Six Nations 2015

Greg Hook

Any examples of where you thought it was poor?

I ask out of genuine interest as I've got more into Rugby over the last couple of years as I watch and follow the best team in the country but I still am yet to understand a lot of what goes on!

PU6HY

England prob will get stronger. Wouldn't write us off just yet though. When we get good, for some reason we stop throwing the ball about and keep using the forwards and kicking the ball away. We get worse then start throwing the ball about more and get better again. Rinse and repeat.

Tom1986

I don't know exactly where the OP thought the poor officiating was, but I can take a shot at the following which is regular game in, game out:

Not straight at the line outNot straight put ins to the scrums (this has been a problem for years, and won't change)Players off their feet at the breakdown (ie. not supporting their own bodyweight) and winning the penalty, only Owens (who I'm not a huge fan of btw) seems to penalise this correctly at the momentAnd don't even get me started on the choke tackle - but that is the law, I just can't stand the way that players can just lie all over the ball after a maul goes to ground because of the "choke tackle". I believe players should still have to roll away, but them's the laws at the moment....

Tom1986

Would never write Wales off mate (unfortunately....)

mentasm

Inconsistent interpretation at the breakdown and scrum, failure to penalise hands in the scrum for the opening try, crooked throws at most of the Welsh line-outs, the touch judge deciding that the ball was carried back in when Brown kicked it all the way into the Welsh 22 (when it clearly wasn't). The only reason that the Atwood try was disallowed was because Edwards made a stink about it in the build up. Pretty much every top team in world rugby runs those lines of borderline obstruction, and the ref had a clear view of it and didn't have a problem until the TMO intervened. There were a number of examples of similar lines of running in the games today that weren't penalised.

To be honest I think the standard of officiating is pretty poor across the board at the moment. Every little thing is now referred to the TMO instead of the refs just making the calls themselves. The modern scrum is also a joke. Refs generally don't have a clue who's at fault so they just penalise based on 'perception'.

Greg Hook

I understand what you mean by the first two, but can you explain the third one to a noob? I'm still getting to grips with the terminology.

Amph

Early days yet but I too feel that maybe the better teams have us figured out. For a spell a few years back no-one could match our forwards and as such they'd tie up opposition players whilst recycling the ball quickly, allowing the runners to do their business and show some of the flair. These days the likes of Cuthbert, North, Williams et al are not getting the protection and space  they need to do what they're capable of. We scrambled in defence reasonably well but I worry that teams may know how to stifle us. Who knows where we go.

Thought Biggar played well.

paul_warren

Faletau as the no 8 is perfectly entitled to pick up the ball in a scrum fella. The taken back was a marginal call which happen all the time in rugby at each breakdown etc.

Tom1986

Hi mate, sure.

Basically once a player goes to ground with the ball, the opposition can compete for the ball. To compete, they must stay legal. The way to stay legal is to stay on their feet over the ball, they must support their own body weight. In other words, they cannot 'flop' straight over the ball off their feet, and they cannot support their weight by, for instance, by going past the ball and supporting their weight by putting their elbows on the floor.

It's the second instance which is not being policed that effectively recently. Opposing players are going over the ball, but they are going past the ball and placing their elbows on the floor to support their weight.

They should stay on their feet and compete for the ball.

The rules actually state:

"After a tackle, all other players must be on their feet when they play the ball. Players are on their feet if no other part of their body is supported by the ground or players on the ground."

Does that make ANY sense?

I don't think that's technically true? The number 8 cannot pick the ball up from the feet of the second row I don't think? He must have it at his feet before he can pick it up. It's the same that a scrum half cannot 'reach' into the scrum to get the ball.

Greg Hook

Perfect thanks for that. One more question, could you confirm the rule on who gets the line out when players kick the ball out? Sometimes I see a team kick the ball out and they get the line out and other times the other team gets it. No idea why that is!