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Jacques Nienaber weighs in on strange kicking loophole shown in Premiership
By Josh Raisey
After a weekend of Gallagher Premiership action which contained possible the match of the season so far, Northampton Saints’ win over Exeter Chiefs, it is strange that one of the main talking points came from a minute period in Bath’s win over Gloucester where almost nothing happened.
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That is because there was a very particular, and much maligned, ‘kick tennis’ battle which saw each side set up ramparts of offside defenders, who were put onside once the catcher advanced five metres. This impasse has been much discussed since, with World Cup winning head coach Jacques Nienaber even giving his take.
For many, kick tennis is seen as the scourge of rugby, and while it must be noted that we seldom see a situation quite like the one at the Rec, Nienaber appears to be in the ‘anti kick tennis’ camp.
In a post on X, the current Leinster senior coach said that this exchange in the Premiership relates to one of the biggest fallacies in the game currently- that high ball in play time equates to exciting rugby. This was of course a period of over a minute where the ball was in play, but the South African pointed out that there was “nothing happening.”
He wrote: “And this is what people don’t understand…..this episode of rugby is more than 1 min ball in play with nothing happening except the ball flying through the air. People thinking high ball in play = entertaining rugby.”
And this is what people don’t understand…..this episode of rugby is more than 1 min ball in play with nothing happening except the ball flying through the air. People thinking high ball in play = entertaining rugby 🤯
— Jacques Nienaber (@jacnienaber) January 7, 2024
Though situations like this one are rarely seen, there have been calls for law changes to ensure it does not happen again and to encourage more counter-attacking rugby.
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The greatest irony is that the smattering of players strewn across the field actually led to an exciting passage of play after a charge down by Bath resulted in the ball falling into the hands of a Gloucester player on their own in the middle of the field, which launched an attack. Nevertheless, this was a passage of play that has not gone down well with much of the rugby community, including one of its leading coaches.
“Refuse to play in your own half” – it’s like watching #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/tAmXXAThpQ
— Brett Igoe (@brettruganalyst) January 7, 2024
No need to change any laws, the game is what it is leave it alone, its rare this sort of sequence happens and it actually ended in some entertaining play. if all the games had 60 seconds of aimless kicking every week then yes maybe we need to think about changes, but one game? The all blacks and the French kick a tone of ball away but are pretty entertaining to watch.
I would get annoyed by that and I did. I find that kick tennis is boring. I think there should be incentives to kick chase, or kick down field or something. Although whenever a law is installed on the basis of a person’s intention you are walking a fine line. That's kind of what the red and yellow cards are doing? One ref deems a tackle as malicious and would red card, another ref would see the same and call for mitigations.
Tbh, making a rule doesn't help the game. The poor refs are at the point now where they are juggling through potentially 4 or 5 laws in each incident to try and figure out which one gets priority.
A group of people need to sift through the current laws and any that have become redundant, like no lifters in the lineouts, or not throwing skew in the scrum should be removed.
In this way, becoming familiar with the laws would be easier for both ref and player, and in this way help to clear up firstly why it was instituted and secondly what is the most important aspects in the game
Many of the best teams in the world:France, SA… do a lot of kicking but it's normally done with a purpose. Endless and aimless foot tennis is the bane of rugby together with the caterpillar ruck and crooked scrum put ins. Why it is so difficult to stop this nonsense in a sport that makes more rules than the UN is beyond me.
Yes John, that’s the best solution. Chase your own kick.
That’s AWESOME! What’s wrong with that? I don’t see it as any different to the type of lame hit ups and kick setups that you saw at the very beginning of that sequence (video). They are just one shuffle of the ball then forward falls over, people pile in then ball is slowly shuffled to another runner that falls down in order to secure the ball safely. Then the 9 box kicks it and the other side starts the same sequence.
Why does the premiership use a different law to rugby, or were those offside players not retreating allowed to do so illegally? Or is it a technicality of them starting the sequence onside? I thought any kick in the field of play creates an offside line of sorts that other players are required to retreat to until put onside.
Awful stuff.
Can we change the kick rule so that the person executing the kick is obliged to Chace his own kick