Part of the allure of the ceaseless puzzle that is rugby union lies in its multiple possibilities. Sometimes the laws feel like a giant Rubik’s Cube which very few ever entirely solve. Erno Rubik is 74 now and prefers walking, sailing and gardening but rugby’s quest for structure and simplicity against significant odds would surely strike a chord.
Increasingly, though, all the lawbook-related twisting and turning is driving the sport mad. Twice in consecutive weekends the outcome at Twickenham has been definitively shaped by calls that rugby’s governors would probably have preferred to see go the other way. What does it do for their efforts to broaden its appeal when something as glorious as Sam Underhill’s “try” against New Zealand is disallowed on a still-disputed, arcane technicality while Owen Farrell’s upright collision with André Esterhuizen is ruled legal?
Written by Robert Kitson
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2018/nov/12/rugby-will-not-flourish-fully-while-rules-so-twisted under the title “Rugby won’t flourish as it should while its laws remain so twisted | Robert Kitson”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
