Hmmm - Stephen Jones' forgotten laws

[PeterH]

From this week's Rolling Mail email...
The top 10 laws and bylaws that no referees bother with anymore

1. Put the ball in straight into the scrum: Forgotten. The ball is now fed diagonally towards the second row.

2. Throw the ball in straight to the line-out: No-one ever bothers. You just bung it down your own line-out. May as well throw it to your scrum-half and cut out the middle man.

3. Following up in front of the kicker: No-one spots this any more, the refereeing assistants remain mute. I have seen people five yards upfield being allowed to continue and smash the catcher.

4. Stay on your feet at the breakdown: Ok, don't. Lie around like a beached whale, and for goodness sake, don't roll away.

5. Crouch, touch, pause, engage: The sequence was meant to stop the horrible and dangerous crunch of props at the hit. Now, the touch is derisory, props stand back out of reach and the horrible smash has come back into the game.

6. Obstruction: How many times do you see bulky forwards standing in front of the ball and in front of the rear feet as their scrum-half prepares to dig the ball out. They are offside, they obstruct the defence, and no-one stops them.

7. Forward pass: Don't worry, the law is in abeyance. May as well stand upfield and get your mate to throw the ball to you.

8. No talking to the referee: No, not much. Just 80 minutes of continual bawling, arguing and questioning. Hardly anyone bothers to march them back 10 metres any more.

9. Rear feet offside: Gone. The offside line is now simply a basis for negotiation. People routinely race up from offside positions, no-one seems to care, and then we wonder what happened to back play and attacking rugby.

10. Assistant referees: They were meant to help out. Spot things. Like offside, maybe. Now, they are purely for decorative purposes, it seems.

Saddest thing is - at the lower and mid levels - 13-5
We get panned for missing these - at the top - he is right

But who's to blame - I doubt if the refs getting there have ignored them for years - its the protocols...

Comments?

 

[OB..]

From this week's Rolling Mail email...
The top 10 laws and bylaws that no referees bother with anymore

Classic Stephen Jones hyperbole + inaccuracy. Dare I suggest it is fueled by ignorance in too many cases?! .

1. Put the ball in straight into the scrum: Forgotten. The ball is now fed diagonally towards the second row.

You do see it penalised occasionally, but not always.[Old readers look away now] I asked Phil Vickery about it and he said he didn't care as long as it was not blatant. They are more concerned with controlling the quality of the heel, since even if it is in straight, a heel against the head is very unlikely.[OK, you can look again now].

2. Throw the ball in straight to the line-out: No-one ever bothers. You just bung it down your own line-out. May as well throw it to your scrum-half and cut out the middle man.

Simply wrong. It gets penalised regularly. Does he realise that between the shoulders is straight enough?

3. Following up in front of the kicker: No-one spots this any more, the refereeing assistants remain mute. I have seen people five yards upfield being allowed to continue and smash the catcher.

More exaggeration.

4. Stay on your feet at the breakdown: Ok, don't. Lie around like a beached whale, and for goodness sake, don't roll away.

I would say there is at least one penalty for going off your feet in every game. The situation is not satisfactory, but this sort of comment does not help.

5. Crouch, touch, pause, engage: The sequence was meant to stop the horrible and dangerous crunch of props at the hit. Now, the touch is derisory, props stand back out of reach and the horrible smash has come back into the game.

Out of reach? Not in the games I watch.

6. Obstruction: How many times do you see bulky forwards standing in front of the ball and in front of the rear feet as their scrum-half prepares to dig the ball out. They are offside, they obstruct the defence, and no-one stops them.

True they rarely get penalised, but they often get moved back. The dreaded word "materiality" gets used.

7. Forward pass: Don't worry, the law is in abeyance. May as well stand upfield and get your mate to throw the ball to you.

Does he accept the momentum interpretation, as used by top level referees? It would appear not.

8. No talking to the referee: No, not much. Just 80 minutes of continual bawling, arguing and questioning. Hardly anyone bothers to march them back 10 metres any more.

Hyperbole. And it varies with personality.

9. Rear feet offside: Gone. The offside line is now simply a basis for negotiation. People routinely race up from offside positions, no-one seems to care, and then we wonder what happened to back play and attacking rugby.

Is this a repeat of 6? More exaggeration.

10. Assistant referees: They were meant to help out. Spot things. Like offside, maybe. Now, they are purely for decorative purposes, it seems.

Obviously he has never noticed an AR using his flag.

Saddest thing is - at the lower and mid levels - 13-5
We get panned for missing these - at the top - he is right

But who's to blame - I doubt if the refs getting there have ignored them for years - its the protocols...

Comments?

He is generating argument because that generates publicity and sells papers.
As a rather better writer put it:
"It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

Well, almost nothing.

 

[Davet]

As a rather better writer put it:

Oh, come on, OB! If you want us to guess who it might be you'll have to the narrow the field a bit more than simlpy saying, better than Stephen Jones. Talk about wide open, even Jeffrey Archer would qualify.

 

[SimonSmith]

You no recognize The Bard?

 

[Dixie]

You no recognize The Bard?

From memory, I'd say Act V Scene V lines 30-32

 

[OB..]

Oh, come on, OB! If you want us to guess who it might be you'll have to the narrow the field a bit more than simlpy saying, better than Stephen Jones. Talk about wide open, even Jeffrey Archer would qualify.

:clap: (I wonder if anybody failed to recognise the reference?!)

 

[Ciaran Trainor]

You mean forgotten/ignored by elite referees, the only one I can't penalise for is 10 as I never have a nAR

 

[OB..]

You mean forgotten/ignored by elite referees,

That is still an exaggeration. It serves Jones' purpose, but not ours in understanding how the top referees work.

 

[menace]

True they rarely get penalised, but they often get moved back. The dreaded word "materiality" gets used.

(ahh - all these quotes above my "much younger and less cultured" head (us aussies stick to "There once was a young lady from nantuckett..." as to the extent of our litrature!)


Now - this one gets me..obstruction/offside when the forwards stand next to a ruck...yeah most of the time they have no material affect as the backs have already figured the great oaf is in the way for a pick-and-drive so they go wide and there is no material affect on the opposition.. I'm confused as to why they don't ping them..especially top level as they should know better..geez I'm tempted to ping them every time for getting in my way of seeing the backline move! Though think I'll start with advantage and see what happens after that (and manage the oaf back).

 

[Davet]

Yes, I did recognise oor wullie, but...

 

[SimonSmith]

No. Nononono. This is Oor Wullie





This is your Willie

 

[Lee Lifeson-Peart]

No. Nononono. This is Oor Wullie

I'm away guddlin' trout in the Provost's burn wi Soapy Souter, Fat Bob and Wee Eck.

Help m'boab, crivens, jings it's PC Murdoch and his muckle great feet!

Cheerio - I'm away hame fae mince, tatties and peas - they're braw!

By the way who's Oor Wullie - Never heard of him.

 

[Robert Burns]

He's a good friend of the Broon's twins.