Stephen Jones, in his Rolling Maul blog for The Times, believes that referees need to take responsibility for the mess at the breakdown.
"Warren Gatland was quoted last week attacking the Guinness Premiership for standards of play. He had a point, although he was standing in quicksand when he made it because the Magners League match on Friday between the Scarlets and the Dragons was one of the worst matches I have ever seen in the professional era. But the problem is across the game, not just in one competition or another. The problem is the breakdown. It is killing rugby, it is destroying the flow, it is boring the pants off everyone.
"Last Saturday's London Irish-Leicester match should have been one of the best of the season, but instead it was a whole pile of stodge with players off their feet at the breakdown and a total lack of dynamism in the rucks and mauls.
"When is the International Rugby Board going to do something about it? Let us look at the lowlights. You see the ball emerging at the back of a ruck and just for a delicious second, you are anticipating quick ball. No such luck. The scrum-half has no intention of whipping it away. So he usually calls in lurking forwards to extend the ruck. Either that, or he orders a small group of forwards to stand a few yards to the side of the ruck, then they charge mindlessly up the field to set up another one."
RSS feed
