Grim Shackles

Having settled down to watch on TV a couple of the Heineken Cup Quarter Final ties and been bitterly disappointed by the fare on view let me refer our readers back to my article of last month in which I referred to the “grim shackles” which are currently undermining the enjoyment of the game for most neutrals and even many staunch union supporters.

The “grim shackles” of course are the present laws of the game which are restricting the flow and freedom of movement from a clever footballer of whatever size.

In the two matches which I unfortunately watched – Harlequins v Munster and Toulon v Leicester – there was no end of honest endeavour from players of all four sides, especially from the forwards. There was endless huffing and puffing, grunting and shunting, and any amount of players putting their powerful bodies “on the line” when they charged at each other anywhere from between one and three metres. Their fitness and strength was impressive and their enthusiasm commendable. But any spectators waiting to see clever handling, incisive running, evasive speed down the flanks, and cheeky sidestepping dashes in midfield might just as well have gone for a drink at the bar for eighty minutes.

As one match reporter in the Times indicated of the Harlequins v Munster match, “an absence of invention or ambition from either side made for a first half in which the tackle area and the scrum dominated affairs”.

Unlike me he must have gone for a drink at half time for there was little change in the final forty minutes.

In both matches there was not a single try scored and the outcome of 160 minutes of push, shove, and grunt was a total of 21 penalty goals and one drop goal. What have the 15 a side code’s rule makers done to put the shackles on the once so talented runners behind the scrum? I rest my case!

For those of us seeking a little more excitement the date of the next Eton Wall Game surely would be welcomed.

Ray  French (10th April 2013)