The Rolling Maul: Bring back boots on bodies?

But one item of his address struck me. In the areas where he told us that rugby had been cleaned up he particularly stressed the ruck. What he meant was that injuries in the ruck are now far less because the sport has dedicated itself to eradicating the concept of boots on bodies.

Taking this a stage further, the number of horrible injuries caused by savage, flailing boots and studs has gone down because referees have been told to operate zero tolerance when boots and bodies come into contact. Yes indeed, injuries are fewer. But the other outcome is that the ruck is dead, because we no longer see people giving the prone players a reminder with their studs. It has been said before, but prone players tend to react with a certain alacrity at the prospect of being rucked and tend not to remain prone for long.

As Care and all his peers find, there is no one to encourage the prone players to move and referees are not nearly strict enough with them.

Dare we re-introduce the idea of boots on bodies? I am not suggesting we allow players to kick other players. But I am coming around to the view that if we allow prone players to be raked by opponents who have already gone past them and are moving backwards, as opposed to players who are simply stamping downwards, then we could free up the game and bring back quick ball.

The judge, many administrators and many parents would point to the very thin dividing line between stamping and rucking and I would absolutely hate it if my campaign to bring the ruck back brought about any serious injury. But as Lawrence Dallaglio was saying the other day, rugby should bring back a small element of self-policing for those players who are killing the game at the bottom of rucks, and I feel that the International Rugby Board must remove some of the strictures for the sake of speed and spectacle.

Inspired move, or madness?

Absent genius

It might seem odd to make some kind of preview mention of Saturday’s England-Argentina game with a reference to a player who is unfit to start. But I will miss particularly the brilliant Juan Martin Hernandez, the injured Puma. As I said last week, we should all wish the Pumas well, they are a fantastic rugby nation and will surely grow even bigger when they enter the Tri-Nations in under three years.

But Hernandez is a massive loss. Simply, he is for me the greatest back currently playing the game and he has a range of genius and talent which sets him ahead of both Dan Carter and Jonny Wilkinson as a fly-half.

I can imagine the hordes objecting from New Zealand, England and Toulon but Fernandez is a magnificent kicker, runner, passer and tackler. He is by a distance more physical in the contact area than either of the other two.

It must be said that both Carter and Wilkinson can be more successful in bringing shape to a team because the only drawback when you have Hernandez in the pivot role is that he can tend to get carried away with the sheer and exuberant range of his talent. He so rarely takes the easy option and that can frustrate his own team.

Yet I simply cannot recall any other individual with an armoury the size of the great Puma. And what is the key to getting the best out of him? I have no doubt whatsoever that if he teams up in the next year or two with a brilliant and hard-nosed inside centre who can marshal him, who can keep all those talents on track for the good of the team, then we will see a player to rival any who laced a boot in the history of the sport.

Somehow Twickenham will not be the same without him on Saturday. Get well soon.

Smaller clubs rising

We touched a nerve last week. My account of a happy experience watching the Thatcham-Drifters match recently has provoked many reactions. Most of them hint that we observers operating at the top end of the game spend far too long in ivory towers and are unaware of the vast panoply of the game existing outside the professional sector.

In the last few days, I have had invitations from a galaxy of smaller clubs from the north of Scotland to East Anglia to mid-Wales, and I do suspect that if I was able to take up all those invitations, not only would it be the greatest fun but I would also be enlisting in Alcoholics Anonymous well before the end of the season.

Thank you so much for all the invitations but I am not quite so happy about the references to ivory towers. Having spent almost every winter Sunday in the past 12 years coaching our local club’s youth teams, having extended the coaching involvement to our local secondary school this year, as a former member of the local referee society and as a current member of five rugby clubs from outside the professional arena at present, I feel that I have the most accessible ivory tower in the sport.

Anyway, it’s back to the tower at Twickenham this week.

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>>>>> LIST OF THE WEEK <<<<<

Refereeing disasters

My list of the five areas where referees opt out, to the detriment and danger of the game:

1. Referees never penalise the individuals who smash into the sides of rucks, targeting defenceless opposition players who are minding their own business.

2. Why on earth, after so many demands from refereeing administrators, do referees still allow the ball in the scrum to be placed in the second row?

3. Why do referees allow the endless debate and chat show which surround every decision they make and even every decision they do not make? Why are there not more yellow cards awarded against players who keep yapping?

4. Referees have become mute after the game. In every competition, from domestic leagues up to the World Cup, there must be access to referees, if only through refereeing grandees, so that the competing teams and the game at large, together with the fans, can be told why key decisions were made. In most other sports, there is this facility and rugby is lagging way behind.

5. Consistency at the breakdown. Referees are ridiculously trigger happy when penalising the ball carrier, often pinging him a fraction of a millisecond after the tackle.

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>>>>> HERO OF THE WEEK <<<<<

James Horwill (Australia)

The Australian lock was absolutely marvellous at Twickenham last week. He is probably only in the Australia team at all because both Nathan Sharpe and Daniel Vickerman are not available and it could be that he does not join the panoply of all-time greats.

But Horwill was superb. He was busy, physical, enthusiastic, he played with sharp edges and he was ever-present. He also stood out a mile when compared with the England locks opposite. I felt that in terms of visible impact on the match, both Steve Borthwick and Lewis Deacon hardly existed. Neither of them carried the ball that often; neither of them caused anything like the kind of damage that Horwill caused.

It will be interesting this week to see if Horwill can keep it up, and if the chosen England lock partnership can restore the idea that the second row is the powerhouse of a rugby team. Last week the power was turned off.

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The Stephen Jones debate

I couldn’t agree more with your point about England needing to win and not just perform well in certain aspects of their game. I’ve played in a few matches this season in which some of our play has been pretty good but we’ve still been thumped by the opposition - and I can tell you that we would rather have won by one or two points having played a more ragged game. Clearly Redingensians Recks are not there to entertain in the way perhaps England should, but the starting point for Johnson’s men must surely be to beat the Aussies? The morale boost that comes from winning is far bigger than having strung some decent phases together and will surely put England in a better position mentally to take on the Pumas and the All Blacks. As a regular visitor to Twickers over the past 20 years, I only ever want to see England win. Phil Rushton

SJ: Agreed, Phil. Thanks to everyone who commented on this issue and the responses this week brought a massive victory for the cause of winning over the cause of “performance” and no insight at all to the idea that it can be a good “performance” if England lose! I am afraid that the record books don’t give a mark for performance, only the final score.

Surely there can be no argument. Performance is the defence of a losing management. Winning gives a feel-good factor to fans and non-fans alike and always precedes an increase in the take-up of new supporters and players, which can only be good for the game in the long term. Gordon Barton

SJ: And this Saturday against Argentina winning is absolutely the only criteria for success.

As a season ticket holder at Castle Grim for over 30 years, and on the very edge of giving up on the game I used to love, then I would have to disagree with you about winning at all cost. Yes its nice to go home happy that you have put one over on the opposition and have bragging rights for one more week, but if the performance is so dire as to be a glorified version of aerial ping pong, the skills on show are consistent with an Under-11 touch rugby game, and more importantly the entertainment value is such that you question why you are attending these games anymore except out of blind loyalty, then winning is not everything. This is not just borne out of watching Gloucester this season: even when we were flattering to deceive over the last few games, the fare on show was poor. So yes, win at all costs if you wish but what’s the point if you are doing it in half empty stadiums? Gloucester Bob

SJ: Bob, I suggest strongly to you that the half-empty stadiums are caused by teams losing, full stop. I feel that a poll in the Shed every week when Gloucester play Bath, say, would opt rather strongly for a Glaws win even if it was the worst game of the century.

I was very surprised to read that Martin Johnson considers a performance against Australia to be more important than a victory. Would he ever have considered that to be an option as a player? Mark Philbin, Siberia

SJ: Exactly!

Stephen, me boy, you finally got me as I was eating. I darn near choked down my sausage when I saw that anyone associated with England would accept mere performance over winning. As a recent NFL coach stated: “You play to win the game”. Now that’s what I call performance. Full stop. What are the players playing for if not to win? And what are we paying our hard-earned cash for? Now I am sure Martin Johnson is trying to ratchet down expectations since everyone associated with England rugby is injured, and this includes the bloke who blows up the balls and his mate who cleans the toilets. But never sacrifice winning as a goal for performance. Never. I hope I am clear. Don Slade

SJ: Yes Don, I think Sir Clive thrived in his tenure because he realised that short-term success led to long-term success through momentum and confidence.

Proposed solution to the aerial ping pong blighting our game, based on the theory that players are scared to run it back for fear of being turned over: if a player fields the ball in his own half from a kick (either on the full or on the bounce), at the first breakdown that ensues, whether involving the catcher or another player the ball may have passed to, the penalty for “holding on” is void. The ball can still be competed for, but no penalty can be given for this offence. If the ball fails to come back, scrum to the team who took the ball in. This would mean that a player could have a crack at a run into space, knowing he would be allowed to hold on until his team-mates got there to help him out. If the ball got wrestled off him then that’s fair game. Any thoughts? Benny Blanco

SJ: That’s a good one, Serge’s brother. Lots of you wrote in about the breakdown and your sheer frustration that so many attacks are ended by a penalty against the attacking side!

I have just realised how to tidy up the ruck and it is so simple. After one side has had, say six rucks, you give the ball to the other side and they can attempt to break the deadlock. Oh, and you just might want to remove a couple of players from each side to create a bit more space. Job done. John Edwards

SJ: Trouble is John, that the crowds and sponsors depart with them and your international profile becomes Scotland-Lebanon played in front of five people. Not sure it would catch on, frankly.

Thank goodness rugby league maintained some credibility for both the game of rugby and British sport. England v Australia was dire. England showed no ambition to score points other than kicking goals and were rightly, and comfortably, beaten by a mediocre Australian team. Ditto Wales v the All Blacks. It was left to the England rugby league team to show that rugby can be a thrilling game to rival soccer - and to post some British success. Chris Walker

SJ: That will be the England rugby league team which won its first game of note for around 70 years, would it?

Hi Jonesy, I’m interested to know when the national selectors come calling whether the young Jones will opt for England or Wales? As the father of two sports-loving sons who were born in South Africa but grew up in England, I have a conundrum. Eldest son Justin (32) who arrived aged 7 is a red rose man to the core, and youngest Wesley, 24, who arrived aged 1, bleeds green and gold. I was born in England but grew up in SA and played all my rugby there. I have been a fierce Bok supporter for 40 years but support England against anyone else - so I guess it’s my fault. I just wondered if your boy asked your advice, what would your heart tell you (although I’m sure you would want him to make his own decision)? Chris Sysum

SJ: Chris, it is already too late for Justin as England are only ever interested in lads of around 18: Wesley might just sneak in but his distressing failure to switch allegiance means that his rendition of God Save the Queen would simply not have that genuine ring to it. Happy to say that my lads have a third option as their Mum is Scottish.

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