Steve Hansen

[The Fat]

Says he wants the IRB to simplify rugby.
Didn't that happen in 1908? I think they called it Rugby League.

 

[Ian_Cook]

Says he wants the IRB to simplify rugby.
Didn't that happen in 1908? I think they called it Rugby League.

"Simplifying" is not the same as "dumbing down" :biggrin:


[SUB]*** I'll just close the door on my way out......[/SUB]


But seriously, I have a lot of sympathy for what Hansen says, especially the bit I have emphasised

"Hansen said the referees’ task was made harder because rules could be interpreted differently between their home nation, the northern/southern hemispheres and the IRB.“If they’ve got three different ideas you’ve got three different messages coming at you and I think that’s difficult,” he said.
Hansen suggested the IRB take responsibility for hiring a panel of top referees and touch judges, who could then officiate at all Test matches.

“I’d like them to employ the top 10 refs and get them to do all the games, that way they’d become better and more consistent,” he said.
“Give them two touch judges for the year and say ‘that’s your team, we’ll judge you as a team’.”

All of us here know that we have thrashed out interpretations of Law scenarios on this very forum, with time to go over and over scenarios and we still cannot agree. FFS it took over 60 years for the iRB set finally settle The Great Forward Pass Debate

Some people say that the uncertainly is what gives the game its charm. Poppycocok I say!! Inconsistency in law application is a pain in the arse, and the game's greatest drawback

 

[Lee Lifeson-Peart]

Says he wants the IRB to simplify rugby.
Didn't that happen in 1908? I think they called it Rugby League.

According Wikipedia RL (NRFU) was evolving from 1895.

Play the ball was 1906.

SH is right, I believe, but with him I always get the impression if he wasn't the AB coach he wouldn't be that bothered.

I wish it was simpler to referee/follow.

 

[4eyesbetter]

1908 is when the game found its way down under, so that's the date they use. Kind of like how Americans think the Second World War started in 1941.

 

[Lee Lifeson-Peart]

During the War (WWII) when RL and RU players were allowed to play together (temporarily) what did they play? I assume it would be RU.

When I think about what I like about both codes and what could each contribute to a hybrid game I always come to the conclusion that if RU players didn't cheat so much RU has all the ready made attributes to be a better game to watch - it just isn't on lots of occasoions.

Perhaps if we'd encouraged RL super fitness and size and not imported RL know how in organising defences we'd have a game we could enjoy more - apart from it being 83-57 every game?

I would give gain in ground for FK (not the throw)

Points T-C-P-DG as 4-2-2-1

Stop Scrum option for FK and PK

Clean up Law 19 for touch.

All that above is just tinkering however I cannot think how to free up the tackle/ruck area to get quick ball however I'd like to watch developments.

It is hard - as all the variations from Stellenbosch and thereafter showed - and cleverer people than me (yes there are some :biggrinhave not come up with a universally satisfactory solution (is there such a thing?) IMO.

RU is spoilt/exploited by cheating.

 

[irishref]

Isn't this why NH refs are doing Rugby Championship games, SH refs doing 6Nations games and we even have the RFU and Pro12 refs doing Top14 games?

What Hansen fails to mention is that NH coaches wouldn't agree that the divide is as simple as NH v SH. I doubt South African domestic refs feel the game is the same at home as it is in Aus or NZ.

Just more hot air I think - coaches seem quick to bemoan aspects of how games are officiated but rarely state how their negative tactics or game style could alter perspectives as well.

 

[crossref]

During the War (WWII) when RL and RU players were allowed to play together (temporarily) what did they play? I assume it would be RU.
.

i think it merely meant that a RU player could play in a RL match without sanction, and a RU club could pick a professional RL player without sanction.

Wikipedia adds --

During the Second World War, the British government took a more benign view of professional sports, viewing them as a vital aid to public morale. Although normal leagues were suspended, a War Emergency League was established, with clubs playing separate Yorkshire and Lancashire sections to reduce the need for travel. This period also saw a temporary relaxation of the regulations prohibiting rugby union players from contact with rugby league. In an extraordinary development a team representing rugby league met a rugby union equivalent in two matches, held to raise money for the Red Cross. Both games were held under rugby union rules; both were won by the rugby league side.

In Australia, the war years produced large crowds, and financially at least, the sport did not suffer the hardships endured during the First World War. Nonetheless, the loss of many young men in fighting undoubtedly weakened the talent pool available.

The defeat of France had serious implications for rugby league in France. The Vichy regime banned rugby league and forced players, clubs and officials to switch codes to union. Assets of the rugby league and its clubs were handed over to union.

The consequences of this action reverberate to this day; the assets were never returned, and although the ban on rugby league was lifted, it was prevented from calling itself rugby from 1949 to the mid-1980s, having to use the name Jeu à Treize (Game of Thirteen, in reference to the number of player in a rugby league side).