Thanks, but that leaves me no more informed than the article I'd been led to from the original discussion in Usenet. This one said:
Quote:
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Since the world governing body amended the laws at the ruck to allow defensive players more ability to contest possession,
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and just assumes readers know what those amendments were, or don't care about the details. What were those amendments?
Of course these things are matters of taste & degree. For all I know, the "aerial ping pong" referred to may be no more than a return to the style of game of >15 yrs. ago, as it had been for a long time previous. Most of the change hadn't been a result of laws changes, but regulation by raised eyebrow from Twickenham regarding how much unwritten leeway to give to whom after a tackle. They went nuts for a couple of seasons in the middle 1990s by letting the tackled player get away with murder getting rid of the ball, then throttled it back a bit.
However, I do think they went wrong a few years ago when they did amend the laws by restricting play after a tackle. They took away much of the incentive to form a proper ruck and to hustle with or without the ball in the vicinity of the tackle.