Quote BelleVueLifer="BelleVueLifer"Was/is the proposal that either team can lose a man from the scrum? or just the attacking team? if its both, Id agree that it benefits the defending team. If its just the attacking team, I can see it being a given try for some teams! it wont take teams long to polish a 5 on 4 move in their favour.
Agreed, however, a kicking team are only conceding another 20 meters and I think teams would still be prepared to kick it dead and back themselves to defend their line. After all, its still going to be a controlled restart.
This one could really cause some grief in my opinion. With todays scenario where we went for a last tackle charge down and the ball ended up in touch, head and feed went to Leeds, so that would suggest that in the referees opinion the wakefield man played at the ball, as a pose to the ball playing him.
Now, the proposed rule change encourages the defending team to pressure the kicker/try and charge the kick down, but if teams are going to do that, then the ball ends up in touch and the scrum goes against them, where is the reward that was encouraged?
If we're going to implement this rule, I think that if the ball strikes the defender charging it down and it ends up in touch, we need to award possession to that defenders team on the grounds that if it struck him and didn't go into touch, he wouldn't be penalised for a knock on, and nor would the kicking team have their tackle count restarted.
I a player is going to bust a gut trying to charge a kick down, he shouldn't be penalised for playing at the ball if the kicking team aren't to be awarded 6 more tackles. It could become a grey area very quickly otherwise.'"
1. If I am not mistaken, it is the attacking side only- hence where the "advantage" comes from, but from what I could see the loose forward of the defensive side just left the scrum earlier nullifying this advantage.
2. not sure I agree with that, even though it is a controlled start, the fact it is on the 40 changes the complexion of the attack- one tackle and you could be in the defensive half, and an attacking kick, much more punishing.
3. agreed!!
