3 A player rucking for the ball must not ruck players on the ground.
A player rucking for the ball tries to step over players on the ground and must not intentionally step on them. A player rucking must do so near the ball."
So every time we see a player on the wrong side getting a back full of studs in a backwards motion and declare this "fair rucking" we have been wrong. The law of course is refereed very differently to how it should be.
With regards to the RFU commenting on losing referees to internationals, it read more as an abservation than a complaint to be honest Bill.
"10.4b Stamping or trampling. A player must not stamp or trample
on an opponent.
16.3 A player rucking for the ball must not ruck players on the ground.
A player rucking for the ball tries to step over players on the ground and must not intentionally step on them. A player rucking must do so near the ball."
So every time we see a player on the wrong side getting a back full of studs in a backwards motion and declare this "fair rucking" we have been wrong. The law of course is refereed very differently to how it should be.
With regards to the RFU commenting on losing referees to internationals, it read more as an abservation than a complaint to be honest Bill.
The whole rucking thing has been discussed a load of times. I think the RFU were originally going to get refs to enforce the rules properly, then the SH teams all went hell for leather on rucking and it's a huge part of their game so the RFU decided that we'd get destroyed in the World Cup if our players weren't rucking regularly.
Its an unwritten code when playing. If you are on the wrong side over the ball then you know you are going to get a good shoeing. No one has ever complained about being rucked in this way. But by the letter of the law it isn't allowed.
I was at a Super 12 match between the Blues and the Crusaders which saw Ali Williams sent off for rucking around Richie McCaw's head. That was fair enough, but the same incident also led to Sam Tuitupou and Steve Devine being cited for "careless rucking". The jist of the charge was that they were rucking the player not the ball, which shocked everyone as it had been kind of accepted that you were allowed to do that. The upshot? Tuitupou and Devine both received bans.
If those laws are to be properly enforced you would end up with a dozen citings per game.
Of course if the tackle area was refereed properly it wouldn't be so much of an issue!
I was at a Super 12 match between the Blues and the Crusaders which saw Ali Williams sent off for rucking around Richie McCaw's head. That was fair enough, but the same incident also led to Sam Tuitupou and Steve Devine being cited for "careless rucking". The jist of the charge was that they were rucking the player not the ball, which shocked everyone as it had been kind of accepted that you were allowed to do that. The upshot? Tuitupou and Devine both received bans.
If those laws are to be properly enforced you would end up with a dozen citings per game.
Of course if the tackle area was refereed properly it wouldn't be so much of an issue!