Bring Back Rucking - You Know I Makes Sense

WARNING – I am going to clamber aboard my favourite hobby horse here, but, after the latest outbreak of English rule waiving art Twickenham on Saturday, and the disgraceful failure of the Italian citing commissioner to take retrospective action on Owen Farrell and Manu Tuilagi after their assaults on Darcy Graham and Sam Johnson – we have no option but to BRING BACK REAL RUCKING.

Owen Farrell

I am utterly convinced, if the likes of Farrell and Tuilagi thought for a second – always assuming Farrell is capable of rational thought – they might end up at the foot of a ruck with a Scotland pack going forward towards them, they would be a bit more circumspect in their tackling.

Back in the day, when “a guid shoein'” was a rite of passage, we never worried about TMOs or citing officers sorting-out the thugs, justice was meted-out in the rucks. Now, I am not saying everything was scrupulously clean back then. Yes, there were a few head-kickers around, but, they either, fairly-quickly, learnt – either the easy way or the hard way – not to do this, or they simply did not get selected.

Sure we had really bad incidents back then, such as the notorious John Ashworth stamp on JPR Williams in a Bridgend v All Blacks match, but, with today's all-seeing cameras and the stricter application of rules on dealing with such behaviour – if it happened today, Ashworth would be on the first flight back to New Zealand – well, maybe not if Ben Skeen was the TMO.

When a defender gets into the “jackaling” position, even if he does it properly – he is extremely vulnerable to injury as attackers arrive at pace to clean him out. Of course, far too often, they arrive illegally, making no effort to remain on their feet, simply flying in to take-out the jackaller. With real rucking, they would have to remain on their feet, because the referees would be required to properly enforce a Law they far too-often ignore today.

If playing the ball with the foot at the ruck became the norm, and was properly policed, players would never be in the vulnerable jackal position. Also, this other ruck obscenity, where players on either side deliberately pin down an opponent, thereby cluttering-up the breakdown, a swift application or two would deter most such miscreants.

That said, there will always, I suppose, be players such as Jim Telfer or David Leslie who, once they get in there where they should not be, can only be moved by judiciously-placed explosive charges – but, as with these two, there are exceptions to every Law.

Another potential benefit of a return to real rucking, would, I feel sure, be greater space in midfield. It was always said that the great Otago packs – Otago being the place where rucking was invented, hit the ruck in such a manner, you could have thrown a table cloth over the entire pack. With proper rucking, sides go in mob-handed, so, the opposition needs numbers to try to counter them.

This immediately takes all those big lumps, holding a defencive line in midfield, out of the picture, there is more space for the backs to run into. Also, as everyone who has ever played in a game with real rucking could tell today's law-makers: real rucking produces faster ball, making for a more-enjoyable game, both to play and watch.

Of course, there would surely be some of the elf n safety brigade objecting to seeing grounded players being walked over. I've been walked over, frequently, you have forgotten the immediate and temporary pain by the end of the game.

Be brutal and unforgiving to the head-kickers, to get rid of them, but, allow rucking, and we would, I am certain, see a better game.n

SOME credit it to William Randolph Hearst, others to George Orwell, let's not argue, however, whoever said (something like): “News is something someone doesn't want publicised, everything else is advertising,” knew what they were talking about.

Well, anyone who has been following this blog for any length of time will know, I have long been dismissive of the efforts of the SRU's Media Department to differentiate between news and advertising, and be any good at either discipline.

So, sadly I must advise you, “Buddy” Horler and his elves have dropped the ball again. Last week, on 14 March to be exact, they posted a news story on the SRU website, one I only found by chance this morning, which to my mind deserves greater exposure – which it would surely have got had they put-out a proper press release.

Any way, it transpires, the SRU is holding a Youth Rugby summit, at The Emirates Arena, across from the “San Giro” in the East End of Glasgow, on Friday, 10 May. The event will run from 9.30am until 3.30pm, and, in the news story on the website, SRU Head of Training Education Neil Graham is quoted as saying: “We are hoping for over 100 people to attend from throughout the country, in what should be an excellent day all round.”

There is a link to the list of speakers, and here again, Buddy and the Elves missed a trick. In the news story, they highlight: Richard Cheetham MBE, a Senior Fellow in Sports Coaching at University of Winchester, and Claire Cruikshank, Head of Performance Sport at Edinburgh University.

 Ben Ryan - always worth hearing

Now both these speakers may well be very good in their field and will, I am sure, give excellent presentations. However, the guy who is speaking, who I would have flagged-up as being worth hearing is former Fiji Sevens Coach Ben Ryan. Now, he is worth hearing.

Also, to be looking for an attendance of over 100 at the day, full details of which are on the website at: https://youth-rugby-summit-2019.eventbrite.co.uk

well, to me that's totally under-selling it. The SRU ought to be making more of this event, and moving heaven and earth to get every rugby-playing school and every club offering youth rugby, to send someone along.