Sealing off

Tim Robbins

Hi,
Interested in getting people's thought on this.
IRB have instructed refs to stop attacking teams sealing the ball off. You used to see the 2nd or 3rd or 4th attacking player at a ruck, put their body weight on their hands - sort of leaning forward.

This was illegal but refs let them away with because the ball was coming back and it was letting play continue.

However, some teams took it to extremes and it meant the ruck wasn't a contest. Now it's quite hard to protect the ball at the ruck legally i.e. stay on your feet, so the way I see it panning out will mean that rucks will be much quicker. You used to see a SH take his time taking ball out of the ruck, but now he'll just have to be much quicker as the attacking team can't protect the ball as easily as they used to.

My tactical suggestion would be for attacking teams to speed up their rucking and get used to playing that way.

Any comments?

Inquitus

Sealing off is easier and safer than quick ruck ball, some refs are reffing it no differently to how they did last year despite the prompting of the IRB. Unless the refs start to apply the law as its intended then sealing off will continue.

Last nights game between the Ospreys and the Blues had less sealing off than other games I have seen so far this season, the ref reffed it very inconsistently, didn't seem to pick up even some of the most blatant cheating and the rucks turned into a bit of a free for all, in the first half especially this resulted in a very fractured game which was no spectacle whatsoever.

Anyways I digress, the only people who can ensure rucks are operating as intended are the Refs, and in alot of cases I wonder if they have the skills to do so. We have seen some appalling ref'ing at the breakdown both in the Tri-Nations and the start of the NH Season, and I don't think your vision of ruckplay above Tim, which is probably what the law intends, will come to pass unless something is done about the Stds of the refs.

Inq

dub_skav

Sealing off only really applies for the first or second man to arrive. Once the ball is at the back, i.e. ready for the SH to take out, then the ball can be quite well protected perfectly legally.
What will now need to happen is a lot more offloading in the tackle or for the first man to arrive to be very strong holding off defenders until help arrives.

It just means that the attacking team need to commit more to a ruck where before you only needed to commit the sealer and maybe 1 clean up man just in case.

Well that's my take anyway

Stev_o

Iv been playing under these new rules our coach is a ref aswell so he doesnt miss much and is stressing the importance of staying on your feet.

The problems faced though are that there will be players who instinctively bridge (legally) but then get some fecking prop coming in from behind and pushing them in further into the ruck when its all ready secured, ref blows for sealing off :mad: (yes this happened to me alot =P)

Your are ref Tim so it depends on how you interpret the laws, for example im a bridger always have been always will be but i try hard to legally bridge by now having my ass in the air and hands on the ground ill just be very low with my hands on the tackled player (Imagine if you were doing a press up of a bench maybe) now as far as im aware thats legally but iv been blown up for sealing for that!

I think though that people are just generally being lazy and are being coached wrong as to what to do when tackled. I see loads and loads of people just put the ball right beside them like a inch away from their body and thats just plain lazy. Its all about body position when your tackled you gotta try either turn so your head is facing your goal line so you can place the ball the furtherest or just simply stretching your arms out moving the ball away furtherest from the contact area. This whole business of just leaving the ball right beside you this year will result in turn overs galore.

Tim Robbins

Stev_o wrote: »

Your are ref Tim so it depends on how you interpret the laws, for example im a bridger always have been always will be but i try hard to legally bridge by now having my ass in the air and hands on the ground ill just be very low with my hands on the tackled player (Imagine if you were doing a press up of a bench maybe) now as far as im aware thats legally but iv been blown up for sealing for that!

You've got to (or make it look like) you are supporting your weight with your feet. IMO that can't be done without bending your legs someway.

There's alot of shades of grey in all this.

Sundy

Basically what the IRB want to do is stamp out the likes of what munster did for the last 5 minutes of the HEC final. This can be done by enforcing the Law which states you much stay on your feet in a ruck. Anything else should be a straight penalty especially diving in straight off your feet.

Personaly i dont think refs have the bottle to enforce this as it happens at nearly every ruck.

Tim Robbins

Sundy wrote: »

Personaly i dont think refs have the bottle to enforce this as it happens at nearly every ruck.

Basically,as a ref, what I'd be looking for is a contest: if the player clearly does not have his weight on his feet and is preventing a contest, he'll be pinged.

If the captain complains, I'll suggest if they speed up their rucking they won't need to seal off.

As a player, I'd be looking at the first few rucks to see how strict the ref is.

Definetly shades of grey in this one, but the entire breakdown has shades of grey.

As a coach, I know this sounds daft, but I'd try to organise the team so they have numbers on the jersey. When the ref is trying to communicate, it's much easier to have effective communication when a ref can pin point players easily.

"6 and 4 you need to do ..."

Inevitably what happens when teams don't have numbers, the ref can't pin point players and they players aren't 100% sure what's going on.

Once players get effective communication, they usually adjust much quicker and you get a much better game.

[Jackass]

You'd need a very quick scrum half and super fit if this was to be enforced. I hate teams killing off possesion like that and bringing it through the phases endlessly though, so I'm all for it! If you're playing rugby, then PLAY RUGBY!

Tim Robbins

[Jackass] wrote: »

You'd need a very quick scrum half and super fit if this was to be enforced. I hate teams killing off possesion like that and bringing it through the phases endlessly though, so I'm all for it! If you're playing rugby, then PLAY RUGBY!

Exactly, how much skill is there in one pass - take hit - set up, one pass - take hit - set up,one pass - take hit - set up,one pass - take hit - set up, one pass - take hit - set up,one pass - take hit - set up.

If ruck ball isn't guarenteed 10 times in a row, teams will offload more or try to get more line breaks rather than crash and set up.

So I am with 100% Jackass.

Inquitus

We play rugby in the Winter and in bad weather, playing around the fringes has its place in the game, we should not artificially try and make the game prettier to look at. In driving rain playing a high tempo, quick ruck game spinning it wide is likely to be suicidal. Playing into a Gale, again a time where controlled possession and pick and go round the fringes is essential.

Taking it through the phases around the fringes also sucks in defenders creating opportunities out wide.

The Super 14 for all its quick ruck ball was a joke this year, is that what we want?