Springboks rule the skies as access law leads to more kicking

Kick and kick and kick and repeat - biggest threat to rugby in Australasia as just about everyone under 25 year old rugby follower turns to league. So stupid.

“Kicking ‘for a purpose’ versus kicking ‘to get rid of it’ separated contenders from pretenders.

Theyre the same thing, just those trying to get rid of it now have more purpose. Though if he was to say sides like NZ have neglected their running game to adopt a contestable approach, then yes that would make sense.

With players springing into the air and flailing their arms in a desperate attempt to win the ball back, it would be reasonable to assume that an unwanted by-product of the tighter policing of the access law would be an increase in the number of knock-ons

Wow, woosh. Way to show you have absolutely no understanding of why sides are adopting it. Listen, there has probably always been the availability for this tactic, like with Rassies 8-1 bench, it is just that teams always had too much self respect to use it. It’s easier to slap or tap the ball backwards than it is to catch it, its not very hard to believe.

That said, looking at the stats, that is obviously not what it is saying. Those are just total scrums, for any reason. I thought the 4% number was low, but see in the stats this would be better represented by saying theres now 25% more chance of regathering this year, right?

I thought WR’s new chairman (Brett Robinson) was elected on promises to quicken the game up through promoting running, passing and keeping the ball alive in tackles. The law changes that are now rewarding box kicks (long tailed caterpillar rucks, 9 allowed to be offside at these rucks to move the ball back with his hands, the 5-second rule to speed rucks up only applying once the 9 has dragged the ball to the base of the rucks, the impossibility now to charge down the 9’s kick, no ability to block a chaser etc.) have changed our game. I don’t think it’s for the betterment of rugby, but that’s just my view. It certainly doesn’t align with Robinsons pre-election promises. 93 kicks in the Wales v Italy game this year, 61 in the Eden Park clash between the All Blacks and Springboks mean that tactically, teams spend more time perfecting their box kicking platforms than almost any other part of the game. Maybe I’m a romantic, but the easiest way to provide safety for players contesting box kicks is to change back the laws that are promoting them. Then, we might see some actual innovation on how to play out of defensive zones without kicking the ball away. And, as always, others will copy that!

As I've just commented elsewhere - and agreeing with Andrew below that it's really irritating having all this kicking - the answer is to have an offside line preferably two metres behind the last scrum foot (whether set scrum or loose) so teams will be encouraged to run the ball, which they aren't now because there's no room to manouevre with the opposition defenders way too close. This idea was in fact trialled in NZ 9 years ago but stifled by them because it reduced the chances of turnovers which they admitted was the source of 75% of their tries!

A blight on the game.

It’s against the spirit of the game… we need to remove kicking and scrums.

The kicking game has been a key attacking weapon since 2019 at the very least. And Biggar’s a genius for saying so now.

NH pundits are the worts.

I’m glad we’ve checked that there aren’t more scrums. Everyone can calm down now.

Discuss.

In 2023 England were by far the best team in the world at contesting attacking kicks. Then the media spent a year screeching about how England needed to diversify their attacking approach.

Honestly I think its unclear at this point whether England’s more attacking approach was genuinely believed by Borthwick to be the best approach or if he was just caving to pressure. Either way, hopefully he’ll get back to basics in 2026!

And it's done the opposite for Scotland. Our attacking wingers now get exposed under the law change.