[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by valo403

What? Where? It's only ever been popular in Australia and New Zealand (mostly Australia) and it's popularity isn't decreasing at all.

And while you're right on the "battle for the ball" element, you rarely see rucks/scrums/mauls that result in the ball being turned over through anything but a penalty, at least at the top levels. There's a reason that clip is out of the ordinary, those sequences don't happen very often.

It is on life support 'cuz it is propped up by owners and not driven by fans/new players. FYI, it is still popular in pockets of the UK, mostly the north, the birth place of the game. It has no useful international game to speak of and is seeing players leave to go play union. The only games that draw any real attention of Orgin games.

You need to watch more rugby. There are lots of example's of counter rucking in this years 6N, Super rugby, Pemiership, Rabo Direct (stupid name for a league). Also, the very fact the game has the ability to punish those that have poor technicque is a postive. The games from this past weekend had plenty examples of counter rucking, ripping the ball in the tackle, and other techniques used to game possession.