G.K wrote:Binding on the sleeve would be an improvement actually. In many games now one of the props has him arm underneath holding onto the other props shirt around the chest area, no doubt to try to pull him off balance. That's not even close to binding and quite obvious. Stevens did it against Castro and as mentioned above both sets of props were doing this at various stages in the England v Scotland game and often not getting penalised.
Binding on the arm is more destabilising than binding on the torso - binding on the torso is where you want it to be albeit on the seam rather than under near the chest
Binding near the chest is just a short bind rather than a long bind
Maybe but nowhere in Law 20.3 can I see that binding with your hand on the other props chest area is legal. In fact gripping on the chest, arm, sleeve or collar is specifically mentioned as illegal, as is exerting downwards pressure. So refs don't understand what a chest or arm or collar or sleeve is?
Nowadays referees decide matches, players by how much.
The fact is, this needs to be policed by experts, and the refs should be experts.
The fact that Messrs Moore and Barnes go nuts about it every week would suggest it is not being refereed by experts.
As for "tough judges", I don't know why most of them bother turning up.
They just wave their little flag at some random point within 20 metres of where a kick went out (almost always incorrectly) and fail completely to spot any infringements even when they are perfectly placed to do so.
Kicks and scrums and ruck and roll.....Is all my brain and body need!
Kinoulton wrote:The fact is, this needs to be policed by experts, and the refs should be experts.
The fact that Messrs Moore and Barnes go nuts about it every week would suggest it is not being refereed by experts.
As for "tough judges", I don't know why most of them bother turning up.
They just wave their little flag at some random point within 20 metres of where a kick went out (almost always incorrectly) and fail completely to spot any infringements even when they are perfectly placed to do so.
Agree - except about the part that they are "tough" - weak as milk and water most of them
Actually it doesn't even require a high level of expertise, I am no front row expert (I'm not fat enough for that) but I do know where someone's arms and hands are if I am watching them from a foot or so away (years of martial arts made this somewhat neccessary anyway to avoid getting smacked too often).
As for AR's then again I think if my only job was watching a ball for 90 minutes with a tea break at half time then I'm sure I'd know when a ball was kicked out where it went a darn site better than most of them do.
Maybe I should retrain - what's the pay like?
Nowadays referees decide matches, players by how much.
In amateur boxing, the scoring part of the glove is coloured differently from the rest. Could we insist props wear shirts with the legal bind area printed on it in, say, orange. This would not blend with any club colour and we would be able to see dirty great prop mitts bound on to it (or not).
It should not be necessary as props arms when binding are not moving at the same speed as a boxer's hands. If the ref can't see what is plainly obvious to just about everyone else then they should retire and ref something even slower like curling.
Nowadays referees decide matches, players by how much.
G.K wrote:It should not be necessary as props arms when binding are not moving at the same speed as a boxer's hands. If the ref can't see what is plainly obvious to just about everyone else then they should retire and ref something even slower like curling.
Anything that makes reffing easier should be considered. Another advantage of a coloured shirt panel "target area" to bind on is that touch judges could see it more easily making both sides of the scrum observed.
