Rant: I thought crawling was illegal?

Kids are taught once tackled they have to
let go of the ball.

Back when I was first learning rugby there were a few main things I was repeatedly told:

• Pass the ball backward
• Run forwards
• Tackle the legs
• When you're on the floor you're out of the game

Over the years I've done these with varying degrees of success - can't say I follow the third one that well - but I do my best. They are the basic tenants of the game of rugby, what makes it unique. Which makes me very confused having watch recent top level rugby matches and the disregard for the fourth point.

What happened to giving players a rest?

For the last few years, player welfare has been at the top of the agenda in rugby. From concerns about how concussion is handled to worries about a year long season, it has been in the headlines most of the time. And with 2017 being a Lions year the discussion about players having a really long season, and lack of an off-season appeared again. With many players, coaches and pundits expressing

George North has been the concussion poster boy for
a while, but what about rest time?

concerns about the ability for the players to keep playing at the top level with minimal rest.

This makes the opening day of the season all the more head scratching. It is well documented that players that partook in the Lions series are often unavailable until around the fourth week of competitive fixtures. Some players will return earlier than that if they weren't involved in the final test match, but it's a pretty solid rule of thumb. This is designed such that the players get the required time off to let their bodies recover before they go through their own personal version of pre-season which the rest of their teammates completed in August. So it is a mystery how so many players who were still in New Zealand in July took to the field last weekend.