What a rubbish game...

[Androcles]

....Rugby Union has become, with thirty fat men with no necks spending 70 of the 80 minutes rolling around in a heap with the ball in the middle of them, with the referee blowing his whistle every so often for " infringements" which nobody can see and even less understand. Players coming on and going off and coming back on again for apparently no reason. Most of the points coming from penalties. No skill, just brawn, the whole thing is just a yawn!

[beejay1124]

may i suggest---a channel changer

[packardbell]

at last i find a kindred spirit. this has to be the most boring team game on earth!...I was watching soccer saturday on sky yesterday as football is my number one sport, and at half time i briefly switched channels to bbc 1. Unfortunately the Ireland v Italy game was on and for the next 4 or 5 minutes I watched the ball being kicked from one end of the ground to another, with the occasional mass heap of blokes on the floor, and then the ball comes out and its either kicked into touch. or a player picks it up, runs 2 yards straight into the opposing defence from which a penalty then ensues, and then its kicked between the posts. Why don't they just save time and have 10 attempts at penalties each right at the start and then we would all be happier. This so called sport is rubbish and i refuse to watch it.

[GrumpyPom]

Try Rugby League, so much faster and a much more flowing game. Go Leeds Rhinos!!

[cazzz1975]

Im not a rugby fan but I get annoyed when people denigrate various sports as "grown men kicking a bag of air around" or "men driving around in a circle" or "old fat men hitting a tiny ball with a stick"

ok, so you dont have an interest, why deliberatly belittle a sport that people follow because it does not interest you? let your remote do the talking in future, switch over..

[fredpuli47]

Yes, I suppose if you saw the England v Wales game, you'd think that ! As a bonus the TV kept showing 'Phase 1' 'Phase 2' etc in the corner of the screen , the relevance of which was entirely lost on me, since it came and went without the 'phase' having any effect on the play itself.It wasn't like Rugby League when there's a certain number of tackles before play is halted.

[joggerjayne]

Oh, no ... rugby is a jolly game ... although the rules are a bit complicated.

[Androcles]

I said that what Rugby Union has become! The usual idiot has arrived who doesn't read what you wrote!

Firstly, I was brought up on football, Rugby league, which I still love and I went to a rugby union school (several past England players went there including an England captain), so I am not ANTI the sport as several have suggested. What I am bemoaning is what the game has become, boring. Where is the skill, speed, planned moves where the ball went quickly to the backs from the breakdown? The players are now much bigger, size and weight is all important, injuries are getting more serious and the razmatazz of the new "Professional" game has led to players being lifted into the air at lineouts instead of jumping, and being swapped willy nilly for no apparent reason, the ruck and the maul have just become those heaps.

I think the rule changes need revisiting, to try and restore what once was a great game.

[snags]

''Where is the skill, speed, planned moves where the ball went quickly to the backs from the breakdown?''

Forget the Northern Hemisphere rubbish and look South...

[Tim123]

I wholeheartedly agree with you. I can't think of another sport that is so hampered and destroyed as a spectacle by its rules. There must be at least three volumes of 'things you aren't allowed to do in a ruck', and bearing in mind that 99 times out of 100, a ruck results in the attacking team setting up another ruck 6" downfield, I really don't see the point. Lineouts have become farcical since players were allowed to be lifted, and the set scrum seems to be a contest to see which side can make the other concede a penalty.

The sad thing is that there really is a worthwhile and potentially beautiful game fighting to get out.

[McMouse]

Rugby is a great game. I met my first wife because of Rugby..........she'd just scored a try.