Clearly World Rugby are going after the caterpillars rucks with Ben O’Keeffe counting down from five seconds this morning to let the scrum-half know to get rid of it .. See it below and the comments underneath ..
This is great from Ben O'Keeffe, and it's clearly what World Rugby meant with their recent statements on applying existing law to combat caterpillars. https://t.co/lNRdKZJusP pic.twitter.com/uWO2H3xRnw
— Charlie Morgan (@CharlieFelix) March 23, 2024
Still maintain that WR should bring in a law change that says after 5 seconds has elapsed from “Use it!”, the offside line disappears and defending teams can compete for the ball.
You have to laugh at The Caterpillar Ruck. Just pick the ball up correctly and you’re set to kick it earlier, so stop wasting bodies and ask them to do something more constructive!
I thought Matt Carly managed it well yesterday, as soon as the ball was clear of the bodies he called use it so stability wasn’t lost, only time to form the caterpillars
First noticed him doing this 2wks ago, and it’s great – very clear messaging..
As someone whose playing days were in the 80s, I find the relatively uncontested rucks, catapiller or not, ridiculous. I get not wanting all your scrum sucked into a heaving pile. But 4-5 guys semi bound over their own ball without opposition contact looks like pantomime rugby. Didn’t ruck used to require being bound in contact to other team
Absolutely spot on. If it’s not bound to an opposing player it’s not a ruck; it’s just a big pile of bodies. If no opposition player is bound the ruck should be called as “over” and players can come through and compete for the ball.
And uphold the straight put in at the scrum too. It’s clear as day in the laws, it just needs officials to enforce it.
WR should make it an offence to join the caterpillar after use it called, too often players join after the use it call and the 5 seconds isn’t applied until the ball is then moved to the back of the caterpillar. If referees called use it as soon as the ball was available and at that point no extra placiuld join the ruck scrum halves would have to react quicker .