Rugby is often seen as a tough-man's game, often populated with fights, under-punished by both on-field referees and off-field tribunals in the interest of the show going on.
Well, Italy's national side, in losing to England recently, may have had something to say about that, if the strategy discussed in this Deadspin article takes wider foot.
It may well open the game up and stop a lot of the cheap shots.
Basically, often what happens is when a player is downed in rugby, a complete mess with very few rules results as a number of players attempt to either contest the ball or keep the ball on their side. This mass of players, called a "ruck", often results in cheap shots, fouls (called or otherwise), and, eventually, fights.
The key rule here is, when a ruck is formed, no player from their own side of the ruck can pass over to the other side of the ruck.
So, what happens when there's no ruck on a tackle? That is, once a tackle is made, they just get off the guy?
Italy tried that against England, and pissed them off. The referee, however, correctly called that there was only tackles, no rucks, with Italy, and, hence, Italy could get on the offensive side of the ball and camp out there (a practice illegal if a ruck is formed).
England, after winning with three late tries, wants the rules changed to make that illegal too.
I like Italy's tactic here. Get the cheap-shot business off the field and let the game flow a bit more.
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