Sunday 7 October 2007

Rule 22.8

Lots of commentators on the game of Rugby Union have started calling for the points value of a drop goal to be reduced. I have a better idea, they should suggest altering rule 22.8 which current reads:
22.8 BALL KICKED DEAD IN IN-GOAL
If a team kicks the ball through their opponents’ in-goal, into touch-in-goal or on or over the dead ball line, except by an unsuccessful kick at goal or attempted dropped goal, the defending team has two choices:
To have a drop out,
or
To have a scrum at the place where the ball was kicked and they throw in.
Now I am assuming that successful drop goals are not mentioned as the ball is dead as soon as the points are scored, so if we remove the reference to the "attempted dropped goal" then any drop goal attempt that fails will trap this law. So anyone considering if they should take a punt at the sticks will have to think very hard about how likely they are to slot it, especially from distance.
On the other hand, most of the people calling for this are from Tri-Nation sides that traditionally don't take drop kicks, so maybe we don't need to change this at all.

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