The only rugby channel with background wildlife to add to the ambience. I love it. God I hate English winters! Thank you Mark - really enjoying the content and pleased for you that your channel’s grown. I was in at the start and you’re a top bloke. It’s nice to have someone near my own age with a rugby channel. 🎉
Howzit Mark hope all is good that side of the pond, I'd just like to take a moment to say thank you for an awesome channel and year of rugby commentary and insight it has been a pleasure linking up with you
Keep it coming Mark, maybe, if you do get to view it your insight on the URC would be interesting and maybe Razor should watch it too and learn from it, the reason why the boks are dominant now and will be for a while is because we play rugby in both hemispheres and obviously our DNA, combined the best of the south game and north and you learn to klap everyone, peace good sir
@robcrocker348 thanks mate. I will be putting out a video early next week looking at the Boks year in 2024 and why I truly believe they are super beatable.
Great topic, Mark. In my view, the only way to "speed up" our game, without fundamentally changing the game as we know it, is by reducing the time lost between stoppages, in particular, TMO interventions. I'm yet to see the empirical evidence that "fans want the game to speed up." In my view, this is a narrative or agenda driven by the game's administrators in countries like Australia, where they'd like to see our game reduced to a version of league, ie. No longer a game for all shapes and sizes.
@adrianincapetown7043 thank you. I want to pick up on your great point. Where is the EVIDENCE that the fans want the game sped up? Exactly right. Plenty have commented here saying the opposite. Heres what I think. Because we have mostly the wrong people running the game at a global, and national level they are not able to deal with competition from other sports. Thats because many are glorified old rugby suits, or they have ZERO business experience. Clubs going bankrupt and competition from other sports is merely smoke and mirrors of their own lack of business experience.
Good point. Was just thinking about this. We need a timer at the set pieces when teams take too long to get their scrums or line outs together. Also the kicking timer should countdown from 40s, not 60. .
Being a ref in a modern rugby match is like being an air traffic controller at JFK airport whilst simultaneously trying to manage a 5 star restaurant. Impossible-too many rules, rules too complicated.
@insiderugbywithmark im not sure and ive been thinking more about my comment- i get that most of the reason for so many/complex rules is for player safety, so i dont know how to solve it or which rules to take out? My point i think does stand though- watching my 11 year old son playing rugby for his school, i have lost count of the number of times parents on either team are both knowledgeable, both have i guess legit infringements that the ref hasnt seen against 'their' side within the same phase of play, both are irate with the 'biased' ref. My only take away is that im glad i am not in that position. I think the new rule of not getting in the way of the person chasing the kick is going to lead to chasers deliberately running into the backs of their opponents. We may also see players always going down from a tacklers shoulder to the head, even if the 'victim' could probably have just shrugged it off. I think we will sadly start to see the 'soccerisation' of rugby. Dont get me wrong, i want safety, but at what point do we accept that rugby will always, indeed i would argue SHOULD always, have an element of danger?
To elaborate on the 'should have an element of danger' - i think as long as it is managed 'danger.' As a dad whose kid is passionate about the game and has got me back into it, it's easy to see why the old-school used rugby to develop character in boys. You have to make that tackle, even if you might get a bit hurt, because if you dont you are letting down 14 of your mates. My kid hates playing in games with a whistle-happy ref.
watching northern hemisphere teams play is so boring and so slow but it shows that when we play the north, you can afford to have bigger forwards as fitness is not a thing anymore and the back can just train sprints as once again, fitness is not a thing. So make the forwards bigger and get some lightening runners like the french because they have endless time to recover
Hi Mark, Martin from Cape Town here. Looking back to the British Lions tour to SA in 1981 the game has changed in the professional era. Players are much bulkier and fit now, not just forwards walking from set piece to set piece. The game has sped up and players are much harder and heavier, never mind much fitter. World rugby's attempts have been a bit misguided unfortunately., hopefully they will find a way to deliver a product that everyone will enjoy. Enjoying the channel, keep up the passion!!
@JudithTREURNICH Hi Judith, thank you for the comment. I am interested to know more around what you wrote about World Rugbys attempts have been misguided?
The best part of so many stoppages is you get lots of chances to visit the toilet! Perhaps you can go deeper, and determine those TMO uncalled for "injections", the ones not requested by the Ref. Another thing would be to quantify the net play time, or live ball time. I´d be surprised if the ball is in play more than 50 minutes per match. How does that compare with the very intense Field Hockey, in percentage of ball in play?
Not in NZ and Australia playing under the trial laws. Watching northern teams mince around setting up scrums and line outs during the autumn series has been painful. Fully enabled by the rules however. TMO interjections have become a blight on the game. Now whenever a try is scored by whoever, we’re all waiting for the almost inevitable double blast on refs whistle because the TMO has ‘seen something’ 400 phases ago. I really hope they sort this part out. Yes I want to see scrums and line outs, but I do like the trial law 30 second limit to setup for them. Speed the game up while retaining what makes rugby, rugby.
@ Primarily because it becomes boring consistently waiting for set pieces to commence. I love scrums and line outs, but I really don’t enjoy the excessive time wasting setting them up. It’s boring.
I am not sure we can lower the amount of stoppages but we can certainly decrease the time spent on each stoppage especially when the ref calls time off. To start we could do is to have two less subs but allow their to be rolling substitutes during the game, at any stoppage a sub may enter the game but the game does not pause longer than a normal stoppage to allow it to happen, if the are close to the play on the sideline and sprint into position they can get there, as soon as substation is called at a stop in play the player being subbed is out of the game, this to avoid having 16 players on the field. This counts for injuries as well. Players can come back on again if they have been subbed. With less subs players who can play multiple positions will become more valuable e.g. the prop who can play both sides of the scrum. Next when the whistle blows for a scrum or line out, when either team is ready and in position, the other team has 30 seconds to form up and be ready to proceed, or a player gets binned for five minutes. Imagine a smaller fitter team running to be in position and how much pressure that would put on a team with larger less fit players. Injuries go to the side of the field and are subbed, if they are OK they can come back on later (of course in case of very serious injury, the game would need to stop.) Scrums, no more scrumming for penalties, if you can shunt the other team backwards and march over the top of them or wheel it to put the ball where you want it, then that is the a huge advantage and enough of an advantage for strong scrummaging teams. Still retain penalties for dropping the scrum on purpose but not for when they are over powered. Mauls we should be able to sack the mall. A great mauling team will still be able to use it as a weapon. Not being able to sack the mall was sold to us as a safety measure, I haven’t seen anyone hurt in a collapsed mall in this time that I can remember.
I wish all commentators contributed as much! I am not quite sure if you are adding complexity to the game and more load on the Ref, but you certainly put in a lot of thought. Multipurpose Props seems very rare at top level. I don´t think the technique is the same even if the function is. Line outs: yes that certainly can be accelerated! Subs: another controversial point, since some players have specific intensely trained talents and are not that good in other positions. Scrum: I´d play on for "turning" or "front rows exploding up" as long as the throw-in team gets the ball. Good post to get our brains to "speed up".
In an attempt to speed up rugby with law changes it is paradoxically slowing it down because the players can't remember all the laws. For those of us who are old, rugby was faster because of rucking.
Ball in play time doesn't matter to me. I'd watch 75mins of scrums and probably still be happy. For sure, it's the stoppages. I'm not about to blame refs for blowing the whistle (I used to be a ref). But the scrum should be set, lineout thrown, penalty kicked etc within a time frame. Imo, an 80 min game should take no more than 85mins plus halftime excluding major injuries. To change that, with a clock on firming a scrum or lineout, I think we need to consider rolling subs. If a critical player (prop at scrum) is not ready, hes automatically subbed by the ref, and the game continues. But, there's so many things I would change to speed up play. 5000 word essay or make a vid
I think to be fair, you should maybe try the same experiment with two games from the first RWC and count how many stoppages were in those games. I think you should also see how fair and how safe those games were compared with current games. The TMO has definitely helped to make the game more transparent and offenders have definitely been caught out to the benefit of player safety.
Mark, love the ex pat life, I have watched rugby in some terrible dive bars in war torn and dangerous countries and in some rather nice places too, it always added to the flavour, even when the pub in Kosovo was burning being fire bombed in a flare up, a kiwi was last to leave, well he did have to finish his pint, didn’t he… Back home I watch you and miss it.
Again than you Mark. Another of your rugby internet vloggers, eggschasers Tim who I usually find to be on point, made the point that rugby had sped up because the ball was in play longer in a game. I disagreed pointing out that total game time from start to final whistle was probably much longer. In todays games the ref is much more likely to stop the clock, giving players a big rest, teams are not beyond manipulating this to create rests in play where it suits their team. Once you work this out it becomes impossible not to see.
Some things in rugby can certainly be changed. There's to many laws, for instance, and some unnecassary stopages. But if we compare rugby to other sports, we find that it is not so "slow". Many American football fans who watch rugby for the first time, enjoy the fact that the ball remains in play even after a tackle. The ball doesn't go dead and the contest doesn't stop there. There's many other sport codes also where players are either not very active or resting for extended periods. How much time does tennis players spend resting next to the court? What about cricket, esp 5 day test matches? I did roadrunning when I was younger. That's a sport with zero % stoppages, but I prefer to watch rugby because there's much, much more action.
I actually like the look of the game now better than back in 2012 which was the last time i watched rugby before getting back into it this year. can't answer if it's slower or faster, but i do enjoy how the game is run these days. there are still too many rule changes from year to year though, but that's just rugby it seems.
@ColinAnderson-hy2oj WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL comment, and also the lineout thrower must be outside the field of play, every game this is happening and nobody does anything.
I can't watch old youtube matches as it's constantly being stopped by the referee blowing up. I wonder how many stoppages there were then in comparison?
Statistics aside, games played now definitely FEEL slower and then there's the dreaded TMO intervention, the TMO should only intervene if he/she is specifically asked by the ref, if they're not asked they should stay quiet.
If we look at matches from the 70s and 80s, the speed of play was mostly slow, naive, and predictable, compared to the present time. But the scrum was really set up very quickly as both packs smashed into each other within 10 seconds, consequently generating serious meck and head injuries (brain conmotion, hemiplexia, paraplexia, etc after damaged medula...). More dynamic play is desirable, but never at the expense of physical integrity. After all, players, Refs and fans want to see all players enjoy the game, and life after the Game (much longer than the active years....!). And be damned WR if they don´t see this.
And yet here we are in 2024 with the new laws etc and Steven Kitschoff still breaks his neck. You can plan for all the player well being you want, but things go wrong when you have beasts playing each other and 140kg men running into each other. And I suggest you look at many of the All Blacks games in the 70´s and 80s and you will see some brilliant running and entertaining rugby.
Ricardo - Danie Gerber, Ray Mordt and Frik du Preez slow, naive and predictable??? When did you start watching rugby? Last year? It's you safety - safety, safety mongers that are ruining and killing our game on professional level through the spooks at World Rugby. Why can't you all as a safety group not please go and support touch rugby or soccer and manipulate it with 10,000 rules to make it faster?? Please. I played rugby at school and club level - tough as nails - for 40 years - yes that long! and most of our team members are still ""enjoying life "after" active years". Safe and effective - I've heard that before not so long ago.....
Paradoxically enough, the relentless drive to increase ball-in-play time through repeated law changes may actually be causing more stoppages. More ball-in-play time means the players get more exhausted and are likely to make more mistakes. Or consider the new law banning escorts: it will likely result in more fumbles under the high ball (due to the catcher being less protected and the chaser having more access to the ball), and therefore more knock-ons and more scrums... which is not quite the original intent. I have been watching rugby for more than 50 years, and there is no doubt in my mind that rugby is currently much faster than ever. If you remember the 2023 Ireland-France 6 nations game, which had 46 minutes' ball in play, I bet the most lasting impression is not the number of stoppages !
Scrap the TMO. Bring back rucking players out of the way. Scrap the head collision cards. Scrums/line outs should be immediate unless a player is seriously injured.
I have said earlier this year already that this new rules slows the game more down with the sheer number of rule changes and the frequencies at which they are introduced. To me a stoppage is slowing down the game, period. Other factors are: 1. This rabbit whole, incompetent and dare I say it, biased refs. This contributes more to stoppages than the TMO and the bunker system which compounds the system. Two refs on the field might be a better system. 2. World rugby leadership. These guys are out to strangle Rassie's way of doing rugby and will change the face of rugby in doing so. But what more can one expect of old guys from the amateur era, trying to manage the professional era? 3.Media frency trying to influence the game along with so called pundits who are past players and are Bok play haters. This external pressure does influence the powers as illustrated by Bill Beaumont's comments on scrums. And dare I say it, the notion of western politics driven by woke liberalism trying to destroy everything which we used to call order? Chew it, love it, hate it or me, but that is the way the world is going.
@tobysmeiman6921 plenty of passion in this comment, thanks for writing it, appreciated. No hate here on this channel, so want you to know that. Differences of opinions, offered and accepted in a respectful manner thats all we do here.
Sure fired way to improve the game. Get rid of flankers uncontestable tackle, not lineouts 😮. 😂 Otherwise no replacement except injury, or 90 min games. Less reliance on big fatty and more fitness equal more space in last 20 mins.
I dont think its a big deal, the players need time to have a breather. They're not super humans that can just recover instantly and play super fast pace rugby the whole 80.
The issue then is that we don’t see the spaces open up as players get tired, it is when players tire that the exciting flourishes of skilled players not over coached automatons comes to the fore.
YES, major problem, TMO, different ref calls, Hollywood injuries [[.... hey, Sth Africa]] other time wasting gameplans. The game is fighting for media space and public dollars against some very good fast sports. There are some exceptions, NFL, but if rugby does not address the issue rugby will lose. The team needs to be punished for time wasting, injuries off the field, public clocks on scrums, lineout, re-starts perhaps as examples. 2. Some of the players believe they are super super stars instead of playing in a team. NZ has this problem currently.
@@Boy10Dio Faking injuries? You must be confusing Irish players with Saffa trolls accusing players of simulation, the ref being paid off, blah blah because they were desperate for someone to beat Ireland given they can't manage it much themselves.
The only rugby channel with background wildlife to add to the ambience. I love it.
God I hate English winters!
Thank you Mark - really enjoying the content and pleased for you that your channel’s grown. I was in at the start and you’re a top bloke. It’s nice to have someone near my own age with a rugby channel. 🎉
@mhoppy6639 Thanks man, really appreciate the comment.
Trying to get a local squirrel to appear on the show, hes still a little frightened.
Stay warm.
Howzit Mark hope all is good that side of the pond, I'd just like to take a moment to say thank you for an awesome channel and year of rugby commentary and insight it has been a pleasure linking up with you
@robcrocker348 You are a top bloke Rob, and its rugby fans like you that have made all of this worth it. Thank you for your support.
Keep it coming Mark, maybe, if you do get to view it your insight on the URC would be interesting and maybe Razor should watch it too and learn from it, the reason why the boks are dominant now and will be for a while is because we play rugby in both hemispheres and obviously our DNA, combined the best of the south game and north and you learn to klap everyone, peace good sir
@robcrocker348 thanks mate. I will be putting out a video early next week looking at the Boks year in 2024 and why I truly believe they are super beatable.
Great topic, Mark.
In my view, the only way to "speed up" our game, without fundamentally changing the game as we know it, is by reducing the time lost between stoppages, in particular, TMO interventions.
I'm yet to see the empirical evidence that "fans want the game to speed up." In my view, this is a narrative or agenda driven by the game's administrators in countries like Australia, where they'd like to see our game reduced to a version of league, ie. No longer a game for all shapes and sizes.
@adrianincapetown7043 thank you.
I want to pick up on your great point. Where is the EVIDENCE that the fans want the game sped up? Exactly right.
Plenty have commented here saying the opposite.
Heres what I think. Because we have mostly the wrong people running the game at a global, and national level they are not able to deal with competition from other sports. Thats because many are glorified old rugby suits, or they have ZERO business experience. Clubs going bankrupt and competition from other sports is merely smoke and mirrors of their own lack of business experience.
@@insiderugbywithmark Agree 100%
Thanks
Good point. Was just thinking about this. We need a timer at the set pieces when teams take too long to get their scrums or line outs together. Also the kicking timer should countdown from 40s, not 60. .
Being a ref in a modern rugby match is like being an air traffic controller at JFK airport whilst simultaneously trying to manage a 5 star restaurant. Impossible-too many rules, rules too complicated.
@garethbarry3825 Very good point. Have they been set up to fail?
@insiderugbywithmark im not sure and ive been thinking more about my comment- i get that most of the reason for so many/complex rules is for player safety, so i dont know how to solve it or which rules to take out?
My point i think does stand though- watching my 11 year old son playing rugby for his school, i have lost count of the number of times parents on either team are both knowledgeable, both have i guess legit infringements that the ref hasnt seen against 'their' side within the same phase of play, both are irate with the 'biased' ref. My only take away is that im glad i am not in that position.
I think the new rule of not getting in the way of the person chasing the kick is going to lead to chasers deliberately running into the backs of their opponents. We may also see players always going down from a tacklers shoulder to the head, even if the 'victim' could probably have just shrugged it off. I think we will sadly start to see the 'soccerisation' of rugby. Dont get me wrong, i want safety, but at what point do we accept that rugby will always, indeed i would argue SHOULD always, have an element of danger?
To elaborate on the 'should have an element of danger' - i think as long as it is managed 'danger.' As a dad whose kid is passionate about the game and has got me back into it, it's easy to see why the old-school used rugby to develop character in boys. You have to make that tackle, even if you might get a bit hurt, because if you dont you are letting down 14 of your mates. My kid hates playing in games with a whistle-happy ref.
watching northern hemisphere teams play is so boring and so slow but it shows that when we play the north, you can afford to have bigger forwards as fitness is not a thing anymore and the back can just train sprints as once again, fitness is not a thing. So make the forwards bigger and get some lightening runners like the french because they have endless time to recover
Hi Mark, Martin from Cape Town here. Looking back to the British Lions tour to SA in 1981 the game has changed in the professional era. Players are much bulkier and fit now, not just forwards walking from set piece to set piece. The game has sped up and players are much harder and heavier, never mind much fitter. World rugby's attempts have been a bit misguided unfortunately., hopefully they will find a way to deliver a product that everyone will enjoy. Enjoying the channel, keep up the passion!!
@JudithTREURNICH Hi Judith, thank you for the comment. I am interested to know more around what you wrote about World Rugbys attempts have been misguided?
The best part of so many stoppages is you get lots of chances to visit the toilet! Perhaps you can go deeper, and determine those TMO uncalled for "injections", the ones not requested by the Ref. Another thing would be to quantify the net play time, or live ball time. I´d be surprised if the ball is in play more than 50 minutes per match. How does that compare with the very intense Field Hockey, in percentage of ball in play?
50mins.... !!!!!! ball in play is around best 30mins for the entire game.
Not in NZ and Australia playing under the trial laws. Watching northern teams mince around setting up scrums and line outs during the autumn series has been painful. Fully enabled by the rules however.
TMO interjections have become a blight on the game. Now whenever a try is scored by whoever, we’re all waiting for the almost inevitable double blast on refs whistle because the TMO has ‘seen something’ 400 phases ago. I really hope they sort this part out.
Yes I want to see scrums and line outs, but I do like the trial law 30 second limit to setup for them. Speed the game up while retaining what makes rugby, rugby.
@DavidSmith-yi8ou Why is speeding the game up important to you?
@ Primarily because it becomes boring consistently waiting for set pieces to commence.
I love scrums and line outs, but I really don’t enjoy the excessive time wasting setting them up. It’s boring.
I am not sure we can lower the amount of stoppages but we can certainly decrease the time spent on each stoppage especially when the ref calls time off.
To start we could do is to have two less subs but allow their to be rolling substitutes during the game, at any stoppage a sub may enter the game but the game does not pause longer than a normal stoppage to allow it to happen, if the are close to the play on the sideline and sprint into position they can get there, as soon as substation is called at a stop in play the player being subbed is out of the game, this to avoid having 16 players on the field. This counts for injuries as well. Players can come back on again if they have been subbed. With less subs players who can play multiple positions will become more valuable e.g. the prop who can play both sides of the scrum.
Next when the whistle blows for a scrum or line out, when either team is ready and in position, the other team has 30 seconds to form up and be ready to proceed, or a player gets binned for five minutes. Imagine a smaller fitter team running to be in position and how much pressure that would put on a team with larger less fit players.
Injuries go to the side of the field and are subbed, if they are OK they can come back on later (of course in case of very serious injury, the game would need to stop.)
Scrums, no more scrumming for penalties, if you can shunt the other team backwards and march over the top of them or wheel it to put the ball where you want it, then that is the a huge advantage and enough of an advantage for strong scrummaging teams. Still retain penalties for dropping the scrum on purpose but not for when they are over powered.
Mauls we should be able to sack the mall. A great mauling team will still be able to use it as a weapon. Not being able to sack the mall was sold to us as a safety measure, I haven’t seen anyone hurt in a collapsed mall in this time that I can remember.
@markthompson7817 Great contribution, I will give it all an extra read or too before responding in detail.
I wish all commentators contributed as much! I am not quite sure if you are adding complexity to the game and more load on the Ref, but you certainly put in a lot of thought. Multipurpose Props seems very rare at top level. I don´t think the technique is the same even if the function is. Line outs: yes that certainly can be accelerated! Subs: another controversial point, since some players have specific intensely trained talents and are not that good in other positions. Scrum: I´d play on for "turning" or "front rows exploding up" as long as the throw-in team gets the ball. Good post to get our brains to "speed up".
In an attempt to speed up rugby with law changes it is paradoxically slowing it down because the players can't remember all the laws. For those of us who are old, rugby was faster because of rucking.
@Tuatara587 Good point imho, thanks for making it
Ball in play time doesn't matter to me. I'd watch 75mins of scrums and probably still be happy. For sure, it's the stoppages. I'm not about to blame refs for blowing the whistle (I used to be a ref). But the scrum should be set, lineout thrown, penalty kicked etc within a time frame.
Imo, an 80 min game should take no more than 85mins plus halftime excluding major injuries.
To change that, with a clock on firming a scrum or lineout, I think we need to consider rolling subs. If a critical player (prop at scrum) is not ready, hes automatically subbed by the ref, and the game continues.
But, there's so many things I would change to speed up play. 5000 word essay or make a vid
@Thudsrayz Great point of view, thanks for sharing.
Start writing that essay. :-)
I think to be fair, you should maybe try the same experiment with two games from the first RWC and count how many stoppages were in those games. I think you should also see how fair and how safe those games were compared with current games. The TMO has definitely helped to make the game more transparent and offenders have definitely been caught out to the benefit of player safety.
@maakstemdik007 I am thinking of doing a greater sample collection. I dont think using only the World Cup games is the right way to go.
@@insiderugbywithmark I think that would be more objective compared to only sampling two games from the Autumn series.
Mark, love the ex pat life, I have watched rugby in some terrible dive bars in war torn and dangerous countries and in some rather nice places too, it always added to the flavour, even when the pub in Kosovo was burning being fire bombed in a flare up, a kiwi was last to leave, well he did have to finish his pint, didn’t he… Back home I watch you and miss it.
@markthompson7817 Hey Mark thanks for this contribution, I can relate to most of it.
Again than you Mark. Another of your rugby internet vloggers, eggschasers Tim who I usually find to be on point, made the point that rugby had sped up because the ball was in play longer in a game. I disagreed pointing out that total game time from start to final whistle was probably much longer. In todays games the ref is much more likely to stop the clock, giving players a big rest, teams are not beyond manipulating this to create rests in play where it suits their team. Once you work this out it becomes impossible not to see.
@markthompson7817 I do not agree that the game has sped up either.
This is some shocking stats Mark. I trust your scientific stats. Not sure what can be done? Regards. Go Bokke!
Thanks for the comment
Some things in rugby can certainly be changed. There's to many laws, for instance, and some unnecassary stopages. But if we compare rugby to other sports, we find that it is not so "slow". Many American football fans who watch rugby for the first time, enjoy the fact that the ball remains in play even after a tackle. The ball doesn't go dead and the contest doesn't stop there. There's many other sport codes also where players are either not very active or resting for extended periods. How much time does tennis players spend resting next to the court? What about cricket, esp 5 day test matches? I did roadrunning when I was younger. That's a sport with zero % stoppages, but I prefer to watch rugby because there's much, much more action.
@ChristianVonWielligh I found this an interesting read. Thanks for putting it together
@insiderugbywithmark Thanks.
I actually like the look of the game now better than back in 2012 which was the last time i watched rugby before getting back into it this year.
can't answer if it's slower or faster, but i do enjoy how the game is run these days.
there are still too many rule changes from year to year though, but that's just rugby it seems.
@Boy10Dio Great to read your perspective, thank you for sharing it.
Why can't refs make sure that the ball goes into the scrum straight. That is the law! And BTW , thanks Mark😃🇿🇦
@ColinAnderson-hy2oj WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL comment, and also the lineout thrower must be outside the field of play, every game this is happening and nobody does anything.
How about measuring total number of stoppages and average duration of stoppages. Then go back and compare with a game of say 25 years ago?
@pierrequeripel183 Only so many hours in a day. :-)
I can't watch old youtube matches as it's constantly being stopped by the referee blowing up. I wonder how many stoppages there were then in comparison?
@Phil-v61 good question, thanks for it
Statistics aside, games played now definitely FEEL slower and then there's the dreaded TMO intervention, the TMO should only intervene if he/she is specifically asked by the ref, if they're not asked they should stay quiet.
@rabbitss11 thanks so much for sharing your opinion, appreciate it.
@@insiderugbywithmark likewise
If we look at matches from the 70s and 80s, the speed of play was mostly slow, naive, and predictable, compared to the present time. But the scrum was really set up very quickly as both packs smashed into each other within 10 seconds, consequently generating serious meck and head injuries (brain conmotion, hemiplexia, paraplexia, etc after damaged medula...). More dynamic play is desirable, but never at the expense of physical integrity. After all, players, Refs and fans want to see all players enjoy the game, and life after the Game (much longer than the active years....!). And be damned WR if they don´t see this.
And yet here we are in 2024 with the new laws etc and Steven Kitschoff still breaks his neck. You can plan for all the player well being you want, but things go wrong when you have beasts playing each other and 140kg men running into each other.
And I suggest you look at many of the All Blacks games in the 70´s and 80s and you will see some brilliant running and entertaining rugby.
Ricardo - Danie Gerber, Ray Mordt and Frik du Preez slow, naive and predictable??? When did you start watching rugby? Last year? It's you safety - safety, safety mongers that are ruining and killing our game on professional level through the spooks at World Rugby. Why can't you all as a safety group not please go and support touch rugby or soccer and manipulate it with 10,000 rules to make it faster?? Please. I played rugby at school and club level - tough as nails - for 40 years - yes that long! and most of our team members are still ""enjoying life "after" active years". Safe and effective - I've heard that before not so long ago.....
Paradoxically enough, the relentless drive to increase ball-in-play time through repeated law changes may actually be causing more stoppages. More ball-in-play time means the players get more exhausted and are likely to make more mistakes. Or consider the new law banning escorts: it will likely result in more fumbles under the high ball (due to the catcher being less protected and the chaser having more access to the ball), and therefore more knock-ons and more scrums... which is not quite the original intent. I have been watching rugby for more than 50 years, and there is no doubt in my mind that rugby is currently much faster than ever. If you remember the 2023 Ireland-France 6 nations game, which had 46 minutes' ball in play, I bet the most lasting impression is not the number of stoppages !
Scrap the TMO. Bring back rucking players out of the way. Scrap the head collision cards. Scrums/line outs should be immediate unless a player is seriously injured.
@hawkprecision7878 I am reading......¨Return the game to its former glory?
@@insiderugbywithmark looks that way. Thanks for your videos and feed back in the comments.
Spot on and you are welcome
I have said earlier this year already that this new rules slows the game more down with the sheer number of rule changes and the frequencies at which they are introduced. To me a stoppage is slowing down the game, period. Other factors are:
1. This rabbit whole, incompetent and dare I say it, biased refs. This contributes more to stoppages than the TMO and the bunker system which compounds the system. Two refs on the field might be a better system.
2. World rugby leadership. These guys are out to strangle Rassie's way of doing rugby and will change the face of rugby in doing so. But what more can one expect of old guys from the amateur era, trying to manage the professional era?
3.Media frency trying to influence the game along with so called pundits who are past players and are Bok play haters. This external pressure does influence the powers as illustrated by Bill Beaumont's comments on scrums.
And dare I say it, the notion of western politics driven by woke liberalism trying to destroy everything which we used to call order? Chew it, love it, hate it or me, but that is the way the world is going.
@tobysmeiman6921 plenty of passion in this comment, thanks for writing it, appreciated. No hate here on this channel, so want you to know that. Differences of opinions, offered and accepted in a respectful manner thats all we do here.
yes it is, too much bloody TMO inteference, slows the game down.
@anthonymoore1705 OK thank you kindly
Sure fired way to improve the game. Get rid of flankers uncontestable tackle, not lineouts 😮. 😂 Otherwise no replacement except injury, or 90 min games. Less reliance on big fatty and more fitness equal more space in last 20 mins.
@matthewashman1406 Interesting thoughts
Then why don;t become a rugby league supporter rather?
@vasti018 😂 it was a joke mate
@@matthewashman1406 All good - apologies for my frustration 😁😂
I dont think its a big deal, the players need time to have a breather. They're not super humans that can just recover instantly and play super fast pace rugby the whole 80.
@@Tanner-2 players used to do it all the time. They just didn't do it for 11 months a year
The issue then is that we don’t see the spaces open up as players get tired, it is when players tire that the exciting flourishes of skilled players not over coached automatons comes to the fore.
YES, major problem, TMO, different ref calls, Hollywood injuries [[.... hey, Sth Africa]] other time wasting gameplans. The game is fighting for media space and public dollars against some very good fast sports. There are some exceptions, NFL, but if rugby does not address the issue rugby will lose. The team needs to be punished for time wasting, injuries off the field, public clocks on scrums, lineout, re-starts perhaps as examples. 2. Some of the players believe they are super super stars instead of playing in a team. NZ has this problem currently.
Hollywood injuries?
you must be confusing SA with Ireland, it was their players faking injuries.
@@Boy10Dio Faking injuries? You must be confusing Irish players with Saffa trolls accusing players of simulation, the ref being paid off, blah blah because they were desperate for someone to beat Ireland given they can't manage it much themselves.