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'What King Herod was to babysitting, scrums are to entertainment in rugby - it's absolutely boring!'
Sale director of rugby Steve Diamond has set out the changes he would make to “boring” scrums to ensure the sport catches the imagination of the watching public. The Sharks take on Gallagher Premiership leaders Exeter on Friday at the AJ Bell Stadium eager to impress after a poor display at Harlequins last week.
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A 16-10 defeat was not the start Sale wanted to make on rugby’s resumption and the contest resembled a pre-season game on occasions with the ball was only in play for a limited amount of time.
On the sport’s return and with plenty watching on TV due to fans not being allowed into stadiums, Diamond knows entertainment needs to be at the forefront of the action. He said: “People want to see the ball in play, the ball in Chris Ashton’s hands, or Denny Solomona’s hands or Manu Tuilagi’s hands, that’s what they want to see.
“They want to see skill at high pace and they want to see collisions, end of story. They don’t want to see lineouts, they don’t want to see Morris dancers. They don’t want to see it. Get it in, get it out, and off we go.”
Sale gave away eight penalties during the opening 20 minutes of Friday’s match at Harlequins and there was 29 overall in the contest. It contributed to the stop-start nature of the match and the former Sharks hooker believes a change to scrums could help.
Sharks bite back after comments in South African political circles https://t.co/L7Y6OLEQtY
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 18, 2020
Diamond added: “There’s no other sport in the world where you have something like a scrum, so either we take it out of the game, which takes all the odd-shaped people out the game, or you have got 15 seconds to get your set-up sorted and you get on it.
“There’s far too much time setting scrums up, the scrum hitting shoulder to shoulder and the ball coming out. It must be five times the length of time in set-ups (than before). How many clean scrums do we see? Not many.”
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After watching old footage, the 52-year-old feels speeding up the process would result in a better game of rugby and has sympathy for the officials. “I’d put a time constraint on it,” Diamond said. “This waiting period, the referee’s telling you: the cadence will be slow tonight. It beggars belief. It’s not the referee’s fault, it is a directive from above.
“It is the King Herod of entertainment in sport. What King Herod was to babysitting, scrums are to entertainment in rugby – it is absolutely boring! I am not the first person to say it and I’m a hooker.”
Diamond will be well aware Sale will have to improve in that area if they are to secure success against Exeter, round 14 winners at home to Leicester. He praised the consistency Rob Baxter gets out of his players in the build-up to the fixture, but is sure his group can rise to the occasion.
“Exeter have probably done enough already to guarantee themselves a home semi (in the play-offs),” Diamond insisted. “What we have got to do is put in one of our performances we can do, and we can pull out of the bag, and challenge Exeter. We need to win the game to stay in contention.”
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No fans will be present at AJ Bell Stadium to watch two of the league’s title rivals go head-to-head, but Diamond was able to provide an update on when they could return in a pilot trial – albeit not before September. He added: “We have been approached by the union and PRL about doing the trial. We are willing to do that and the stadium are willing to.”
Peace in our time hopefully regarding the heavy English workload https://t.co/EQySTxQfJY
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 18, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
Will rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
2 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
2 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
2 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
1 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
2 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
24 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
3 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
28 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
2 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
3 Go to comments