Mitre Ball v Gilbert Ball.

What is the difference between these 2 balls? Why does the Mitre Ball give so many Kickers a bad time.(Johnny Wilkinson)during the RWC for example.;

Are the 2 Balls made of different material or something?

Is it just in the mind, or is their a real difference between the 2 balls?

Your thoughts.

They were saying the Mitre ball is lighter earlier

Farrell did alright

Yep, good kickers did ok with it at the world cup. Bad ones used it as an excuse (that's those who struggled from ALL nations Maj, not just England. I know what you're like at jumping to WUM conclusions.)

Griff wrote:Yep, good kickers did ok with it at the world cup. Bad ones used it as an excuse (that's those who struggled from ALL nations Maj, not just England. I know what you're like at jumping to WUM conclusions.)

Yes i totaly agree with you.

I all ways thought that a RUGBY BALL, was the shame weight.

majesticimperialman wrote:What is the difference between these 2 balls? Why does the Mitre Ball give so many Kickers a bad time.(Johnny Wilkinson)during the RWC for example.;

Are the 2 Balls made of different material or something?

Is it just in the mind, or is their a real difference between the 2 balls?

Your thoughts.

It was a Gilbert ball during the RWC.

Strange thing the balls shold be differen enough to effect play. The commentators indicated the Mitre ball was lighter. This would make kicks harder to control, especially in windy conditions. But, to be that different makes no sense for a professinal sport.

The world cup balls they use are a different size to the usual gilbert ones slightly thinner. The 07 one was ridiculous. Why they suddenly change the size of the ball for the world cup i don't know, the kickers do fine with the usual Gilbert balls.

Griff wrote:Yep, good kickers did ok with it at the world cup. Bad ones used it as an excuse (that's those who struggled from ALL nations Maj, not just England. I know what you're like at jumping to WUM conclusions.)

yeah JW is a bad kicker, the lad obviously knows nothing about kicking

To be fair, when one of the greatest kickers (if not the greatest) of all time JW, says that the balls were hard to kick then i will sit up and listen.

I see no reason for all the tinkering with the balls at all to be honest. Anyone remember that Mitre all the the Italians were using for the home matches in the 6N 8 years ago? Now that was a horrible ball.

Back in the early '00s the AB's started using an Adidas ball for internationals - Andrew Mehrtens christened it the "lemon" (it was yellow and most kickers found it hard to get used to).

The point is though that not all kickers struggled. If they all had, including the 'best kicker of all time' Wilkinson, then there would be something in it. But, as only a few struggled then that must be down to the individual. How else were some kickers able to kick it perfectly well?

Griff wrote:The point is though that not all kickers struggled. If they all had, including the 'best kicker of all time', then there would be something in it. But, as only a few struggled then that must be down to the individual. How else were some kickers able to kick it perfectly well?

I thought many struggled if not all to some extent if i remember correctly. the success rate was well down from previous years

certain kickers could have got used to the ball quicker due to there kicking style.

the kickers that made more kicks could even have been mishitting them!!!(big maybe)

the fact is if the ball was good but felt different then just let teams use the thing before the RWC to practise, then no dramas.

Not even the welsh complained about the ball, so that must say something! There's nothing we haven't moaned about!

your kicking wasnt great though to be fair- you may not have complained- but maybe that was due to the fact that you had much bigger grevencies to complain about.

i think only the french kicked that ball well.

Our kicking was woeful, but we put it down to the individuals. Halfpenny kicked pretty well when he took over, although short on 1 occasion when it really mattered. Stephen Jones kick OK too from memory. It was hook and Priestland that were gash. I think we all put it down to nerves/form/inexperience.

if a mere mortal complained about the ball i wouldnt have taken to much notice , but when JW does and stats back him up, then you gotta take abit of notice

Dan Carter also complained about the ball we shouldn't forget about that

There were several players complaining about it but yes when players like JW and DC say its not very good then you should listen.

Niether JW or DC are complainers, they are both very humble.

If two different companies make a version of one product you can bet they are not one thing and that is - identical.

Now the differences in construction might be minute to an untrained eye, from stitching to materials used; but the passage a kicked ball makes through the air when made my differing companies would I'd assume give certain difficulties to players who were more familiar with one over the other.

It's no coincidence that the players who you might consider to be the true artists in the field of kicking, and therefore more sensitive to changes, were the ones having most difficulties.

Perhaps, when faced with his difficulties, Wilkinson might have been better to loosen up on his technique and just modify his kicks to suit the trajectory. That's the bit that surprised me about him. He kept stubbornly adhered to his pattern when it was I think constantly thowing the ball too much one way (can't remember which way that was now, but I seem to recall his misses were mostly to one distinct side - right or left).

Secret
I think the issue with the RWC ball was that some of the kickers found it unpredictable - they'd make what they thought was an OK contact and find it missing left, then very similar and missing right. That, plus the inevitable loss of confidence that comes from that makes it very difficult to adjust your technique (JW for one definitely was not missing only to one side).

The last two RWC balls have had similar issues - some players who have quite short and 'stabby' kicking actions (Patterson for one, and I remember one of the Samoans) seemed to have no issue, but those with more of a swing through (Wilkinson, Carter being two of these) seemed to struggle for control.

As for the Mitre ball, it seemed to be reasonable for goal kicking (certainly Farrell landed a couple of good ones) although some of the kicking from hand was poor. I wonder if it is a slightly different shape from the Glibert ball - I know the rugby league changed balls a few seasons ago and went to a more rounded and blunter ended ball, and the kickers found it a bit iffy for goal kicking and difficult to hit a spiral punt but much easier for end over end kicks.