BRUCE'S LIST
PETER BRUCE: SuperSport rugby tries my patience
Everyone is trying so hard to be positive, even in defeat, that I sometimes feel I’m watching a different game
I’m no rugby analyst. I’m just a fan. I don’t understand scrummaging, why "dropping a shoulder" makes a difference or who does it. And I’ve been left behind by the changes in rules. When I was a boy playing at school there was a penalty for something called "foot up", which meant that the hooker had lifted his foot too early, before the scrumhalf had put the ball in. Nowadays the scrumhalf doesn’t even try to find the hooker and will put the ball under the feet of his locks or even eighth man. It seems outrageous. But watching the Springboks lose the final game of their series against England on Saturday, I couldn’t help thinking that while my knowledge of the rules might be obsolete, I wasn’t being helped (emotionally as well as anything else) by the SuperSport team covering the match. They seemed so sort of restrained. They always do. We were playing very, very badly and no-one said it. When Elton Jantjies dropped a high ball, under minimal pressure from the English, the best I go...
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