Sir, – David Bourke proposes (Letters, February 5th) two changes to the rules of rugby union to improve the spectacle and safety of the sport.
The dangers of professional rugby are considerable, injuries occur with great frequency and they often disrupt the flow of tournaments and, in effect, govern team selection. New thinking is surely warranted, therefore.
Mr Bourke proposes a weight limit, akin to “jockeys in horse racing”, of 90kg for backs and 100kg for forwards.
There would be merit in this theoretically but its real world implications might be quite chaotic. In boxing, or martial arts, tournaments of multiple bouts take place over successive days. If one competitor can’t meet their weight limit, they are disqualified and their opponent gets a “by” to the next round, as the tournament continues. If a few players on each rugby team miss a weight limit for a rugby match, however, abandoning the fixture might have major implications for travelling supporters, the tourism sector and organizers. Conversely, trying to find an international grade outhalf or front- row forward at short notice would be generally impossible. Even at club level it would be very difficult.
The system of horses carrying lead weights to compensate for varying ability can be done easily in principle, and even if one horse is removed from the race, it will continue. It is hard to envisage a credible parallel in rugby, though.
The second proposal is for tacking to be limited to below the waist level. This would indeed facilitate off-loading and so open up a more fluid game. Probably the most striking thing about seeing elite rugby players perform is what impressive physical specimens they are, imposing and powerful modern-day titans. If one could only tackle below waist level, there would be a clear advantage in being short. Many of our top players, some of whom are two metres tall or more, would have no chance of getting low enough to tackle people of short stature in the fraction of a second available. As far as the imposing physiques of players go, a “race to the bottom” might begin.
Traditionally, rugby has been regarded as a sport with a role for all shapes and sizes, with each body shape having to make the best of its attributes in a trade-off of power versus mobility, and weight versus ability to change direction. Such a change might afford all the advantages to the shortest of players in the back line.
In a sense though, a faster, more open, flowing version of rugby might indeed be a better and safer spectacle. It could be argued that it already exists, though – rugby sevens is essentially that. In the 15-man version, reversing the trend toward larger, bulkier players who generate such injurious momentum is a noble goal, particularly at youth levels. Achieving the goal still looks challenging though. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN O’BRIEN,
Kinsale, Co Cork.