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Low frills Premiership return encapsulated by excessive 148 penalty count across five matches
Rugby in England has got off to a rather muted start following its 23-week coronavirus pandemic lockdown, an excessively high penalty count – 148 penalties across the five Gallagher Premiership matches so far in round 14 – illustrating the stop-start nature of the restart proceedings.
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The hopes surrounding the long-awaited restart was for stars such as new Sale signing Manu Tuilagi and new Bristol recruit Semi Radradra to light up the Premiership action.
However, moments of off-your-seat action were at a premium, limited to the incidents such as the sweet Exeter try finished by Stuart Hogg versus Leicester and the 80-metre intercept dart by Bath’s Ben Spencer versus London Irish.
Instead, the top-flight restart became bogged down by the renewed emphasis which the referees in England placed on certain facets on the game, namely the breakdown.
This sterner policing, allied to the general rustiness of the teams, resulted in the awarding of 148 penalties in the five matches, Leicester and Bristol being the biggest Premiership offenders as they each conceded 22 penalties in games which featured a respective weekend high of 36 and 35 penalties.
? Instant impact Ben Spencer ?
Arch-poaching from the new @bathrugby No.9 – with just a little bit of pace to boot ?????#RugbyRestart pic.twitter.com/J1ULpZ7YHL
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) August 15, 2020
The increase was reflective of what happened when Super Rugby initially made its return in New Zealand in June, 60 penalties being awarded in its two opening weekend matches.
By round three, that count in Aotearoa had fallen to just 30 in their two matches and a similar decrease will now be desired in the Premiership to help improve the flow of the action after the league’s resumption following its five-month stoppage.
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The curious thing about the number of infringements in England was that the match which produced the fewest penalties – Worcester vs Gloucester at Sixways – saw the weekend’s sole red card, Melani Nanai sent off for his 18th-minute collision with Jonny May.
ROUND 14 PREMIERSHIP PENALTY COUNT
36 penalties at Ashton Gate – Bristol 22 Saracens 14
35 at Sandy Park – Exeter 13 Leicester 22
28 at The Rec – Bath 15 London Irish 13
27 at The Stoop – Harlequins 11 Sale 16
22 at Sixways – Worcester 12 Gloucester 10
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Try or no try…what do we think? ?
A very tight call against Bristol Bears – not in doubt is that spellbinding finish from Luke Morahan ???#RugbyRestart pic.twitter.com/dS1rUs3GA6
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) August 15, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments