Australia to request a crackdown on ‘caterpillar’ ruck
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Rugby Australia are set to file a request to World Rugby to crackdown on the use of 'caterpillar rucks' according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
A summit of the game’s brightest minds in Australia took place on Thursday with RA director of rugby Scott Johnson leading the meeting with leading Wallabies and Super Rugby players and coaches.
One of the hot topics on the agenda was time-wasting with caterpillar rucks becoming one of the chief sources of frustration in that department.
While the ploy is designed to create more time and space for a halfback to get a kick away, Omar Mouneimne explained last year why the tactic has other practical uses.
Here is explained how Exeter use the ploy in order to get a strong chase in for the box kick.
While he goes into further detail below on how Ireland used this tactic during the 2020 Six Nations.
The report by the Sydney Morning Herald goes on to state that RA will write to World Rugby and demand referees strictly enforce a rule which would kill the caterpillar ruck. In short, RA will suggest that if teams don’t use the ball within five seconds of it being available - as is the current law - they should be penalised in the form of a free-kick to the opposition.
The current law is seldom enforced allowing the caterpillar ruck to eat up far more time than it should.
FULL STORY VIA Sydney Morning Herald
