Play the Ball

[Disgruntled lion]

There is a practice that is used by all clubs when there is a play the ball: The tackler takes the man with the ball down and then his team mates hold him down,at times there have been 3 tacklers holding a man down,this slows the game down,in fact some of the rucks in Rugby Union are faster that Leagues play the ball. The game gets held up for about 2 seconds at every play the ball. The rules say that the tackler should roll away to allow the man with the the ball to get up.this does not happen.the refferees only have to start penalising players and this practice will stop.How fast would RL be then?

[latchford albion]

Interesting first post.  99 to go?

[johnh1]

I've never seen a rugby union ruck take less than 2 seconds.

[jannerboyuk]

Too fast

[Bearman]

It's not a problem

My team don't slow the PTB at all, whilst the opposition always lie on too long.

The referee judges the " problem" and then usually gets it wrong by not pinging them for their blatant lying on and then goes and penalises us when our player is being held down by their thug.

That apart, as I said there isn't really a problem.

I do however, have a bit of a gripe about not playing the ball with the foot. I think the latest interpretation is its ok if the player waves his foot near the ball. If the rule says play it with the foot I think they should but I'm not over precious about it.

[CrushersForever]

Check YouTube for any game from the 1997 Australian Super League season to see how idiotic the game gets when everything is sacrificed at the altar of fast play the balls.

[John Rhino]

There is a practice that is used by all clubs when there is a play the ball: The tackler takes the man with the ball down and then his team mates hold him down,at times there have been 3 tacklers holding a man down,this slows the game down,in fact some of the rucks in Rugby Union are faster that Leagues play the ball. The game gets held up for about 2 seconds at every play the ball. The rules say that the tackler should roll away to allow the man with the the ball to get up.this does not happen.the refferees only have to start penalising players and this practice will stop.How fast would RL be then?

I think in truth if there is only one defender in the tackle the ref will allow a two second hold down. Two others make little difference as long as they are not silly about it.

Refs are sensible people and recognise that no human on earth can run around at 90 miles an hour for eighty minutes.