How I'd cut down on a blight in modern game

WHAT is happening to our game? There were plenty of cheers for Ulster hooker Tom Stewart as he made it back-to-back hat-tricks with his three-try salvo against the Dragons on Friday night. It was a performance that took his league try tally in the URC this season to a record 16, overtaking the previous highest of 14 by wings Tim Visser and Rabz Maxwane.

Now, this isn’t just a rant from a disgruntled ex-winger, but it seems to me that the professional game is being dominated by driving lineout mauls and that far too many tries are coming from this highly technical phase of play.

But when you strip it back, do you really want to be watching matches in which the kick to the corner, and the inevitable drive for the line, is the most dominant technical and tactical objective. Quite frankly, I’m sick of it!

Fans are crying out for more entertainment for the increasing sums of money they are spending to watch professional rugby. They want to see the ball being thrown around, not stuffed up the jumper by the big fellas who then flex their muscles in a squeeze for the line. Back in the early days of rugby there used to be giant mauls, some of which went on for minutes. It looks like we have reverted back to those boring days.

So, here is a plan to change the laws to try to cut down on this blight on the modern game. It was back in the late Sixties that the biggest, and arguably the best law reform was introduced by the then IRB. Aussie inspired, this outlawed kicking directly to touch from outside your 22. Soon the game was transformed. We now have the chance to do the same thing today. Instead of allowing a team to kick to touch from a penalty and get the lineout all over the field, you simply change the law to read ‘no penalty kicked to touch from inside the opposition half will earn a throw-in to the team kicking to touch’.