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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/opinion...-speed-up-rugby
OPINION: Stop the clock. It's as simple as that. To lure spectators back to rugby, don't bore them with endless rewrites of the code's law book - the most mind-sapping read since James Joyce's Ulysses.
Forget sermons about how rugby razzle-dazzle is imperative, because coaches, the most paranoid of breeds, soon ignore them. They know another loss, no matter how extravagantly they play, will soon see everyone out to get them.
Instead, guarantee those spectators brave enough to pay top dollar to attend a game that they'll get value for money by seeing 80 minutes of play, and not countless stoppages.
First, stop the clock when a scrum is called and restart it when the ball is actually fed into it. Also, stop the clock every time a scrum collapses or has to be reset. Why? Because last season some scrums took well over two minutes to be completed. Over and over again. Two wasted minutes.
Stop the clock every time the ball goes over the sideline, and don't start it again until it is thrown into the lineout. And stop the clock every time a goalkicker starts throwing grass in the air. That's a real give-up for another go-slow.
Wow, already we've saved at least 20 to 25 dead minutes a game. And suddenly rugby union might become like AFL - a game played in real time, rather than being dramatically cut short because of finicky referees, forwards wanting to mimic ostriches, and hookers suddenly feigning deafness at lineout time.
Also, if administrators are convinced the main reason footballers play the game and people watch it is to savour tries, then why not elevate their importance by providing higher reward?
Why not increase the number of points for a try from five to six, and so end the ridiculous situation where two penalty goals are worth more than one try? Six-point tries might suddenly convince coaches and players that initiative will lead to success.
It is admirable that southern hemisphere administrators have attempted to provide some oxygen to a code that has lost its way, by calling for excitement, encouraging counter-attack instead of endless kicking, attempting to free up the tackle area and working on fixing the scrum. What infuriates observers most is that rugby does not flow.
Watch football, league and AFL, and they often look seamless. The excitement continues to build, and there are few dead moments.
Watch rugby, and it is one long stutter, punctuated by continual pauses. Flow? Hardly. It is more like constipation.
How can the Tri-Nations promote itself as being attractive to spectators when last year there were between 62 to 89 stoppages a game. An average of 75 stoppages per match, where penalties rather than tries dominated, is not healthy. This includes collapsed scrums that chewed up 12 to 25 per cent of match time.
It is difficult to change team mindsets, and those under pressure invariably become defensive and inhibited, so officials have to look elsewhere for solutions. Cutting out wasted minutes would be a great start. There's bound to be the whinge that players, so used to stoppages to regain their breath, won't be able to cope with the extra minutes, but as coaches often say: "It's time we discover why they actually spend so much time in the gym anyway."
Thankfully, there is some hope. When asked if officials had ever thought of stopping the clock for collapsed scrums, Australian Rugby Union boss John O'Neill showed interest this week.
"I take it on board because it is another way of removing this blight on the game," O'Neill said.
Let's hope it goes somewhere, before too many more exasperated rugby spectators head elsewhere for their entertainment fix.[/b]
