Around the World in Eighty Errors
Ever since the Bulls hoisted the Super 14 trophy aloft back in May of last year, the Southern Hemisphere has been anticipating the thirteenth season of Super Rugby. Yet after just one round of the new season it is a wonder as to what all the fuss was about.
Ever since the Bulls hoisted the Super 14 trophy aloft back in May of last year, the Southern Hemisphere has been anticipating the thirteenth season of Super Rugby. Yet after just one round of the new season it is a wonder as to what all the fuss was about.
Much has been made of the ELVs and their ability to make the game a quicker, more entertaining spectacle, so let's just hope this weekend was a bad day at the office – for everyone. Apart from the Cheetahs v Lions clash the rugby was well below average and the only entertainment came from the teams' dancing girls.
It appears that sides have spent the majority of their pre-season preparations focusing on the new laws, and in doing so, neglecting basic skills training. The error count was simply shocking, the Hurricanes topping the charts with over twenty errors against the Waratahs, and that doesn't even take into account turnovers conceded.
There is no denying it will take teams a few games to adapt to the new law variations, but that is no excuse for the sub-standard skills we witnessed this weekend. The Super 14 has, traditionally, been a competition full of scintillating running rugby, yet most players looked like headless chickens chasing a lost egg the past couple of days. One can only hope it gets better, and quickly.
We were treated to the odd glimpse of exciting running rugby: the Blues proving they are still capable of cutting defences to pieces with their free-flowing game. But most games were reduced to stop-start affairs, punctuated by endless errors and free-kicks – the very free-kicks that were designed to speed the game up.
If anything the free-kicks have, on the evidence presented so far, slowed the game down. Unless you take the quick tap, which a lot of teams were reluctant to do due to the risk of being turned over, the only real option left is a scrum – hardly the quickest facet of the game. Until players tune in to what their team-mates are doing at free-kicks an element of doubt will lead to a safety-first approach, meaning a scrum.
One area of the game that does seem to be benefiting from the new ELVs is the kicking game, although there is still work to be done by all. On several occasions players kicked out on the full only to realise, too late, that they should have kept the ball in – the most elementary of errors for a kicker to make.
The reverse of that was several players keeping the ball alive with the boot rather than finding touch when they were well within their rights to do so. Kurtley Beale of the Waratahs, had it been better opposition, could have cost his side dear on several occasions with misdirected kicks.
Sides will soon learn that they can ill-afford to send kick-offs long, as it simply gives the opposition a free kick to touch. Keep the ball out of the twenty-two however, and you get it straight back with a chance to attack the open field, a better option than a line-out one would think.
With time kickers will, as with all the other rules, adapt to the new kicking laws – which are at this early stage already making the game more open. Now all we need is for teams to rediscover their skills and the Super 14 could be a festival of open running rugby. The alternative is a season of scrums and knock-ons. Thank god for the Heineken Cup then!
By Marcus Leach