WHICH RUGBY LAW should be change to improve the sport? This was one of the questions posed on today’s Rugby Weekly Extra podcast.
It came off the back of a discussion which touched on the ‘Dupont rule’, that came into play to almost comical effect during Bath’s game against Gloucester in the Premiership yesterday.
What a stupid passage of play. #BATvGLOpic.twitter.com/s2sAkrnnhO
— Tight Five Rugby (@TightFive_Rugby) January 7, 2024
“I don’t think the game is broken but I suppose our job as passionate rugby people is to identify ways in which it could be better,” said Bernard Jackman, former Ireland hooker and Dragons coach.
Asked which rule he’d change, Jackman said: “Straight away, the Dupont rule. Straight away you’d get those guys going back onside. I think then there’s going to be way more counterattacks. That’s the immediate one that’s obviously fresh in my mind but it is one that I find deeply frustrating and it wasn’t just this game.”
Asked the same question, Murray Kinsella, rugby journalist with The 42, said he believes eight is too great a complement of subs to be able to introduce during a game.
“I was always a fan of fewer substitutions,” he said. “I think the element of fatigue in the game is something that should be there. I understand player welfare concerns … Maybe actually I don’t understand them enough and that’s why I’m arguing this case, but I think to be able to bring on three massive, new impactful front rows completely alters a game in a way that I personally don’t think is right.
“I think being able to change half your team is just a little bit too much for my liking. It does add a bit of excitement, sometimes it can change the whole story of a game but I’d rather have that bit of fatigue or … you know you couldn’t carry as much massive size then as well and that might reduce some of the impact player welfare wise but I know there are loads of coaches who would like that. Yeah, I don’t see it happening but I think it would be pretty cool to see.”
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