Six Nations 2013: John Beattie wonders where fair play has gone

Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union

Professionalism is bringing more disappointing aspects to rugby every year.
Winning becomes ever more important.
Rugby players have become so cute at duping referees that all we seem to see are what we imagine to be refereeing errors.
That's cute, as in a cleverly-crafted Mafia sting rather than the association with any bunny rabbit.
If you watched Scotland's disappointing game against Wales on Saturday, like me, you will have been perplexed come scrum time.
I was just thinking - if I was going to cheat in scrums what might I get up to? Well, sometimes I would collapse a scrum even if my pack was going forward.
Surely proof, ref, that the weaker side had deliberately gone down to prevent further embarrassment?
And then, knowing that referees are so strict on penalising an early "set" it might be fun to not even go down on the "set" call so that it appears as though the other lot have jumped the gun.
It's called a "soft" hit.
I am guessing that both Wales and Scotland over the years have tried both of these tactics.
Referees blow the whistle for what they see.
I am convinced that the only way to stop all the nonsense is to have both packs engage gently with the front row first, followed by second row, followed by back row and the ball only put in at a steady scrum.
No "hit", no "set", no guessing games from the referee and, instead, a yellow card for the front row union once they ruin our game.
See how they like it when they are off the pitch. Two collapsed scrums - up or down - mean the game has been ruined in my book.

Why anyone wants to sit through a series of scrum collapses and penalties is a mystery to me. That game on Saturday was terrible.
I think there was only one scrum in the whole game that ended in one of the teams winning the ball. The rest were penalties.
And Richard Hibbard admitting to soft hits in a Sunday paper was sad, or at least in part an admission that things have gone awry in rugby.
The other strange aspect to rugby, quite audible through the referee's microphone, is the attempt by players to influence the man in the middle nowadays.
"He's got his hands on it, ref," can be heard alongside "forward pass" and "not releasing" and a host of other friendly hints designed to win a penalty.
Captains wish a quiet moment or a word of advice too often.
Captains, or any player for that matter, should be given a word of advice that a quiet moment should be spent as far away from the referee as possible or it's a yellow card.
I'd penalise any player suggesting anything to the referees.
Brian Moore, rightly, spotted a player in a recent international diving as if auditioning for Tom Daley's "Splash!" programme.
Rugby was the game of fairness, where people didn't cheat (that much) but it's getting closer and closer to football. And I don't like those bits of it.
Apart from that it's still the world's best game.
My thoughts on yesterday?
We kicked away a lot of ball, came off second-best at the tough stuff, and the Welsh adherence to a pattern worked well for them.
They added a frisson to the occasion with their pick-and-go game that caught the Scots off-guard.
Jim Hamilton nicked a few lineouts but there were very few plus points for Scotland. And it wasn't just scrum-time that beat the Scots.
Bring on the French. What did you think?
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Joubert got the last RWC final, so he's supposed to be the best in the world, isn't he? Oh dear. He totally ruined a game which millions had been looking forward to for a fortnight.
We really need to get to the heart of the matter and put the enjoyment back in to rugby. Too much cheating. Too many silly little rules open to too many interpretations. What a mess
Many coments on here relate to how the game is deteriorating.
IRB Take action before its to late.
It would be nice to see scrums offciated properly though. The crooked feed would be the first place to start.
Refs should also start marching teams back 10 meters a bit more often. That would get them to shut up pretty quickly!
Why did Scotland not contest the rucks in the first half?
It seemed like every time Wales had the ball they scored, sooner or later. And if they didn't, we kicked the ball back to them.
In my dark moments, I wonder if the IRB are trying to wreck the scrum so that they can get rid of it. Not helped by the very small number of referees who can manage the scrum properly.
2nd issue, the game needs at least one more on-field ref specifically to police scrummage & breakdown - too many current refs cant call this area consistently well.
3rd issue, technology is there - use it. Players like Mike Phillips can be seen & heard. Call it.
The ref yesterday didn't play to this rule as he was telling both scrum halves to put the ball in when the scrum was being pushed and wheeled about.