Rugby 101 - Know your rucks from your mauls!

This is explicitly covered in law by 8.20.

Side note, you said 90 seconds. That's a conversion. A penalty is 60 seconds.

Anyway,

Like all laws in rugby, it's open to interpretation what the referee considers 'a kick at goal'. Referees aren't mindless machines, and in the case of a match with only a few seconds left, I think most referees would see through this and award a scrum to the opposition team.

The same applies at a restart kick. You can't just kick the ball out of play or not ten, thinking it'll cause a scrum and the match will be over. Or at a lineout, if time expires in between when the ball went out and when the throw is taken. A team that wants the game to end could throw the ball crooked on purpose to cause a scrum. But the scrum will still take place, even though time is up for exactly this reason.

Has to be a genuine attempt at goal. Penalty against the team kicking thr goal if officials deem it not a genuine attempt

Cian Healy would have to have been listed as a possible hooker option. Didn't just say, 'I did that before'.

The sanction here is a scrum, not a penalty. Here's a video of it happening in a ProD2 match.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxW2xyMVJTY

The story I've heard is that ever since Italy ended up down to 13 because of a red card and an injury to a hooker, Ireland have been listing their front rows as being able to play all possible positions they're in any way capable of playing, just in case.

I don't know if every prop can drop in at hooker though at a high level. I've seen the official forms from all provinces over the last season or two and they aren't listing all front rows as LH, TH, H capable. Likewise they're not listing all props as TH/LH. There are still definitely specialists in all positions. I think they're just more likely to list it down if someone does have some experience.

Law change suggestion - scrum against if a player on the attacking team joins the ruck after the ref calls "use it".

Also, option for the ref to yellow card during phase play. Won't always be possible, but if a side needs 4 points or more at end of game (for example) he could roar at a specific number to leave the field. Would make it easier for the attacking team. Ref could give pen try if it's ignored.

Agree with something to be done about players joining the ruck, especially, if they're only there to extend the length of the ruck

Wouldn't agree with your second point at all.

Lots of changes coming possibly but at least dealing with 'use it' and the caterpillar:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/mar/19/world-rugby-plans-speed-up-sport-broaden-appeal

the decision in yesterday's game to come back for the scrum after a knock on was kicked away by james Lowe and went dead.

What are people take on it? My understanding until yesterday was as soon as you put boot to ball in knock-on advantage then its advantage over

What about the knock on by Leinster off the LAR kick that didn't go 10. Surely should have been a scrum for not going 10?

If a restart doesn't go 10 but the opposition play it, it's deemed ok. So the scrum for the knock on was the correct decision

I personally though this was strange too. But I was doing something else while watching and didn't get a good luck at Lowe while he kicked. Was he under pressure from a defender?

If the player gets a chance to kick the ball, and isn't under severe pressure, that's advantage over for me.

If the player snatches at a kick under pressure and makes a hames of it, I'd bring it back for a scrum.

Law 7.1.a says that advantage "May be tactical. The non-offending team is free to play the ball as they wish.". Kicking while not under pressure would come under that definition for me.

You can also ask the kicking off team to take the kick again actually. And if a kick-off goes straight into touch, you can opt for a line out on the half-way line rather than a scrum - long while since I saw someone opt for the line-out option by the way - and that includes taking a quick throw-in.

This was never a problem until they added the shot clock. They wanted to clarify things because some players like Sexton used to take quite a while. 89 seconds feels like a very long time when you can't see a shot clock so the crowd start jeering the player, even though he's within his time.

But what happened was that now players know exactly how much time they can take and so every player is taking every second they can. So it's actually made the delay worse. They traded a minor problem for a bigger one.

When a player is tackled into touch with the ball, how long does he have to release it? I think players who don’t release it instantly should be penalised.

We’ve all seen situations where a player was able to prevent a rapid throw in by simply holding on to the ball. There needs to be a provision to stop that happening with appropriate punishment like a penalty.

Law 9.6 - "A player must not obstruct, or in any way interfere with an opponent while the ball is dead."

Sanction is a penalty and I would suggest this covers the scenario you've described

You don't need to penalise all those times a quick throw might be attempted. More often than not a lineout is formed so quick throw couldn't even happen anyway. It can't be a straight yes or no in terms of ref counting to 3 and then giving a penalty