Jury still out on new breakdown laws

 

The game is faster and plenty of tries are being scored but the jury appears to be out around the new breakdown laws. Rugby writer Steve Hepburn talks to some coaches about the changes.

The changes basically eliminate the ability of a defending side to obtain a turnover through a...
The changes basically eliminate the ability of a defending side to obtain a turnover through a player getting in and ripping the ball away. Photo: Getty Images

It is supposed to be about getting cleaner, quicker ball. More tries and more fun. But it is all turning into a feast of fly kicks and head scratching.

Coaches spoken to by the Otago Daily Times over the past couple of days have mixed opinions on the trial laws around the breakdown in the Mitre 10 Cup.

The laws are encouraging a faster game and the ball is being thrown around more, but there is real confusion on the rulings and the loss of structure in the game.

The changes basically eliminate the ability of a defending side to obtain a turnover through a player getting in and ripping the ball away. The tackler has no rights when a breakdown is formed as soon as an attacking player joins the player holding the ball.

It has led to a line of 15 defenders across the field and players attempting to go through the breakdown and kick the ball away from the breakdown.

Otago coach Cory Brown said the most frustrating thing around the laws was the consistency with the way they were being applied.

Cory Brown.
Cory Brown

''We get emails saying this is the way the rule is going to be applied and then in the weekend it does not seem to happen. Or it gets applied a different way,'' Brown said.

''The breakdown has just become messy. You look to counter-ruck and get the ball that way but there are a lot of fly kicks of the ball.''

It was hard to get momentum as a team and get the ball off the attacking team.

Bay of Plenty coach Clayton McMillan said it had made for some entertaining rugby but the breakdown laws were no clearer for the people watching.

''It is a mess at the breakdown. Because things are happening so quickly, defensive lines and attacking structures are not getting into place ... for a lot of people it does not look like rugby at times,'' McMillan said.

''It's all a little untidy. They probably need to tweak it to improve it.''

He said the contest for possession had to come back and the kicking of the ball at the breakdown by defending players had to go.

''Rugby used to be a game which could be played by all shapes and sizes. Under these rules I'm not sure that is the case.''

Manawatu coach Jeremy Cotter backed that thinking up saying there had been positives and negatives from the trial laws.

Injuries were still occurring - they had been introduced to negate injuries from the breakdown.

''It is evolving. But it is hard to ascertain the midpoints [of the breakdown] ... I think they should bring the gate back in as you need to get real alignment,'' Cotter said.

''A lot of teams are getting penalised. They are leaving their feet from the clean-out position and getting pinged. It is very hard to get a turnover.''

He had fears for where the game was headed, especially after watching the match between Waikato and Counties-Manukau last Friday, when both sides fielded hefty forward packs.

''That game in my opinion is the brand of rugby I would not like to be encouraged. Where it is all about the game line. Some big tanks run it up and it is very hard to get the ball off them.''

Many teams have done away with quick lightweight openside flankers, preferring bigger loose forwards, as speed to the breakdown is no longer important with turnovers impossible to get.

North Harbour coach Steve Jackson said he had adjusted to the laws which all teams had to do. He felt interpretations were different from referees, and assistant referees could do more from the sideline.

The game was faster, Jackson said and players had to be fitter.

Northland coach Richie Harris said it was a no-brainer changes were made at the breakdown.

''It is a step in the right direction. The game was getting very brutal at the breakdown with the way players were taken out. And, dare I say it, the best exponents of it were the All Blacks,'' Harris said.

''It was mindless and dangerous and no parent will want to put their child into a game like that.''

Harris felt there was still a place for the jackler - the player who comes in to grab the ball when it is on the ground - and the laws needed to be changed to reflect that.

Wellington coach Earl Va'a said the positives around the new laws was the game was becoming a faster, physical contest which suited New Zealand.

There were fewer injuries at the breakdown, he said.

But there was the concern about the fly kicking of the ball, which could soon lead to someone being kicked in the head.

The laws will be reviewed at the end of the season and it will be then up to World Rugby to make a decision on whether they will be more extensively trialled next year.

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