This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with the start of the ProD2 and the Women\u2019s World Cup\u2026<\/p>\n
And we\u2019re back!<\/p>\n
There are still a few more weeks until Europe\u2019s season really gets going, but the first tackles, kicks and cleanouts graced the pitches of France<\/a> the weekend past, as the Pro D2 got underway.<\/p>\n It was a fine weekend of rugby. Biarritz and Beziers racked up 91 points between them. Vannes battled stoutly to a 30-30 draw at Brive despite playing 70-odd minutes with 14 men. Grenoble, for whom promotion is becoming an obsession after three Access Match defeats in a row, eked out a crucial 30-28 win at Oyonnax, one of three matches decided by fewer than four points. Agen\u2019s descent into rugby irrelevance continued with a 54-17 drubbing at the hands of Nevers; there is reason to worry at the Stade Armandie.<\/p>\n But as well as all the action, the weekend served as the indicator of some new trends heading into the new season. First up was John Cooney. Allotted his 60 seconds to take the conversion of his own try, slap bang in front of the posts, Cooney stood stock still for an inexorable 30-40 seconds, running down the clock with maximum cynicism and all the while with a smirk on his face just begging to be knocked off. An ugly tactic at the best of times, perhaps understandable in tight games, especially with leads to protect.<\/p>\n Not, however, in any tiny way understandable about a quarter of the way into the game, with the kicker\u2019s team both ten points and a man up.<\/p>\n Is there any way to stop this? A new law amendment ensuring the kicker can\u2019t ever stand still for longer than ten seconds? A reduced time allotment for kicks inside the 15m lines?<\/p>\n Most likely not. But it would not do the game good to see that sort of shameless negative antic perpetuated at any level.<\/p>\n Brive also looked at times to have placed a curious interpretation on the new lineout laws, which say that skew throws are only skew if the ball is actively contested for. The law hasn\u2019t made a lot of difference at lineouts and has certainly led to game time being played, which previously would have been chewed up with scrum sets.<\/p>\n But on Saturday night, Brive also took a number of lineouts short and quickly after the set, with hooker Dave Cherry frequently throwing the ball almost directly to the guts of the first lifter at the front of the lineout.<\/p>\n The \u201870 tries\u2019 prediction Damian Penaud has made about \u2018high intensity\u2019 player who \u2018will easily break my record\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Hmm. It\u2019s within the law. If the opposite prop is not ready or alert, it\u2019s not going to be contested. If the teams are set, then Cherry can throw whenever he wants.<\/p>\n Yet the spirit of the law surely assumes the possibility of a contest, acknowledges the potential decision of the contesting team as to whether to bother or not. But in this case, the throws happen so fast that the opposition has no time to react, let alone opt to contest or not.<\/p>\n The tactic does speed the game up, get ball in play, all those positive aspects. So it\u2019s unlikely to be focused on by the lawmakers for now. But it\u2019ll be interesting to see teams wising up and looking for the contest, and then interesting to see how officials react and how much contest is needed before referees start paying attention to the quick throws as well as the regular ones.<\/p>\n Comment: \u2018Ruthless\u2019 Red Roses put Samoa to the sword in 14-try victory that \u2018spoke volumes\u2019 of the culture John Mitchell has instilled<\/a><\/p>\n Jeopardy makes a belated entrance<\/p>\n There\u2019s little disputing the improvement in the quality of the leading women\u2019s rugby teams over the past few years, all of which has been on show across England over the past few days as the Women\u2019s World Cup<\/a> has continued.<\/p>\n But the same problem that still dogs the men\u2019s version to an extent is creating drag on the progress of the women\u2019s version as well: that of the utterly predictable and one-sided match. England\u2019s romp past Samoa was fun to watch, England\u2019s evident quality admirable, Samoa\u2019s battling spirit even more so. But once the game was over, how much was it actually talked about?<\/p>\n