Sean Lineen claims laws need to be changed to improve game

Published on Monday 21 December 2009 22:56

SEAN Lineen spent yesterday poring over the disappointment of his Glasgow side again failing to follow up an uplifting Heineken Cup win with another, but as he turns his attention back to domestic duty at Firhill the coach admitted that the time has come for some major tweaks to rugby's rules.

Rucking, he believes, has to be allowed to return to the game, with studs on bodies the only route to tidying up a 'breakdown' area that is now spoken of more than anything else in rugby and becoming a frustratingly apt description of the modern game.

On top of that, the former Scotland Grand Slam-winning centre, insists that the scrum's 'hit', where the two packs batter into each other at the start of the scrum, should be scrapped altogether as it is the root cause of the plethora of momentum-jarring re-set scrums.

Lineen holds his hands up and admits that coaches and players are contributing to the unedifying spectacle of boring kickathons. "I speak to the coaches across European rugby often, and coaches in the southern hemisphere," he said, "and there is no doubt in my mind that most want to play rugby, but we also want, and need, to win games and the two are becoming more and more incompatible.

"The kickathons are embarrassing, but they are happening because everyone now fears giving away cheap penalties, three points, in the middle third of the field. How many times in recent weeks, at Heineken Cup and autumn Test level, have we seen three points deciding a game? Two of Scotland's Tests – against Australia and Argentina - were decided by one bloody kick.

"The most common penalty is rugby now is when a player runs out of his 22 and is tackled, and penalized for holding on, or his team is for going over the ball; whatever. So, as coaches, do you ask your player to counter-attack with ball-in-hand? The game has swung hard in favour of defence which has made it extremely tough on teams that want to attack."

The area of the breakdown is simply the point where a player is tackled and a wrestle develops for that ball, and with professionalism players have become stronger and more adept at the 'wrestle' – some clubs have even employed wrestling coaches. The International Rugby Board have tried various ideas to stop this becoming a dead end of rugby matches, where the ball remains hidden until the referee awards a penalty, but with no real success.

Lineen said: "Players and coaches now are becoming experts on referees rather than rugby skills. When a guy goes into contact he's obviously looking to get the ball back, but the tackler hardly ever rolls away now. He either rides up the body to go down wrapped round the player or rolls into the path of where the ball is being presented, and on many occasions the man wrapping up the tackler and ball actually gets the penalty given to them for the boy they've tackled not releasing the ball - when he can't.

"So we now have SWOT analyses on referees and when and how many penalties they give, so that if you know a referee likes to blow for four or five penalties in the first 20 minutes, to show his authority, take charge of the game or whatever, then you instruct the team to play the game in the opposition half of the field so the penalties he gives are down there."

Lineen would not profess to be an expert in the 'dark arts' of scrummaging, but he has watched enough reset scrums in the last two years with Glasgow to believe that that is another major debilitating factor inhibiting players and coaches.

"The scrum is a joke now," he said. "Why would we practise anything in training off a scrum? It's just reset, reset, free-kick, reset, reset, penalty. Now, I know some coaches tell their scrums if you're going backwards go down or bore in, and referees are not sorting that out. They give a free-kick or penalty, and it's 50-50 who it goes to.

"Referees have this season been told to make a decision rather than allow resets to punctuate the momentum of a game, and so they feel under pressure to make some sort of decision even if they don't why a scrum has gone down.

"We're no longer talking about the 'dark arts' of how to scrum to win advantage; it's the 'cheap arts' of how to avoid scrummaging. It's not clever anymore. The real contest of the scrum, where two front rows are really trying to get one up on the other, is gone.

"You have to remember that the force in the scrums now is so great with bigger and bigger men - 19, 20, 21 stone props, with 22 stone locks behind them... that is incredible force going through a scrum now, so no wonder some teams don't want to scrum. And rugby is now a job so livelihoods are on the line, with the players and coaches.

"So we watch games now, the scrums come up and the loose forwards and scrum-halves throw their hands up and shout 'ref!' It is a nightmare and it is killing the game."

This is not the most optimistic of discussion issues heading into Christmas and New Year, and not typical either of a usually ebullient Lineen. If his patience is being tested beyond its limit then clearly we have a problem. However, when we turn attention to the future and what can be done to reverse a trend of slipping entertainment levels and crowds heading into the next decade, the demeanour of the Glasgow coach lifts completely.

"It just needs changes to be made next year," he said, matter-of-factly. "In the scrum, I would bring the front rows closer together; make them bind first before they push. It's not quite Rugby League, because they can still push and disrupt, but the key is getting the ball in and away.

"And rucking has to come back. The tackler has a licence to cause havoc on the deck at the moment. If he tackles and gets up and goes for it, great, that's not a problem, but more common is the second guy or tackler diving on the ball and it becoming an all-in wrestle until the whistle blows.

"Now, if you put some studs back down the backs of players intent on deliberately killing the game then it would change the same way it did when I played. Most players have a natural instinct to look after themselves and they will roll away when it becomes painful not to.

"Rucking can be done legally and in a way that is not dangerous, but there would not be the need for it every time there's a ruck because players would get used to threat of rucking if they lie on the ball, and react by getting away."

Lineen added: "I love the game and love watching rugby, but we're losing the art of the attack right now. And you can see why. We are having to spend more and more time each week on teaching the boys how to wrestle for ball and their technique at the breakdown, at the expense of skills like passing drills.

"We try and we try to get a balance in coaching, and skills will always be part of our training because I want my guys to enjoy playing the game, be better at it and we will always try to play rugby.

"Ultimately, you can't look to players, coaches or even referees to change it. There is so much pressure on clubs to win that the only way to improve the game is to change the laws – change the scrum and bring back rucking. And do it quickly before players forget how to attack altogether."

&#149 The Scotsman welcomes your views on the debate. Have you been turned off rugby? What are the problems? What has to change in 2010 to make rugby better? Email us with your views at [e-mail]