Re: Rugby Union, If you must talk about it, do it here. PART : Sat Jun 29, 2013 12:23 pm  

I was out training so Sky Plussed it. Managed to fast forward through all the standing around waiting for scrums, lineouts and goal kicking... just emphasised how little actual rugby is played, the whole game took me about 15 minutes to watch

I think the Lions had to take this one, the Aussies will be feeling the momentum build going to Sydney, the Lions will have a tough time there I think

Re: Rugby Union, If you must talk about it, do it here. PART : Sat Jun 29, 2013 6:15 pm  

This is by no means a great Aussie side but when it comes to playing attacking rugby they're still miles better than anything the Northern Hemisphere can come up with. They're execution was poor though and they should have scored a few more tries. As usual all the emphasis is on the scrum and the set piece in general with the British sides, they don't seem to grasp the fact that you actually have to score points to win a game of rugby, and as soon as it became clear the Aussies could match the Lions in the scrum there was only ever going to be one winner.

If Warburton is injured then I really fear for the Lions chances, for me Tuilangi (sp) has to play if he's fit as the Lions' midfield is offering nothing at the moment.

Re: Rugby Union, If you must talk about it, do it here. PART : Sun Jun 30, 2013 1:34 pm  

The refereeing of the scrum at elite level has degenerated into a lottery. The whole game the Aussie tight head (Alexander) was driving in diagonally between Tom Youngs and Vunipola making it impossible for the Lions prop to bind on him properly.

The first couple of times he did it, Vunipola got penalised. He did it again twice in the second half, and got penalised himself.

People have a pop at the likes of Brian Moore for continually banging on about scrums, but something seriously needs to be done. Back to the soft engage and preventing pushing before the ball goes in that existed back in the amateur era?

Re: Rugby Union, If you must talk about it, do it here. PART : Sun Jun 30, 2013 4:57 pm  

To be honest I've always felt the only reason they have scrums in RU is give the fat blokes something to do during a game.

Re: Rugby Union, If you must talk about it, do it here. PART : Sun Jun 30, 2013 8:23 pm  

Charlie Sheen wrote:

To be honest I've always felt the only reason they have scrums in RU is give the fat blokes something to do during a game.

Watched a couple of club games on Saturday afternoon as part of a fund raiser. Premiers and 1sts........not 1 re-set scrum in 160 minutes of Rugby. I'll add that the games were more entertaining than most of the dross that S15 has thrown up this year.

The Scrum at top level/international level needs a total overhaul IMHO.....

In other news, New Zealand are both mens and womens 7's world champions after winning their respective world cups in front of a few thousand puzzled Russians.

Re: Rugby Union, If you must talk about it, do it here. PART : Sun Jun 30, 2013 9:00 pm  

gutterfax wrote:

Watched a couple of club games on Saturday afternoon as part of a fund raiser. Premiers and 1sts........not 1 re-set scrum in 160 minutes of Rugby. I'll add that the games were more entertaining than most of the dross that S15 has thrown up this year.

The Scrum at top level/international level needs a total overhaul IMHO.....

In other news, New Zealand are both mens and womens 7's world champions after winning their respective world cups in front of a few thousand puzzled Russians.

I've always said that the higher the standard of Union, the worse that it is to watch. And does anyone actually like 7's? I just can't take it seriously, the fact that it's an Olympic sport is a joke.

Re: Rugby Union, If you must talk about it, do it here. PART : Mon Jul 01, 2013 2:26 am  

If you look at it positively, 7s produces some breathtaking tries, but it is difficult to take it seriously at all. Not sure why they played it in Russia in the 80k seater soccer stadium, looked bloody awful on TV. There's plenty of countries in Europe with much more rugby interest that they could have used, but money talks I guess.

Re: Rugby Union, If you must talk about it, do it here. PART : Mon Jul 01, 2013 6:58 am  

The Lions seem to have approached this series with the view that if they dominate in the forwards they'll inevitably win. But the scrums have been a lottery and if they insist on countless phases of forward possession without actually doing anything they inevitably end up turning over the ball.

I enjoyed the first game but the 2nd test was ruined by the time taken out at the scrums.

Re: Rugby Union, If you must talk about it, do it here. PART : Mon Jul 01, 2013 1:00 pm  

gutterfax wrote:

Watched a couple of club games on Saturday afternoon as part of a fund raiser. Premiers and 1sts........not 1 re-set scrum in 160 minutes of Rugby. I'll add that the games were more entertaining than most of the dross that S15 has thrown up this year.

The Scrum at top level/international level needs a total overhaul IMHO.....

I'm guessing that at that level there's very little force going through the engagement, and little separation between the touch and engage calls?

Go back to allowing both props to have hold of each other before coming together, and you'll have a much more stable scrum to put the ball into.

Re: Rugby Union, If you must talk about it, do it here. PART : Tue Jul 02, 2013 12:31 pm  

Hallelujah.

Poster up in Morley RFC last night advertising the introduction of new "crouch, bind, set" procedures to be introduced as experimental laws from the start of the next NH season at all levels.

Props will have a bind on their opposite number before the hit, hopefully creating a more stable platform so the scrum half can get the ball straight in.