Flawed Laws

*Whistle* “Free kick to the Wallabies. No! Wait, not there... The mark is here, 10mm from where you took the quick tap.” Why? Well I am not sure. There are plenty of silly rules in our otherwise perfect game. You would be hard pressed to find any fan that does not have some quam with a rule that really should not be a rule
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The quick tap taken just off the mark, this rule is soooooo inconsistent and simply pedantic at times. I don’t know about you guys but I am not a big fan of referee discretion and this law shows just how annoying referee’s discretion can be.

That brings me to my next point. Referees discretion. I do understand that it is a necessary part of the referee’s job but in some cases it should just be ruled out completely because it often causes’s a lot of controversy and frustration among players and fans alike. A prime example would be the scrum. Half the time when a scrum collapse’s its pure guess work, the ref has no idea what is going on so he uses his discretion and makes what is a 50/50 decision (unless the All Blacks are playing, then it’s more like a 90/10 decision. *wink wink*)

Yellow cards. I hate yellow cards. I am a Springbok fan, so I am particularly unhappy about how often they get thrown around. We as fans pay good money to see 15 play against 15 players. If players offend, cite them after the game. For offence’s such as infringing at the ruck consistently, use a two yellow’s equals a red system, like they do in soccer. Except make it two yellows equals 10 mins in the bin rather than the remainder of the game seeing as being a man down in our game would have far greater affect than in soccer.

Throwing the ball in quick. A lot of you might not agree, but this is a dumb rule. It helps teams with weaker line outs avoid having to compete, why? Line outs are a crucial part of the game that teams should be made to compete at, regardless of their skill... or lack of.

Some of these and many others really annoy me, but nothing is more annoying than a player kicking the ball perfectly a metre in from the sideline and the opposition is allowed to put a foot out and catch the ball and its considered kicked out on the full. Why is this a rule? Who decided that the player catching the ball has the right to turn what is a very good kick into a very bad kick? As far as I am concerned, if a player kicks the ball a metre in from the field as a tactic, he has executed a skill to perfection and should not be punished for being accurate.

I could think of many others that are very annoying but I would just raise my blood pressure and spend a few days writing up this article. But with that said, please comment and let me know which rules annoy you most and why.