Positing a law change

[Puja]

I was watching a game the other day and saw someone drive perfectly through an underprotected ruck, having entered through the gate and driven the only guard out of the way, only to make contact with the scrum-half and immediately get pinged. It got me thinking about how the scrum-half is completely invulnerable at the back of the ruck, which he wasn't always when I were a lad.

While it does improve quick ball, because the half is less likely to be buried, it does have the unfortunate side-effect that teams have less incentive to resource the breakdown because the competition effectively stops as soon as the ball is anywhere near someone who might look like playing scrum-half. Given that keeping competition alive is important and having a big bunch of forwards strung out in the backline is a hot-button topic right now, I was wondering what the effect on the game would be of making the scrum-half fair game for being driven into or pulled in.

What do people think?

Puja

[kk67]

Show us the vid'..!!

The player becomes dummy-half when he puts his hands on the ball. We need to give them some privileges at that moment. I don't think you can allow pulling him in at this point.
He becomes fair game once the ball leaves the ground.

[Digby]

In the first instance I'd like to see much better pick and go work around the fringe and even up the middle which would encourage defending teams to better resource the ruck, possibly even competent use of a maul though I shouldn't get my hopes up. It's all there for attack to do, and if they can't and instead choose to run into a set defensive line, well you can lead a horse to water but if the horse then drowns itself

The rules as they are now are as they are now, and I'd give them some time to see what happens even though I wouldn't have done some of what we now have to begin with.

[fivepointer]

If the SH isnt playing the ball then he's part of the ruck. If he gets cleared out i reckon thats fair enough.

What would help the contest around the breakdown is players staying on their feet. Every game is marred by supporting players flopping on to the tackled player, thus preventing any kind of challenge for possession. Make them stay up and you would encourage the opposition in going for turnovers, and in mounting counter rucks.

[Peat]

Possibly splitting hairs too much to be enforceable but I'd allow clearing them out while still making pulling them in illegal. One rewards a serious effort and encourages both sides to commit to the ruck, while still giving an alert scrum-half plenty of time to act. Its also quite hard for a serious counter-ruck all the way through not to get the scrum-half. The other is relatively easy and doesn't require a particular commitment, and encourages slower play.

[Which Tyler]

I do agree that something should be done, and I noticed it too.
If a defender can legally get all the way through the ruck then there should be some sort of repercussion for the attacking team.
Currently said defender can't touch the SH, and can't kick the ball, and no way can he pick up the ball before the SH gets to it.
I'd argue that if a defender is clean through the ruck, then it's no longer a ruck.

Personally I don't like that SHs are considered invulnerable at the base of a ruck anyway.
I think they should be allowed to be tackled the moment they pick up the ball, and should be fair game for rucking.

Hell, I'd even allow for them to be pulled into the ruck, so long as the player doing so is legally involved in play. Maybe if we did that, rucks would be properly resources again as you couldn't secure the ruck with just 1 man on his feet.
Mind you, I'd also ban anyone off their feet from getting involved, require everyone on their feet to be bound, and ban pre-binding... Almost like it's already written in the laws.

[Digby]

I have no massive objection to a 9 being cleared out before they've got hands on, but it'd have to be from real rucking, not simply from charging into a pile of bodies looking to shunt anything back over the other side to impede the 9.