For those of you that follow rugby union you will be aware that from last summer a whole host of ELVs (Experimental Law Variations) were introduced with the aim of making the game more attractive to the viewer by providing more attacking opportunities in the game. However, the net result has been that these changes have been a resounding failure and hopefully this will be the outcome of a 2 day conference that is taking place in London this week prior to the IRB (Rugby Union's Governing Body) making the final decision on these laws next month.
The main purpose of the changes was to try and keep the ball in play for longer as this led to the belief that more attacking opportunities would become available. Whilst the lawmakers can argue that the ball has spent more time in play, all that has happened is the eruptions of aerial ping pong once the ball is passed back into the 22.
Even though in total there have been more than a dozen ELVs the other key change noticeable to most spectators and players has been the disappearance of the maul from a game of rugby. The reason for this has been because one of the ELVs has been to legalise the collapsing of a maul under certain guidelines. To me this has had a far more profound effect at junior rugby level for two reasons:
Firstly, from a safety point of view because many mauls are started from the lineout area and typically the lineout jumper will have his back to the opposition and both hands on the ball after coming down from a jump and therefore has little chance to defend himself from being "sacked" as half his team-mates come crashing down on top of him. I am not aware of any serious injuries having occurred but this is probably because most teams will not now attempt to form a maul but play the ball "off the top" of the lineout. With the changes that have been bought about in the scrums in the last few years to help prevent serious injury I am surprised that this ELV was even considered.
Secondly, and this goes far deeper this ELV seems to fundamentally undermine one of the key principles of the game. What I mean here is that as a team sport rugby can offer a position for all shapes and sizes far more than many sports can. In the past there have been many attempts to dumb-down the effectiveness of the scrum and by taking away the maul as a means of team carrying the ball forward it is again an attack on the usefulness of the forwards in a team - particularly the front five.
Rugby Union players and many of those who watch do not want to play or watch Rugby League but many of these ELVs continue to take the game down that path - what would be next uncontested scrums, no lineouts? It should also be remembered that Rugby is not Football (Soccer) but that there is a place for kicking in a game of rugby and lets not forget it is where the game originally evolved from but the restriction of passing the ball back into the 22 so it can be cleared reminds me of when the soccer authorities outlawed the pass back to the goalkeeper. Whilst that may have worked for that sport it does not mean that it will work in our sport.
Therefore, I say that the we have had a season trying the ELVs but fundamentally they have not worked and should be abandoned. It may be that one or two can be adopted without changing the basics of the sport (pre-gripping in the lineout) but in my opinion draw a line under this season and lets go back to the rules as they were - that won't lessen the spectacle but may even improve it!
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Monday, 30 March 2009
Champions Come to the Fore
What a cracking weekend of sport, highlighted with the superb win by Jenson Button and the new Brawn GP team - the first time a new team has had such a stunning entry to the sport for 55 years and then it was Fangio who won before going on to become a legend of F1!
However, there were other notable achievements over the weekend not least David Beckham setting a new record for England appearances by an outfield player. Though some will say that his is not a fair record as a handful of his appearances have been as a substitute, what should not be forgotten is that less than 3 years ago many thought his career as a serious professional footballer was over after England crashed out of the World Cup. The one thing that we all forgot was the drive and ambition which has always been part of Beckham's soul and once he realised that he could still make a contribution to his national team, he has got himself fit and started playing at the highest level again.
Who knows, maybe he will go on to complete his medal collection with a World Cup Winner's medal in South Africa next summer and if Capello continues to develop this England team at the same rate he has done for the past 12 months perhaps this will become more than a pipe dream not just for Beckham but for the English nation.
Another champion who proved herself yet again this weekend was Victoria Pendleton in the World Track Cycling Championships. Whilst none of our other individual Gold medallists from Beijing were competing, Pendleton won her fourth World Championship in her Olympic event but not without having to draw on her undoubtedly huge reserves of willpower as with 50 metres to go it looked like she would have to settle for silver.
Enough superlatives have already been written about Tiger Woods but yet again he demonstrated his desire to win and dominate the opposition in the final round at Bay Hill. Having not played for six months and with just a couple of tournaments played, where he looked far from his imperious best, he got himself into a position to challenge on the final day and though his last round was far from flawless his sheer presence enabled him to overcome his challengers. With the first major of the season only a few weeks away this result will have far more significance on the competition, who may just have thought his era of dominance was under threat. I for one will find it hard to bet against him in the Masters.
Finally, on the subject of champions I return to the subject of Formula 1 and Ross Brawn. For those who maybe are not avid F1 enthusiasts, Brawn was the driving force behind Schumacher's dominance of the sport and his world championships for both Benetton and Ferrari. Perhaps, we should not be surprised that the team in his own name has arrived at the pinnacle of the sport until we remember that whilst it took years at Ferrari to deliver success, what was achieved on Sunday in Melbourne took only a few weeks. Lets hope that this great start can be continued and that Brawn can take his true position in the list of Formula 1 greats because lets not forget that this is a sport not just about the drivers but also their cars.
However, there were other notable achievements over the weekend not least David Beckham setting a new record for England appearances by an outfield player. Though some will say that his is not a fair record as a handful of his appearances have been as a substitute, what should not be forgotten is that less than 3 years ago many thought his career as a serious professional footballer was over after England crashed out of the World Cup. The one thing that we all forgot was the drive and ambition which has always been part of Beckham's soul and once he realised that he could still make a contribution to his national team, he has got himself fit and started playing at the highest level again.
Who knows, maybe he will go on to complete his medal collection with a World Cup Winner's medal in South Africa next summer and if Capello continues to develop this England team at the same rate he has done for the past 12 months perhaps this will become more than a pipe dream not just for Beckham but for the English nation.
Another champion who proved herself yet again this weekend was Victoria Pendleton in the World Track Cycling Championships. Whilst none of our other individual Gold medallists from Beijing were competing, Pendleton won her fourth World Championship in her Olympic event but not without having to draw on her undoubtedly huge reserves of willpower as with 50 metres to go it looked like she would have to settle for silver.
Enough superlatives have already been written about Tiger Woods but yet again he demonstrated his desire to win and dominate the opposition in the final round at Bay Hill. Having not played for six months and with just a couple of tournaments played, where he looked far from his imperious best, he got himself into a position to challenge on the final day and though his last round was far from flawless his sheer presence enabled him to overcome his challengers. With the first major of the season only a few weeks away this result will have far more significance on the competition, who may just have thought his era of dominance was under threat. I for one will find it hard to bet against him in the Masters.
Finally, on the subject of champions I return to the subject of Formula 1 and Ross Brawn. For those who maybe are not avid F1 enthusiasts, Brawn was the driving force behind Schumacher's dominance of the sport and his world championships for both Benetton and Ferrari. Perhaps, we should not be surprised that the team in his own name has arrived at the pinnacle of the sport until we remember that whilst it took years at Ferrari to deliver success, what was achieved on Sunday in Melbourne took only a few weeks. Lets hope that this great start can be continued and that Brawn can take his true position in the list of Formula 1 greats because lets not forget that this is a sport not just about the drivers but also their cars.
Saturday, 28 March 2009
Bookies 1 and Stan 0
So the qualifying is over and it is the two Brawn cars heading the grid with Jenson Button on pole. It goes to show that the Bookies who installed Button as favourite for the race a few days ago know more than I do. Having said that three Germans did qualify in the top 6 as well as a BMW so maybe the race will pan out differently from qualifying.
The Mclarens appear to be well off the pace and in addition Hamilton has had to take a penalty (along with the Toyotas) and it will be interesting to see how Hamilton copes with the pressure having spent much of his short career at the front of the grid.
Further good news for Brawn is the agreement with Virgin to sponsor the cars and this looks like it could be a great bit of business for both parties and hopefully lead to a more attractive colour scheme on the Brawn cars after this weekend.
The Mclarens appear to be well off the pace and in addition Hamilton has had to take a penalty (along with the Toyotas) and it will be interesting to see how Hamilton copes with the pressure having spent much of his short career at the front of the grid.
Further good news for Brawn is the agreement with Virgin to sponsor the cars and this looks like it could be a great bit of business for both parties and hopefully lead to a more attractive colour scheme on the Brawn cars after this weekend.
Friday, 27 March 2009
The Germans are Coming & The Chain
So the Formula 1 season is upon us after and what has seemed an endless build up and I for one can’t wait till Sunday morning when the red lights go out.
This season promises to be one of the most open and competitive in years with the new regulations that have been brought in, and of course this has led to the politics in the sport taking most of the headlines in the build-up to the first race. This is because the Toyota, Brawn and Williams teams have taken a different interpretation of one of the rules from the other teams with regards to the design of their rear diffusers (I am no techie so won't go into any more detail). This has led to complaints and investigations and will lead to the results of the first two races being declared provisional until the appeals against these complaints have been held. Personally, I think it is a case of sour grapes from a couple of the teams who just haven’t been as innovative and will now have to throw more money at a problem they could have done without.
Of course prior to this we had the F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone via his long-time henchman Max Moseley of the FIA trying to impose a completely new points system this season with less than two weeks before the racing began. Thankfully, the teams stayed united and unanimously rejected the proposals. Whilst the idea of the driver with the most wins taking the championship has some logic, principally to encourage drivers to compete throughout the race for a win there are far too many flaws in the theory which would have played out as the season progressed. Besides, in the last two seasons the championship has come down to the last race of the season and even the last corner – for me, you can’t beat that for excitement!
As I mentioned above there is every chance this could be the most competitive season for a long time and as it stands every team and driver must think they have a decent chance of competing for the championship. This has already been demonstrated in the first two practice sessions in Melbourne with a number of the teams who were at the back-end of the grid last season at the top of the timesheets.
In the title to this post I said the Germans are coming and that is because there is now some serious competition amongst five drivers to take on the legacy of Michael Schumacher and because of the rule changes they could all be competing for wins and possibly the championship this season.
Sebastian Vettel’s credentials don’t need any elaboration after his superb pole position and victory last season in the junior Red Bull car and I expect in the new Adrian Newey designed car that he will be towards the front of many races this season and as many pundits have tipped him as a future multiple world champion I don't need to add to this.
Nico Rosberg now has a couple of years experience and we know that Frank Williams and Patrick Head are winners and have a habit of employing racy drivers who don’t take prisoners. All the signs from testing are that the Toyota engine will provide a decent amount of power and if the car can stay reliable then Nico would be my outside bet to be challenging for the title come October.
The BMW team have always said that this year was the one in which they expected to be fighting for the Championship and in Nick Heidfeld they have a canny and experienced driver who will finish a lot of races in the points. If he can push through and take the odd win this season I think he can upset his more highly regarded teammate (Kubica) and be the driver from BMW pushing for the title.
As well as BMW it at last looks like the highly funded, German based Toyota team could force themselves into the reckoning this season and the driver spearheading this will be Timo Glock who having won the F1 feeder series, GP2, already knows how to win. If Toyota can combine speed and reliability then this driver and team combination can upset the established order. Glock would also like to be remembered as a great driver in his own right rather than as the guy who got overtaken by Hamilton in the last corner of the Brazilian Grand Prix thereby ensuring he (Hamilton) became world champion.
The final German who could make a big impression this season is Adrian Sutil. Whilst the Force India cars have not been picking up the plaudits of some of the other teams, the use of the Mercedes engines has dragged them from the back of the grid into the midfield and with reliability likely to be an issue this season with so many new rules, engines having to last longer etc. they could be pushing for podiums just by keeping going. In addition, as Sutil showed in the Monaco Grand Prix last year that if we get a wet race, he is certainly up for the challenge.
Whilst we all hope for a great open season, I suspect it will be the usual suspects taking the Championships come November and my predictions for the season are as follows:
1. Alonso; 2 Raikonnen; 3 Hamilton for the driver’s title.
2. BMW for the constructors closely followed by Ferrari and Mclaren.
3. Raikonnen for most wins (Bernie’s preferred method of determining the championship)
4. Rosberg as the wildcard to be challenging for the driver’s title and Toyota for the constructors.
5. Heidfeld, Rosberg and Webber to break their win ducks this season.
Finally, in the UK, coverage returns to the BBC and for one I can’t wait to hear that Fleetwood Mac haunting baseline as the credits open – it will take me back to my earliest memories of F1 when Andretti, Hunt, Lauda and Petersen where fighting for supremacy.
Thursday, 26 March 2009
A new summer of sport
It could be argued that the 2009 summer of sport is already well under way as the Golf season started before Christmas, International Cricket is now played 365 days a year, the tennis season is well under way and the 6 nations rugby has been completed.
For me however, the summer sports season starts with the beginning of the Formula 1 season where practice for the first Grand Prix in Australia will begin in a few hours time. I will comment more on this sport in a later post but here I want to highlight some of the events that will be upcoming over the next few weeks and months.
The cycling season has begun in earnest and as I write this the world track championships are taking place in Poland, albeit without two of Britain's heroes from the Olympics last year (Bradley Wiggins and Sir Chris Hoy) but I am hopeful that there will still be plenty for us Brits to cheer and we didn't start badly yesterday with 2 silvers and 2 bronzes. However, of real interest to me is the road-racing season and the anticipated participation of two former Tour de France winners in this year's tour - Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador - riding in the same Astana team. In addition seeing Mark Cavendish challenge for stage wins and hopefully the Green Jersey will definitely keep my interest up especially after the success he had in last year's tour and the other early successes he has enjoyed this season.
We have a Lions tour to South Africa where the Lions will be looking for their first series win since they were last there 12 years ago led by Martin Johnson. We don't know who will be in the touring party but I guess there will be a few Irish men after their magnificent Grand Slam win at the weekend and no doubt with the heavy Wasps connection in the management team a smattering of Wasps players will also be on their way.
There is no major soccer tournament this summer but there will be plenty of cricket with the IPL, now taking place in South Africa, the World 20/20s and of course the Ashes later in the summer and I am sure all of these events will provide plenty to comment on.
In addition the tennis season will roll into Europe in the next few weeks and even though British eyes will no doubt be on the continued progress and success of Andy Murray the real story could be Nadal going for a clean sweep of the Grand Slams which judging current form he is well placed to achieve.
Finally, for now the first golf major is only a few weeks away and lets not forget that Padraig Harrington has a chance to hold all four majors at once having superbly won The Open and US PGA last summer.
Plenty to look forward to then including the conclusion of the European football season.
For me however, the summer sports season starts with the beginning of the Formula 1 season where practice for the first Grand Prix in Australia will begin in a few hours time. I will comment more on this sport in a later post but here I want to highlight some of the events that will be upcoming over the next few weeks and months.
The cycling season has begun in earnest and as I write this the world track championships are taking place in Poland, albeit without two of Britain's heroes from the Olympics last year (Bradley Wiggins and Sir Chris Hoy) but I am hopeful that there will still be plenty for us Brits to cheer and we didn't start badly yesterday with 2 silvers and 2 bronzes. However, of real interest to me is the road-racing season and the anticipated participation of two former Tour de France winners in this year's tour - Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador - riding in the same Astana team. In addition seeing Mark Cavendish challenge for stage wins and hopefully the Green Jersey will definitely keep my interest up especially after the success he had in last year's tour and the other early successes he has enjoyed this season.
We have a Lions tour to South Africa where the Lions will be looking for their first series win since they were last there 12 years ago led by Martin Johnson. We don't know who will be in the touring party but I guess there will be a few Irish men after their magnificent Grand Slam win at the weekend and no doubt with the heavy Wasps connection in the management team a smattering of Wasps players will also be on their way.
There is no major soccer tournament this summer but there will be plenty of cricket with the IPL, now taking place in South Africa, the World 20/20s and of course the Ashes later in the summer and I am sure all of these events will provide plenty to comment on.
In addition the tennis season will roll into Europe in the next few weeks and even though British eyes will no doubt be on the continued progress and success of Andy Murray the real story could be Nadal going for a clean sweep of the Grand Slams which judging current form he is well placed to achieve.
Finally, for now the first golf major is only a few weeks away and lets not forget that Padraig Harrington has a chance to hold all four majors at once having superbly won The Open and US PGA last summer.
Plenty to look forward to then including the conclusion of the European football season.
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