Why ping-pong?

[TheRugbyologist]

Originally Posted by 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 just assumes readers know what those amendments were, or don't care about the details. What were those amendments?

Does this possibly refer to new ruck law 16.4(b):

"Players must not handle the ball in a ruck except after a tackle if they are on their feet and have their hands on the ball before the ruck is formed."

This makes the life of the tackler attempting the turnover much less problematical, thus heightening the cult of the individual at the breakdown.

This appears to have been an attempt to simplify the breakdown and reduce penalties, but only serves to increase field clutter, by again discouraging mass participation at this phase.