With the wind behind him, Cheetahs Under 19 player Gerrie Labuschagne slotted this unbelievable kick from at least 80m out in Bloemfontein, South Africa recently.
Firm under foot and using the wind to his advantage, the youngster appeared to get the distance with ease, much to the delight of his team mates.
See more unbelievable bits of rugby action in our See it to Believe it section
Yes and no. Yes early on as the game starts up, no once those players behaving cynically have been yellow and then red carded.
Decreasing the value of a penalty kick would not change the fact the referee still has 2 cards in his pocket to use. Kill the ball 2 times 'in the red zone' and you'll most likely receive a yellow, this has always been the case, continue to do so and the referee can award a red. So whilst you may expect to see a rise in 'crimes', you could on the flip side expect to see the use of more cards, which would in turn reduce the amount of 'crimes' to the same level as they are now and promote the 'victim' team to go for the corner, rather than the posts.
Of course as you've correctly highlighted, this does more for the offending teams than it does for the angels, but all in all, the world might see a game which does not hugely rely on racking up points from the boot of one player.
Ah, yeh, as for roids, not interested. I've heard all the usual anti-roid horror stuff from those who would never touch them and all the pro roid stuff from those who regularly use them and none of it particularly grips me. The only thing that did get my attention was an ex-roid user told me how he had a dumbell in his hand and his wife said dinner was going to be a bit late and he launched the dumbell which went through a wall.. he said that was the end of roids right there and luckily not his relationship!!! or wifes life...
Hadn't thought of upping the conversion to 3 points, I had previously thought of raising a try to 6 and conversion staying at 2 but I'm not sure.
I agree totally that a drop goal should remain as 3, it's a lot harder (relatively speaking for those great kickers) to slot a drop goal with the pressure etc than a place kick.
Sorry, above I was not suggesting that players today are on enhancement drugs (even though some may be?!?) but it's true as players getting bigger, faster, stronger, it seems odd that the pitch would stay the same...
For instance, if long jumpers around the world started to jump over the sandpit through extra power gained with gym, technique etc, it wouldn't be long before someone said, perhaps we should make the sandpit longer, or something like that...
Fortunately this kick was wind assisted, so I think we can breathe a slight sigh of relief for now.
yeah, fully agree
Treat it like bodybuilding. Different competitions for the 'natural' athletes, and another for the 'juiced' athletes. Rugby would be a very scary place if Performance Enhancers were legal.
Steroids have never interested me though. I know of people who have great results from them, and if I joined in, perhaps I would be 15stonenumber15... but the side effects are crazy, and the horror stories don't even bear thinking about.
Back in the day, a "try" was called that because it gave you a shot at the posts. The game was a lot more 'football' than rugby.
Fast forward a hundred or so years, and we have what we have.
May I suggest we flip it on its head further, and say we go 3 points for a conversion, 3 for a drop goal, and 2 from a penalty. At least with the drop goal play compared to a penalty, there is a chance to contest the points, so they should be worth more. When there is no direct opposition to the kick, e.g. penalty, it should be worth less.
If a converted try is worth 4 penalties, we will see a lot more kicking to the corners than at posts.
I remember Lee Evans did a sketch many years ago about forgetting all the drug bans and letting athletes all do steroids etc, he said all the events would change, "You'd have a hop, skip and where the f**k did he go?"
Someone made a flippant comment about reducing points to 2, I wouldn't mind seeing a trial of this actually. I think it would encourage running rugby more so. I believe in the 'old days' at some point a try was worth 6 points? with the conversion being 1? I like the try to conversion ratio at the moment, but I think 2 penalty kicks shouldn't be greater than 1 try - should they?
To be fair though, 10 years ago 50m penalties were attempted to the disbelief of many commentators. A few years later, players like Frans Steyn come along, nailing drop goals from 70m, it was only a matter of time before some rifle footed back was clearing the posts from his own 22.
How do you play against a team that have a good chance of scoring 3 points from anywhere?
Just as players started running with it again, he shows up...
Send him to the NFL immediately. He would earn 30x the rugby salary for 30 seconds play each game.
Is this how rugby is turning? 120kg+ monstrosities cantering like wingers, and backs clearing the posts from 80m...
"We're gonna need a bigger pitch"
http://lessenthesuck.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/jaws-bigger-boat.jpg
Waiting for the NZRFU to petition the IRB to reduce penalty kicks to 2 points, in order to "encourage positive play"
It's great to see that the tradition of steadying the ball with your finger has not been lost
Burn him.
Witchcraft.