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Catching the Moment

Ask the people down your local club what they think the most important skill for a fly-half or midfield back is. I reckon speed and passing might feature at the top of a lot of lists, but I am not sure how many would identify ‘catching’ as the number one priority. It seems, well, it seems so ordinary. Anyone can catch a rugby ball, right? Or nearly everyone…

The Law is an Ass

The All Blacks leaders, Graham Henry and Richie McCaw, nominate laws they would like to see changed. Mark Reason asks what law would you like to see scrapped?…

Counter Attack

There is no point even beginning to talk about counter attack unless you are also going to talk about defence at the same time. It would be like telling someone how to make an omelette but forgetting the bit about breaking a few eggs. Defence provides the ingredients for so many counter attacks. Before you can launch out from defence, you have to break eggs…

The Whistle Blower

Ok, so he’s not a nuclear physicist or a sewage worker, but the rugby referee still has one of the most demanding jobs in the world. A ref needs to be a qualified lawyer. He needs to be a social worker, sorting through a number of personalities on the pitch. He needs to be a fitness freak and an anger management counsellor and a policeman and a pitch inspector. The ref then needs to make split second interpretations of hundreds of laws over and over again during the course of 80 minutes…