Should we learn from Rugby ?

Granpa

Thinking about Saturdays timewasting, why don't we trial 80 minutes of actual play ? Thinking about the way that Referees and Assistants ( some help those two were on Saturday ! ) are constantly harangued by players, the delay on the penalty was diabolical gamesmanship, why don't we just toughen up ?  Rugby Referees make a decision and thats it, end of. Football Referees make a decision and theres time to go to the Loo. We might have to go through a short period of card waving, but you never saw that Italian fellow with the bald head put up with it.

I guess I'm back on my old hobbyhorse, why can't we get some decent people running the game ?

Miserableoldgit

Don't think anything will change whilst Football is at TV's beck & call: Adverts are more important to TV Companies than we are.

dabos

You'd have to shorten the lengths of the halves to 30 minutes each way, as the ball is out of play for a surprisingly long time.

But it should be easy to clamp down on time wasting by using yellow cards. If a player was booked in the first half for time wasting, they almost certainly wouldn't risk continually time wasting during the second half as well.

suzisausage

or we could do what they do in American Football. 60 minutes of play which takes on average 3 hours to be played.  everytime the game stops they have some fella come on the pitch and its announced what he's done to get the accolade of standing on the pitch during the time out and everyone claps him, or cheerleaders doing a routine on the pitch. What with the 2 minute warnings before half time which warrants a gap in play, it takes forever for anything to get done!

hilarious. fab to watch in the stadium, but lost patience with watching it on Sky Sports 2 last night.

Plaaayer

I couldn't sit through 90 mins a couple of seasons ago, by the time it hit 2 hours the ground would have been empty.

Denis-Fuller

Another thing we could learn from rugby is awarding penalty goals for fouls or handballs that stop goals being scored - even if the offence takes place outside the box.

cliveg

Maybe we should do away with the Handball law? Rugby have and it seems to work for them......

Addicted

I like the idea of not being able to pass it forward

cliveg

It would appear that our international rugby players have learnt a lot from their football colleagues about how to crash out of a major international tournament whilst not only playing badly but also thinking they are better than they are and also acting like complete twats off the field.

Addicted

Yeah but throwing dwarfs and jumping off ferrys, now THATS banter

cliveg

I like the idea of not being able to pass it forward

Butch Wilkins could have been a dual international if that had been the case in his day....

suzisausage

I couldn't sit through 90 mins a couple of seasons ago, by the time it hit 2 hours the ground would have been empty.

What was watching sport like in Canada?

sralan

Yep, jumping off a ferry after losing in the quarter finals. Poor sod must have been trying to drown his sorrow ( or had he already achieved this and this was the result)?.These people are supposed to be representing their country. What's the world coming to when the upper class behave like t$*ts??

allez les addicks

to be fair, if that's what considered as banter by rugby players, I prefer it to the incest song......

RedArmySE7

The only reason the ref's seem to have respect in rugby is that the 10 yard penalty is so severe as you cant pass forwards and rugby is a true territory game. They tried it in football but it's pointless.

Plaaayer

The only reason the ref's seem to have respect in rugby is that the 10 yard penalty is so severe as you cant pass forwards and rugby is a true territory game. They tried it in football but it's pointless.

As Suzi says I wonder what they do in Canada though??

Floyd Montana

Yep, jumping off a ferry after losing in the quarter finals. Poor sod must have been trying to drown his sorrow ( or had he already achieved this and this was the result)?.These people are supposed to be representing their country. What's the world coming to when the upper class behave like t$*ts??

You couldnt have picked a worse example for your 'upper class' jibe than Tuilagi.

Floyd Montana

The only reason the ref's seem to have respect in rugby is that the 10 yard penalty is so severe as you cant pass forwards and rugby is a true territory game.

Sorry but thats just rubbish.

Cafctekkers

we could also use the simple technology of a replay like they do in rugby to tell whether or not it is a try, we could use the replays that we can see on TV to tell if the ball has crossed the line there is not extra technology needed, just give the ref the ability to see a replay.