Why ping-pong?

[Robert Goodman]

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:

Since the world governing body amended the laws at the ruck to allow defensive players more ability to contest possession,

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.