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Mind Games: Noble words in a slender book mostly ignored

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‘Rugby embraces a number of social and emotional concepts such as courage, loyalty, sportsmanship, discipline and teamwork.”

Those are the noble words that appear in the slender book I was chuffed to receive recently.

It sets out a charter that is intended “to give the game a checklist against which the mode of play and behaviour can be assessed, the objective being to ensure that rugby maintains its unique character both on and off the field”.

The newest, and most welcome, addition to my library – because it is so much easier to read and reference a printed book than any online counterpart – is entitled Laws of the Game of Rugby Union.

It joins two others, one dated 1983 and the other 2002, on the bookshelf along with numerous annuals accumulated over my 45 years of watching and writing about this rugged game.

There are some marked differences in the content of the 1983 volume – when the worthies of the International Rugby Board still liked to talk about the Laws of the Game of Rugby Football – and the current version.

For instance, the older book contains a declaration of amateurism.

“The game is an amateur game. No one is allowed to seek or to receive payment or other material reward for taking part in the game.”

The regulations relating to amateurism cover five pages and contain six main regulations broken down into plenty of clauses.

The book also includes names, addresses and phone numbers of just about anybody you might have needed to contact at any union in those days – unlike now, when administrators hide behind a shield of spin mechanics.

The laws governing the scrum (in 1983 it was referred to as the scrummage) have obviously changed, with a new engagement sequence to encourage safety.

But I was interested in how many of the laws have remained unchanged over 32 years.

The object of the game is exactly the same but for the addition of Sevens – “that two teams of 15 players (or seven, added to the new book) each, observing fair play according to the laws and a sporting spirit, should by carrying, passing, and kicking the ball score as many points as possible, the team scoring the greater number of points to be the winner of the match”.

The latest book contains a long section on the principles of the game; essentially providing a set of the Corinthian ideals by which rugby should be played.

The dimensions of the field have not changed, the height of the crossbar and the width of the posts are the same.

The two latest books contain statements about rugby being a sport that involves physical contact and the inherent dangers that entails – again the safety aspect.

But paging through the latest book confirmed my conviction that one of the biggest problems in rugby these days is that it has become a hybrid of what it is meant to be – a game not played according to its own laws.

This applies from the scrum feed “the scrum half must throw the ball straight down the middle line”, to the ruck “players must not handle the ball in a ruck”.

There are just so many laws that, week in and week out, are not applied or are interpreted differently by referees – so as to render the game a farce.

. Get a law book and see whether you agree with me. They are available, at R120 a copy, through sareferees.co.za

. dan.retief@citypress.co.za

. Follow me on Twitter @retiefdan

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