Under the rules in the past wheeling the scrum round was an acceptable tactic... now that the powers that be have deemed it to be an offence it allows the dominant pack to wheel it themselves and for some reason I have never been able to fathom they give the penalty against the weaker pack who just haven't been physically able to prevent it.
One of the problems is that there isn't a referee who's ever played in the front row... they're all ex backs who really haven't a clue what goes on in the scrum.
Have a bob on old NostraTyketical... https://www.barnsleyfc.org.uk/threads/rugby-world-cup.324835/#post-3179213
It's bloody lunacy...they are trying to make the game safer so they allow 6'8'' blokes to lift other 6'8'' blokes as high into the air as possible, I'm amazed no-one has broken their neck yet....making it legal of course then brings another raft of rules around that.
Crazy game. Crazy rules. Neither team deserved to win tonight but I'm a Bok so I'm a happy camper. Go Boks!
That was what I assumed was going on. Just couldn't understand why it was deemed illegal for England not to have been able to prevent this. Like @Harry Hough I also noticed them feeding their own hooker, which I thought was against the rules.
I was going to have a bet on yesterday....glad I didn't, as I was convinced the boks would coast this with 20 odd points plus. England did well, with a team that is very much under construction. They had an easy ride with the draw but have committed themselves and done far better than most (well me anyway) thought. Felt sorry for Ireland who looked and have for 2 years ....fantastic, Unfortunately they came up against a better team on the day. On paper this was a walk over for the south Africans, having played France and Ireland already. We now have probably a great final to see.
It's very complicated stuff... the rules have been changed to try and prevent neck and back injuries, introducing the 'Bind.. Set.. Engage' (although they've changed the terms used recently) I think may have worked positively, but giving a full penalty is an incentive to the dominant pack, to wheel it, or worse still force a collapse that the weaker side gets the blame for... in the past the weaker side might deliberately collapse to stop being driven backwards, but now it's in the interest of the dominant pack to force either 'offence'. I think it needs a fresh look, and perhaps drop the scrum penalty kick to 1 point or better still give them a choice of kicking for distance and retaining the line out throw, or making them take a tap penalty and play rugby with it just as if they had won the ball in the scrum.
Referee o'Keefe has given south Africa their last 2 games. The mind works overtime. Would not surprise me if he got the final
"Now don't be sad, 'cos two out of three ain't bad". I never knew you were also a Meatloaf fan, missis Halan lol. Now let's sing "Bat out of hell", together ehh. You start...