WILLIE JOHN McBRIDE, the former Ireland and Lions player, has said that reverting to using substitutes to only replace injured players would lead to a better and safer game.
Tactical subs were introduced to international rugby in 1996, shortly after the game went professional.
“We didn’t have any reserves. If you got injured with Ireland, they put you on the wing because you knew the ball wasn’t going to get there,” McBride, who toured with the Lions five times in the 1960s and 70s, told the Ireland Rugby Social podcast.
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“If you could stay on the field you stayed on and if not, you played with 14. So replacements were very important for injury.”
McBride does not like the squad aspect to today’s game, where South Africa’s use of the ‘Bomb Squad’ is just one innovation that comes with increased matchday numbers.
“I’ll be quite honest, that’s one of the things that annoys me terribly,” he said.
“We have changed rugby from a 15-man game into a 23-man game and that drives me crazy. They talk about bomb squads . . . absolute nonsense.
“I think we should get back to a 15-man game with reserves for injury only and I think we’d have a much better game.”
Introducing so many forwards at once, is “just not fair”, says McBride, adding: “The chances of injury are so much more because you’ve fresh men against tired men.
“These guys that they rush on at the end are 25 stone probably, huge guys who couldn’t play 80 minutes of rugby.
“That’s unfair for a start. The whole game is wrong the way they’ve done this.”
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'Huge guys who couldn't play 80 minutes of rugby' - McBride scathing of substitute rules
WILLIE JOHN McBRIDE, the former Ireland and Lions player, has said that reverting to using substitutes to only replace injured players would lead to a better and safer game.
Tactical subs were introduced to international rugby in 1996, shortly after the game went professional.
“We didn’t have any reserves. If you got injured with Ireland, they put you on the wing because you knew the ball wasn’t going to get there,” McBride, who toured with the Lions five times in the 1960s and 70s, told the Ireland Rugby Social podcast.
“If you could stay on the field you stayed on and if not, you played with 14. So replacements were very important for injury.”
McBride does not like the squad aspect to today’s game, where South Africa’s use of the ‘Bomb Squad’ is just one innovation that comes with increased matchday numbers.
“I’ll be quite honest, that’s one of the things that annoys me terribly,” he said.
“We have changed rugby from a 15-man game into a 23-man game and that drives me crazy. They talk about bomb squads . . . absolute nonsense.
“I think we should get back to a 15-man game with reserves for injury only and I think we’d have a much better game.”
Introducing so many forwards at once, is “just not fair”, says McBride, adding: “The chances of injury are so much more because you’ve fresh men against tired men.
“These guys that they rush on at the end are 25 stone probably, huge guys who couldn’t play 80 minutes of rugby.
“That’s unfair for a start. The whole game is wrong the way they’ve done this.”
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