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November 13, 2005

Sean calls for rules shake-up

Posted by Editor on November 13, 2005 01:04 PM | 3 comments | Print | E-mail author

Sean Lamont thinks rules on the rolling maul should be looked at
Scotland winger Sean Lamont called for the game's laws to be changed after he was forced to watch from the wing as Argentina's forwards ground out a win at Murrayfield.

The Pumas took advantage of their forward superiority to produce a powerhouse performance in the tight, to secure a 23-19 win.

The match-winning try came in the 71st minute when, with Simon Taylor in the sin bin, the Pumas' overwhelming forward power forced Scotland into collapsing a scrum and referee Kelvin Deaker into awarding a penalty try.

While that moment encapsulated Argentina's superiority up front, it was the Pumas use of the rolling maul that upset former Glasgow favourite Sean.

"It is frustrating, but it really is hard to stop the driving maul," he said to Sporting Life.

"The rules need to be changed, because the referees give a lot of time for teams to set up and get going again.

"It's good if it works but it's damn boring to watch from the stands, but it's part of the game so what can you do?"

Taylor's 65th-minute sin-binning for playing the ball on the floor, proved to be the pivotal moment of the game.

With Scotland leading 19-16 when the influential number eight was sent to the bin, the Argentinian forwards recognised it was time to seize the moment.

And seize it they did, with an awesome display of power that left Scotland's seven-man pack with little choice but to commit infringement after infringement in order to prevent the score.

After the consecutive seventh penalty, this time for Scotland collapsing a scrum five metres from their own line, referee Deaker had little choice but to award a penalty try.

Sean felt it was the only time in the game when the Pumas were truly on top.

"We were on top of them for them for most of the game and the penalty try obviously put them back in it, which is a horrible way to lose a game," the 24-year-old Northampton flyer said.

"The scrums kept falling down but it's one of those things when the ref doesn't really know what's going on in there but you've just got to accept it.

"We really should have been well on top of them by that point, and we had chances to put them away which we failed to take."

Scotland take on Samoa next weekend followed by the small matter of the All Blacks the following week, when they will be hoping for bigger crowds than the desperately small number who turned out to support them on Saturday.

Less than 15,000 supporters saw Frank Hadden's first game in charge end in defeat.

But despite the disappointing crowd, and the disappointing result, Sean insists the spirit in the Scotland squad remains strong.

"The spirit is still OK, it's reasonably up there, it was just one of those games that slipped away.

"We're just going to have to look at what went wrong on Monday and Tuesday and try and put it right.

"We've got another two games to go so we've got to keep our chins up."

Comments
Posted by Donald on November 13, 2005 03:45 PM | Reply to this comment

No chance of any change in the Rules until after the World Cup in 2007. This has been agreed by all countries at a meeting of the IRB.

Posted by hugues on November 13, 2005 04:42 PM | Reply to this comment

As Sean said,
"It's GOOD if it WORKS but it's damn boring to watch from the stands, but it's part of the game "
It’s part of Rugby Union game.
I support Scottish Rugby, and if Scottish side used well driving mauls for 20 ro 30 metres and open the game and go for a try I would not be bored in the stands.
I would say, look at the technical and the strenght of or forwards.
I think a lot of sides lost their specific way of playing rugby, if the rules change about driving mauls, we should change the rule of the scrum too.
Argentina uses their strenght, but Scotland has other strenghts and is going to be really better in the next 6 nations.
Argentina is a difficult side to master, they won twice in a row on French soil.
I’m looking forward to seeing wins and BIGGER CROWDS at Murrayfield.
Scotland is on the good way.

Posted by ken brown on November 16, 2005 08:15 PM | Reply to this comment

sean's probably fed up because saints were on the receiving end of the same tactic against saracens the previous week . saints scored 2 brilliant tries in the first 10 minutes , the first when sorries tried to run it and got turned over on saints 22, then when they tried to kick it and saints ran it back 70 yards (brilliant run and scoring pass by sean)then had to watch as sarries mauled literally non stop for the remaining 70 mins. sarries had worked out if they kicked or ran then their rugby skills were so poor they'd have leaked another 5 tries, so they kept the ball in the back of a series of mauls which were punctuated by penalty-kick-lineout-maul to start again, with a ref who wasn't interested in the 5 seconds use it or lose it or in truck/trailer.

extremely , almost obsessively organised maul, but an absolute perversion of the game imho.it's one thing to justify it if it opens up the field , but as an end in itself designed to score by penalties it's an appalling spectacle.

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