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Historical evidence makes it pretty certain that WWE did not convert Rugby football from a kicking game to a handling one, but he is nonetheless a Person Of Interest, so I have been searching the relevant nineteenth censuses for more information about him. No luck at all! We know from other...

The Premiership final was an exciting game won by the better team on the day. However to me that does not validate the current system whereby the winner of the marathon (league fixtures) has to win a couple of sprints to be awarded the title. Only 4 times out of 15 has the league winner also...

Argument on another site had me looking at the law on "double movement". In 2017 the law was fairly detailed: 22.1 There are two ways a player can ground the ball: (a) Player touches the ground with the ball. A player grounds the ball by holding the ball and touching the ground with it, in...

Just cascaded down from our society as WR official addition:-The attached new Law 9,19 becomes active With immediate effect. Please circulate to coaches etc. Law 9.19In open play, any player may lift or support a player from the same team. Players who support or lift a teammate must lower the...

Trivia time? I was watching a re-run of Endeavour, the Morse prequel, and hearing the Barry Pheloung theme playing "Morse" in morse code suddenly reminded me of the beginner's mnemonic Elephants In Straw Hats Two Miles Off. E . I .. S ... H .... so TMO is - -- ---

Yes, there was a genuine case of "foot up" sanctioned in today's game.

I have just noticed that Bill Beaumont and Martin Johnson both have birthdays today.

I have just received the following non-secret email from our training officer. (Hope it helps :smile:) Special update on the Tackle/Ruck – 03/03/2017Welcome to a special update, which is being distributed following the England v Italy 6 Nations game last weekend. The following has been sent...

(I am starting a new thread rather than hijack the 6N bonus points one.) Recap: the Swiss system is used in chess when there are too many entries or not enough time for all-play-all. After the first round, winners play winners, and losers play losers. This process produces a ranking system and...

A thread on the abuse of referees has become a general discussion on the relative merits of Australian and other systems for running competitive rugby, particularly as regards providing touch judges, ground marshals etc. I think we need to be clear on the various constraints, so here is a...

The PMB thread nearly got side-tracked into this, and I would like to clarify the various techniques. Basically there are three: 1. Make a mark for both non-throwing and throwing teams 2. Mark the line of touch and set a gap 3. Make a mark for the non-throwing side only. (In all cases the...

Leicester thought they had scored a try in the first minute yesterday, but it was cancelled because a replay showed that after the ball came out of a tackle/ruck thingy, a Leicester player on the ground flipped the ball up to a team mate. The officials agreed he had "played the ball on the...

Incident from a recent match. Away team kicks a PK from outside the 22 to just short of the corner flag. As the referee runs over, he realises the "corner flag" is actually the one marking the far corner of in-goal - the real corner flag was lying in the grass several metres away. What should...

Well done Bedford! (Guess what OB stands for.) Some talented players on show. The rugby was at times excellent, at times naive, but credit to both teams for an exciting game.

I was at my daughter's for dinner this evening and we watched the World Diving Championships. I drew her attention to the name of an American diver that seemed familiar. "Good heavens!" she said, "i used to babysit him." We knew his grandmother well when his mother was coming to national...

In another thread Rushforth reminisced on the evolution of the scrum, so I thought it might be useful to list some keys dates. 1931 front row players: "no more than three" (first mention of numbers). 1950 exactly three in the front row. Otherwise any number. 1982 minimum of five in the scrum...

In England, 2nd XVs may join the leagues but cannot be promoted above Level 8. The (not very accurate) rule of thumb is to add 3 to the 1st XV level to estimate that of the 2nd XV. As a consequence, 2nd XVs of clubs at level 3,4, and possibly 5 have a problem. Level 8 will not give their...

A friend has just asked me this question. A suggested answer is Buxton. Does anyone know?

About 14 minutes into the match, Garces got crunched between an Australlan ball carrier and an English defender. He was left on the ground while the ball carrier continued forward. He got up and shoured "Play on! Nothing happened!". (The move was eventually stopped by an awesome cover tackle...

Yesterday's training session was a panel-led discussion on what referees, players, coaches and assessors expect of each other. One of the thinbgs that got mentioned several times was consistency, though we found it useful to distinguish "consistency" (by a referee during a game) and...