League v Union stuff

Not at all. You see it heaps where players hit the ball to prevent the pass from being completed. Penalising it is crazy.

 

I find it a bit hypocritical that a load of the league supporters whine about Union not being expansive enough, using the overlaps etc then when a rule which is clearly in place to stop teams from preventing the attackers to utilise their outside men, you say 'WTF'.

I think the fact that in Union the defence is so much closer to the attacking side to begin with there is much more opportunity for the defenders to purposefully knock the ball to the floor, therefore to keep the game more open and fluid you aren't allowed to do it. Else it would be a far scrappier affair than it already is!

 

Exactly, it's simply a case of horses for courses.

I've got a question about league, when it comes to 40 20's, will teams on the last tackle near the 40 ever purposefully stay inside to take the chance, and, how often do they occur? I don't seem to notice many. Surely if you had a gun kicker you would just constantly go for them? Even if you only got 1 in 3 your chances of scoring off it would be high and worst comes to worst they'll have a goal-line drop out.

 

Typical SH arrogance, in all honesty everyone knows the Super 14s attacking rugby is really top notch, but the defence can be woeful. I would put money on the fact that there are more mistackles in a Super 14 match than any Guinness Premiership or Henieken Cup game, and that is not simply because the attacking is better, they miss tackles everywhere, round the fringes out wide through the middle. I've genuinely sat down with my family and watched some really good quality super 14 matches with superb passages of play were we have laughed out loud at points when watching the defence.

 

Right, that makes a lot of sense. In fact, I don't even know why I asked it now, seems extremely obvious! Thanks anyway.

 

Yeah, that's true. Also, with Union scrums being more even, I could imagine a lot more players doing it with the better chance of getting the ball back.

I wasn't actually having a dig at Union, just didn't see the logic behind penalising a knock on.

 

Agreed, but that wasn't the point he was making. No-one in their right mind would ever say the SA AUS and the AB's can't defend! But super 15 rugby the overall standard is abysmal.