Sort out the breakdown - Dallaglio
by Brenden Nel | 08 December 2009 (08:12)
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| Lawrence Dallaglio © Gallo Images |
World Cup winner Lawrence Dallaglio has a message for the International Rugby Board – forget about changing all the laws of the game and sort out the breakdown, then everything will come right.
Dallaglio was a guest of the tournament sponsors Emirates at the last weekend’s Dubai Sevens and believes the shortened game has a number of lessons that its 15s counterpart can learn from it.
However, with a myriad of debates going on surrounding the way the game is currently being employed, Dallaglio sees the breakdown as the key to ending rugby’s woes, and wants the IRB to take some action on it.
“ I don't think changing the rules has become the issue but rather it is more the breakdown that is the problem,” Dallaglio told SuperRugby.
One factor that needs to return, according to the dual Sevens and 15s World Cup winner, is the return of rucking to the breakdown. This, he believes will stop a lot of the illegal play at the moment that is being allowed.
“Absolutely, rucking should return and it will sort out a lot of issues. It did do in the first five or six years of my career and I have still got the scars to prove it.
“You want a healthy competition at the breakdown but at the moment we are getting a very stop start game, lots of slow ball and it is becoming easier to defend.
“Guys are a lot bigger and faster but the pitch hasn't got any bigger and so space is at a premium. Referees have the opportunity to set their stall out early on in the game and they still have enough leeway within the rules to create a quick game - but the breakdown has become a real issue.”
Dallaglio wants the IRB to instruct referees to favour attacking teams – this he believes will stop the plethora of kicks that has become a part of the game in the past 12 months.
“Last year there was a lot more kicking in the game which no-one really wants to see. The key is improving the breakdown and favouring the attacking side a little bit more,” Dallaglio believes.
“I thought we got there a couple of years ago when we seemed to be getting the tackler off the ball and clearing bodies out but it has gone back to being slow and turgid. Rugby players are taught to play with their heads so if you get slow ball you are going to boot it.”
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