Ban Lifting in the Lineouts.

One thing in the modern game annoys me more than a crooked scrum feed or the outdated dinosaur Pundits the BBC wheel out for the Autumn Internationals and 6 Nations is the fact that opposing teams are unable to compete at the lineout, if you lay a hand on the lineout jumper you are pinged by the ref whether you have pulled them down or not. I get the safety aspect, fine I can live with that but why don't we just go back to no lifting?

Just managed to catch up with the weekends games and watching the clips of Doddie Weir jumping up and catching opposition ball made me think I'd rather watch a real contest rather than a lets see how high we can lift the tall chap. I see no reason why this would slow the game down, lets bring back no lifting.

What do you guys think?

Good lineout operators, or bad throwers, can still allow competition. Lineouts used to be a huge excuse for "dark arts" and frankly down right thuggery.

LondonTiger wrote: Lineouts used to be a huge excuse for "dark arts" and frankly down right thuggery.

Happy days.

Lifting means that the team throwing in are much more likely to win their own ball.  So teams are less likely to kick to touch other than on penalties.  Lifting allows for generally quicker, cleaner ball, so we get a faster game.  This all goes to the desire of World Rugby for a less technical, more running based game.

Negatives are that it has encouraged the endless ping pong kicking game, where teams try to boor the other team into eventually kicking to touch to give them the throw in. It further reduces the old adage that rugby is a game for all shapes and sizes, as you don't need the 6' 10" Martin Bayfields of the world.  There is also a player safety issue at the lower end of the game, as unskilled players are lifting people without the requisite skills to look after them.

No one wants to see 50% of the game taken up with endless lineouts and scrums, but I think most people would like to see some level of competition.  If not we may as well go down the rugby league approach with token scrums and free taps in place of lineouts.

No lifting....and no jumping.

No handling and no forward pass penalising.

And Brazil win the Rugby WC!

you need lifting to secure the ball. in the olden days it was a 50/50 as to who would get the ball and it was often knocked on by everyone jumping up to try take a swipe at the ball. Means we then get more scrums and no one, even the front row union, want that!

The rules don't need changed, they need enforced and players need to follow the rules.

Squint throw in, blow the whistle and the opposition get the ball.

All this "I want to see a contest" nonsense is just nonsense. I want to see the ball in play. I want to see fast folk run round other fast folk. I want to see big chunkies running into other big chunkies. I don't want to see a team cheating (employing dark arts) to try and disrupt a lineout which again is a way to restart the game, it's not to give the other team a chance to try get the ball back!

One of my pet hates is the carding system. A player can be yellow carded for one of these seatbelt tackles because they tackle perfectly legitimately but, their opponent being a weak ass, crumbles with the pressure and slides down towards the ground. How can you be yellow carded for someone not being able to hold their shape in contact??? Yet at a line out, the other team can jump across and deliberately try to take out the lifter to A: disrupt the restart or B: Injure an opponent yet this is often just a penalty.

Deliberate acts need to be penalised heavier than acts out with an "offenders" control.

I'd like to see a blue (or any other colour card you like) to be introduced where any player that commits a technical offense (Pulling down a scrum, jumping over at the lineout, hands on the floor, etc) gets binned for 5 or 10 mins. Maybe you get away with one, but the second one, yer on the naughty step.

The "Dark Arts" is just another name for cheating. The issue is the punishment for the offense often isn't enough to deter the act. If we start seeing games where people like Ritchie McCaw spend 20 mins on the sideline and their team end up playing with 12 men at one point, you'll see these teams losing and guess what, folk will stop employing these "Dark Arts" tactics.

All this "I want to see a contest" nonsense is just nonsense. I want to see the ball in play. I want to see fast folk run round other fast folk. I want to see big chunkies running into other big chunkies. I don't want to see a team cheating (emplying dark arts) to try and distrupt a lineout which again is a way to restart the game, it's not to give the other team a chance to try get the ball back!

One of my pet hates is the carding system. A player can be yellow carded for one of these seatbelt tackles because they tackle perfectly legitimately but, thier opponent being a weak ass, crumbles with the preasure and slides down towards the ground. How can you be yellow carded for someone not being able to get thier shape in contact??? Yet at a line out, the other team can jump across and deliberatley try to take out the lifter to A: distrubt the restart or B: Injur an opponent yet this is often just a penalty.

Deliberate acts need to be penaised eavier than acts outwith an "offenders" control.

I'd like to see a blue (or any other colour card you like) to be introduced where any player that committs a technical offense (Pulling down a scrum, jumping over at the lineout, hands on the floor, etc) gets binned for 5 or 10 mins. Maybe you get away with one, but the second one, yer on the naughty step.

The "Dark Arts" is just another name for cheating. The issue is the punishment for the offense often isn't enough to deter the act. If we start seeing games where people like Ritchie McCaw spend 20 mins on the sideline and their team end up playing with 12 men at one point, you'll see these teams losing and guess what, folk will stop empolying these "Dark Arts" tactics.