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Watch: The try that inspired a 31-point second half Kinetsu Liners comeback

Saia Fifita in action for Japan. Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images

Hanazono Kintetsu Liners entered Friday night’s contest with Kobelco Kobe Steelers with nothing to lose, sitting bottom of the Japan Rugby League One table with not a win to their name.

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The poor record with just one week remaining in the regular season of the competition has seen the Liners’ fate sealed, the club will play Division Two’s Finalization victor for their place in Division One.

An injury to world-class first five-eighth Quade Cooper was an almighty blow for the Liners’ 2022-23 season ambitions before the season had even begun, but halves partnership of Wallaby legend Will Genia and former Hurricanes No 10 Jackson Garden-Bachop rallied their team for an exceptional comeback in round 15.

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Down 26-3 at halftime, Genia and Garden-Bachop came out for the second 40 with renewed intensity and orchestrated a fine try just four minutes into the second half.

The try was finished by Siosaia Fifita, who ran a perfect line to slice through the Kobe Steelers’ defence and went on to win man-of-the-match.

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The try inspired a miraculous comeback, the Liners fought back to claim a one-point victory by scoring off a lineout drive in the 79th minute and Garden-Bachop calmly converting the required two points for a final score of 34-33.

The previous encounter between the two teams was also a high-scoring affair, Kobe piled on 58 points thanks to hat-tricks to halfback Daiki Nakajima and the now-injured Ngani Laumape.

Quade Cooper, who has been operating as an extra assistant coach while rehabbing his Achilles injury, was on hand to congratulate his side at the final whistle.

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J
JW 34 minutes ago
How law changes are speeding up the game - but the scrum lags behind

Very good, now we are getting somewhere (though you still didn't answer the question but as you're a South African I think we can all assume what the answer would be if you did lol)! Now let me ask you another question, and once you've answered that to yourself, you can ask yourself a followup question, to witch I'm intrigued to know the answer.


Well maybe more than a couple of questions, just to be clear. What exactly did this penalty stop you from doing the the first time that you want to try again? What was this offence that stopped you doing it? Then ask yourself how often would this occur in the game. Now, thinking about the regularity of it and compare it to how it was/would be used throughout the rest of the game (in cases other than the example you gave/didn't give for some unknown reason).


What sort of balance did you find?


Now, we don't want to complicate things further by bringing into the discussion points Bull raised like 'entirety' or 'replaced with a ruck', so instead I'll agree that if we use this article as a trigger to expanding our opinions/thoughts, why not allow a scrum to be reset if that is what they(you) want? Stopping the clock for it greatly removes the need to stop 5 minutes of scrum feeds happening. Fixing the law interpretations (not incorrectly rewarding the dominant team) and reducing the amount of offences that result in a penalty would greatly reduce the amount of repeat scrums in the first place. And now that refs a card happy, when a penalty offence is committed it's going to be far more likely it results in the loss of a player, then the loss of scrums completely and instead having a 15 on 13 advantage for the scrum dominant team to then run their opposition ragged. So why not take the scrum again (maybe you've already asked yourself that question by now)?


It will kind be like a Power Play in Hockey. Your outlook here is kind of going to depend on your understanding of what removing repeat scrums was put in place for, but I'm happy the need for it is gone in a new world order. As I've said on every discussion on this topic, scrums are great, it is just what they result in that hasn't been. Remove the real problem and scrum all you like. The All Blacks will love zapping that energy out of teams.

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