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Clearing rucks

Dutch courage

Academy Player
Joined
Feb 13, 2021
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Who thinks there was an element of intent from the clearing player that led to the Jack Wills injury . As a Player he should know better
To explain if he had cleared from over the ball (as he should do) he would not have Jacks leg trapped under him as he rolled him off the ball
Leading to my next question why was it not picked up by the ref as coming in from the side , or more importantly why did the TMO Not pipe up with her 5 Penney's worth?
 
Technically yes, the way Willis was cleared out was illegal and it should have been a penalty to England. The laws don't need changing, they just need enforcing as this is already not allowed. I feel the slight problem at the moment is there is an over-emphasis on head injuries. Whilst I'm not opposed to that, it seems to be coming at the detriment of ignoring other aspects of the game that can lead to injuries.

It's a bit of a fine balance though. On the one hand you want to give the jackler a chance to get the ball but you also don't want the laws around the clearout to be so strict it becomes extremely difficult to clear out without conceding a penalty. What happened in Willis' case was pretty blatant though, an Italian player on the floor grabbed and rolled Willis. Players on the floor in a ruck are deemed to be out of play and not allowed to interfere in the ruck, they are certainly not allowed to grab and roll a players legs.
 
Technically yes, the way Willis was cleared out was illegal and it should have been a penalty to England. The laws don't need changing, they just need enforcing as this is already not allowed. I feel the slight problem at the moment is there is an over-emphasis on head injuries. Whilst I'm not opposed to that, it seems to be coming at the detriment of ignoring other aspects of the game that can lead to injuries.

It's a bit of a fine balance though. On the one hand you want to give the jackler a chance to get the ball but you also don't want the laws around the clearout to be so strict it becomes extremely difficult to clear out without conceding a penalty. What happened in Willis' case was pretty blatant though, an Italian player on the floor grabbed and rolled Willis. Players on the floor in a ruck are deemed to be out of play and not allowed to interfere in the ruck, they are certainly not allowed to grab and roll a players legs.
Agree with your points about the law not changing , also the how referees have a greater emphasis on the area of head injury , but we have a TMO who is able to advise the rev of what he has clearly missed ,in my experience miss (or Mrs) Neville has not been backwards in coming forward in the past , even for the most minor of offences.
On the point of the injury , this could possibly finish jack wills career before he has reached his full potential through foul play and I have not heard anything other than "it's unfortunate" from the proffessional rugby fraternity diapointed in back row legend Lawrence Diaglio who simply said he saw nothing wrong in commentary after the game
 
Still peeves me off that this injury from such a clear out is avoidable. The Italian player dives in From the side grabs Willis to roll him and lands on Jack's left leg whilst twisting him to his right and going off his feet.

Dan Leavy had a similar horrific injury and it's took him 19 months to get back. Ripped both his ACL and PCL in his knee from such a clear out.

Hope Jack isn't out that long and fully recovers . But until the rules for clearing out players are properly enforced/ban such Croc rolls then i think it's inevitable that this type of injury to another jackalar will happen again.
 

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