Manchester update.

Lost 87-3 at Otley today



Normal service is resumed

[url=http://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyunion/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=rugby/10/01/23/RUGBYU_Ospreys_Quotes.htmlLeicester have lodged an official protest with tournament chiefs after their Heineken Cup exit was overshadowed by a 16th player blunder at the Liberty Stadium.[/url

[url=http://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyunion/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=rugby/10/01/21/RUGBYU_Column.htmlMind numbing boredom awaits[/url

So, no change there, then?

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/johnbeattie/2010/01/desperately_seeking_a_ruck_sol.htmlDesperately seeking a ruck solution[/url

[i'...if it's slow-ish ball for the attacking side we have scrum-halves who are expert at popping the ball to three "muckle" forwards who try to barge forward. And we start again.
I am just not sure that this is good for rugby, but I may be wrong. The game slows down and it all becomes a bit predictable.'[/i

So is it the RL influence that is to blame, or the 'new laws' or the muckles that make the game so sh it? Only one Ingerlish team through to the last eight. I'm gutted. No, really.

The essence of Beattie's article - which I thought was really well written - was that in order to try and make the game safer the IRB have prevented attacking teams from being able to clear defenders out at the ruck as vigorously as they used to and therefore the game has become much slower.

With slower ball for the attacking team and an offside line that is no more than a few feet away, teams are left with no option than to grind the ball forward through the big men phase after phase or kick it away. Imagine modern rugby league played not under a ten metre or five metre offside rule but one or two metres. That's how little space union attacks have to work in most of the time.

The new laws were designed to clean up the contact area, but in reality all they have done is enable defences to slow ball down even further and bring the game to a shuddering halt.

If it got any slower it would be in reverse.

So, Rugby Union Super League. Where did they get that imaginative name from then?

Probably the same place the RFL stole it from, or do you think that's the only sporting competition anywhere in the world that is allowed to call itself Super League?

Of course its not dumbass, but why name it exactly the same as the RL arm? It's like World Superbikes becoming MotoGP, both bike competitions with different rules with the same. How is that any way a good idea apart from trying outshine?

British Ice Hockey at the same time we did?



What's wrong with 'Premiership' or are they still looking for a way of getting rid of (whisper) P&R?