Super Rugby
Time travel needed for rugby's broken breakdown?
ESPN Staff
March 31, 2015
Ben Tameifuna (L), Mike Fitzgerald shared the sin-bin at the weekend © Getty Images
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A reccurring theme in Super Rugby this season, the seemingly ever-expanding lawbook, was again at the forefront of discussions throughout Round 7.

The breakdown and rolling maul continue to be the biggest areas of concern with referees struggling to achieve a uniform approach across the contests. With so many different laws governing the game, the scope for interpretation is greater than ever - a fact discussed in ESPN's Scrum5 podcast.

Host Andy Withers was joined by regular ESPN columnist Brett McKay and host of Ruggamatrix and former Wallabies and Waratahs media manager, Djuro Sen, who said the may have to travel back in time in order to move forward.

"Rod Macqueen used to say to me, when I use to chat with him as part of the Wallabies management team, 'I'd like to see to the whole breakdown simplified down to two laws of the game and that's it," Sen told Scrum5. "That might sound for a free-for-all, but his thinking was that it would free everyone up to make the game a lot simpler."

The Chiefs were on the end of a 12-2 penalty count in the first half of their clash with the Cheetahs; the two-time champions seemingly unable to adapt to the interpretations of leading referee Craig Joubert.

McKay said that some of Joubert's rulings were questionable but players needed to shoulder some of the responsibility and recognise when a particular breakdown or maul tactic needed to be altered.

"The players have got to take a little bit of responsibility in that situation, too," McKay said. "The Chiefs, I think if we talk about their ill-discipline, this game goes back to last week against the Sharks as well; they got caught up in the whole Sharks physicality, niggle and all that sort of stuff. And they lost themselves a little bit…and they just seem to continue that against the Cheetahs."

Listen to the entire Scrum5 podcast above!

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