The motives behind the ELVs were genuine, but the outcome spectacularly unsuccessful according to Wynne Gray in the New Zealand Herald.
"Rugby lost its way and a fair chunk of its soul when rucking was eliminated. The dynamic attacking action which encouraged continuity was considered too dangerous, both for players caught lying near the ball and in the battle for parental approval.
"The game became even more emasculated when the ELVs arrived and with them an obsessive desire to speed the game up with free kicks. Some ideas had merit like the 5m gap behind scrums and players not being allowed to kick the ball out on the full outside the 22m line.
"However, the greatest crime was reducing rucks to some sort of scrabblefest while the referee resembled someone blindfolded at a children's party trying to pin the tail on the donkey. Add to that approval for a minority of defenders to pull down rolling mauls and the game quickly lost its mojo and many of the facets which delivered its uniqueness."
RSS feed
