The Irish Independent's Hugh Farrelly has been getting up early to watch some Super 14 rugby and he doesn't like what he sees.
"Watching the Super 14 this season has required frequent use of the fast-forward button (God bless Sky-plus) and numerous cans of Red Bull to keep eyelids from drooping. With the new tackle interpretations, ruck turnovers have become a relic of the past in the Super 14, the best a defending side can hope for is that the tackled player lacks support and is forced to concede the penalty for holding on.
"Teams rarely commit more than three players to the breakdown -- the tackler by necessity and one or two others attempting to move in on the ball -- hampered by the fact that the referee is poised to penalise the slightest hint of over-enthusiasm. "Tackle assist, must release," was one explanation recently offered for penalising a player who had not made the primary hit but was deemed to be too involved in it to legally contest afterwards. It means 12 to 13 players filling the pitch to resist the next offensive wave, so the attacking team, confident that the ball will come back, goes again, and again, until they get a score or make a mistake.
"In a recent Super 14 game, the Queensland Reds scored four tries against the Sharks but were undone by the South Africans' use of the maul which the Aussies (quelle suprise) could not handle. The maul is part of what rugby union once was. The 'you have a go then we'll have a go' recycling dross of the Super 14 is dragging the game to a recessionary place we really do not want to go. It's called rugby league."
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