As much as we are enjoying the Rugby World Cup it is hoped that after this tournament the IRB will sit down and look at certain areas of the game, which are extremely frustrating to the spectator.
To start with if a player wants treatment or a physio has to come on the park, let us see like football the player have to leave the field, as long as he can walk. Rather than having players receiving treatment while the game goes on around them.
In football the goalkeeper is the only player allowed to receive treatment on the park, as he is a key position. The same applies for the front row in rugby union, so have a rule that only the props and hookers can receive treatment on the field of play. Or if you don’t like that, while they are off the field scrums are uncontested.
That is not the best option as obviously if a side is losing all of its scrums they will then have their front row constantly going off the pitch so that they can win some ball.
As for whether a player should be allowed to be replaced if he has had to go off because of bleeding, we are not sure about this. Obviously a lot of players end up bleeding is such a physical contest, and it may well be unreasonable to say that a team should play a man down when he has a genuine and unfortunate cut.
The other area which has become increasingly frustrating, and was seen in abundance in the quarter finals, is when a player is caught the wrong side of the ball in a ruck. The time it takes him to get out of the way of the attacking player who is trying to retrieve the ball and set up another attack. This is sheer gamesmanship.
It is so obvious that it is a form of obstruction and also restricting the attacking side to only be able to play the ball in one direction. No doubt the coaching staff have advocated such an approach to slow the ball down and limit defensive exposure, but it is incredibly frustrating to watch.
Finally, they have to look at the maul and the player at the back with the ball tucked under one arm simply resting his hand on his teammates as they drive forward. The player at the back is in all reality not part of the maul even though the rules say that he is, and those players in front of him are simply obstructing the defending side from gaining access to the man and the ball. If there is be a rolling maul, make it that where the ball carrier rolls off the side and then the next player takes the ball off him and does the same, let us go back to the way it used to be deployed. That was a spectacle and also showed a higher level of skill and co-ordination.
