0
WHEN a team has a "rocket launcher" instead of a goal kicker it is surely enough reason for the IRB to seriously consider reducing the value of penalty goals from three points to two.
A “rocket launcher” was how Springboks captain John Smit described fullback Francois Steyn, who landed three penalty goals from South Africa's side of halfway _ two from 60 metres _ in the Tri-Nations clinching 32-29 win against the All Blacks in Hamilton on Saturday.
The capacity to kick a penalty goal from 60 metres distorts the game.
It is a way of accumulating cheap points.
A team can be attacking 40 metres from the opposition line, commit an infringement, and be punished with a penalty goal.
In the majority of cases the punishment will far exceed the crime.
Knowing the opposition has a long-distance goal kicker like Steyn also influences teams to play conservatively.
The reversion to the longarm penalty for most offences this year has led to half the number of tries being scored and three times as many penalty goals being kicked compared to last year when the sanctions rule was trialled as part of the experimental law variations.
As a result, almost every team is playing a type of percentage rugby, kicking for field position to stay out of the range of the sharpshooters.
Having a kicker like Steyn on the opposition team means you have to play inside your opponent's 40 metre line or risk three points being scored against you every time you infringe.
That does not do a lot to promote rugby as entertainment.
Sure, the sight of the ball soaring 60 metres to the goal posts can be quite breathtaking, but not if it is repeated two or three times in the same game.
It is not rewarding some monumental effort by the kicker. Steyn's range is 50 to 60 metres. He is more comfortable kicking from that distance than 30 to 40 metres.
Rugby purists will argue if you devalue the penalty goal, teams will commit more offences.
But conceding two points is still a deterrent as is the threat of a yellow card.
A conversion is only worth two points whether the try is scored under the posts or near the sideline. It would make sense if all goals _ conversions, penalties and field goals _ were worth two points.
Steyn, by the way, can kick field goals from 50 metres out.
You could argue that you should not change a rule or a scoring system because of one player. Well, Springbok five-eighth Morne Steyn can kick goals from his side of halfway too.
Anyway, rugby league reduced the value of the field goal from two points to one largely as a result of the prolific South Sydney fullback Eric Simms.
There have always been prodigious goal kickers in the game. Wallabies coach Robbie Deans could easily bang a penalty goal over from 50 metres when he played for Canterbury and the All Blacks in the 1980s.
As goal-kicking techniques improve the range of goal kickers will also increase and long distance kickers will become more common.
If the IRB does not want games decided primarily by penalty goals, it has to reduce the value of the penalty goal to two points or reconsider the sanctions rule, which punishes most offences with free kicks rather than penalties.
It's not rocket science.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html