Field Theory by Hadyn Green

The first law is really necessary to prevent teams winding the clock down at the end of a game by letting the ball sit at the back of a ruck for 10, 20 seconds, then organise their entire team as though they are about to invade Normandy, before repeating this for 3-4 minutes.

Not sure how rigorously it will be enforced though because the refs have a lot on their mind at ruck time without counting to 5 in their head. Or are the TMO's going to be doing the counting and radioing in their ear telling them 5 seconds is up???

This one won't work though if they are using it for forward passes: 1. A trial to extend the jurisdiction of the TMO to incidents within the field of play that have led to the scoring of a try and foul play in the field of play to take place at an appropriate elite competition in order that a protocol can be developed for the November 2012 Tests.

--- They had it in the NRL years ago but it was so difficult to tell if the ball had floated forward especially on longer passes that the video ref would look for ages and then make a call that half the people watching would disagree with. And to be honest a HUGE number of 'fantastic' tries which featured several passes in a length of the field movement probably have one or two passes that look forward if you slow things down so would they call all them back?

Best to just leave them to the touchies and the ref.

Fair enough to speed up the delivery from the back of the ruck (but if winding down the clock won't they just keep the ball in the ruck, rather than make it available for the halfback?) but why not make an effort to get teh friggin scrums right?

The scrums are the single biggest blight on the game at the moment (MHO, of course) and I don't want them to get rid of scrums as they are an important part of the game, but the CTPE nonsense and the exaggeration of the hit are making it a laughing stock.

That's the area they should have targetted...

Fans may be allowed to throw the ball in if they catch it and are wearing an official replica team jersey.

Haha So thats how they intend to recoup loses...

@ Stewart. If they keep the ball IN the ruck longer then the ref blows it up and it's either a turn over or else they get to have the put in to the scrum if the ref deems the ball was trapped in the ruck by the tackle. But for all intents and purposes a team will have to get the ball to the back of the ruck and clear it fairly promptly which is as it should be.

The scrums are a joke though. I reckon they could depower them A BIT. As you point out the 'hit' is the stupid bit that causes all the problems.

They should just make it that you engage in a controlled fashion, get your grips in the right place, head in the right place etc, and cannot push UNTIL the ball goes in. I don't get why teams are trying to smash each other on the hit and work each other over before the ruddy ball has even gone in. It leads to collapsing scrums, and free kicks and penalties all the time. And for what?

Players get penalised for dropping their binds and putting their hand on the ground to prevent going into it head first. So for trying to protect your head and neck you get penalised?!

Scrums should be a way of starting the game. They only need to make sure there is a fair contest for the ball with it put in down the middle and with teams pushing from when this happens. Not before.

So for trying to protect your head and neck you get penalised?!

Putting your hand on the ground unbinds that part of the scrum and drops your shoulder, which requires everyone to back off or else collapse the scum. If anything it’s a means of driving your opponent’s head down first. The safest thing to do is stay bound, as it’s more likely everyone can recover from whatever is happening.

The dick with his hand on the ground is cheating in a way that is dangerous to himself and others.

Oh, and yes, it would be easier to bind without the hit. You can still put the pressure on immediately after coming together. Rather than touch-crouch-pause-engage, it could be touch-crouch-engage-push (moving past contact point before "push" being called is then a penalty offence).