Thought I would try something a bit different to some of the other stuff going on.
I watched the Cows & Horses game last night, & wondered about how the game was going to end, a very very interesting & strange game of football to say the least, & quite enthralling one at that, & held my attention for the whole game
In assessing the game it was very much I thought very strategic in how it unfolded. Thurnston's 250th game needed a cows win, well the broncs start he game rolling with early try, then the see saw that had the cows in front, & then the horses gallop away before the cows suddenly get zapped by the fading moon above or something. & get in front, horses resurge & the cows kick a field goal to seal the game. Exciting stuff.
Of note was the seemingly lethargic cows for a good period of time, Thurston dropping of tackles, more in the first half than all his games this year put together,, for all intended purposes they were shot, but then in the 2nd half they woke up, no longer a sloppy & quiet Thurston, but the cows spring to life & run through & over the horses, talk about a roundup.
I have been taking note of tackles now for a while & how the top clubs are getting away with murder, we don't see many of the old grass cutter single man tackles most are 3 man jobs, one to wrap the ball up by holding the player front on with arms wrapped around him & crushing the arms to the side of the player, certainly stops a pass getting away. Then the other 2 or more come in & wrestle him to the ground.
One of the primary reasons for all of this is to try & keep the refs eyes from seeing any indiscretion in the play with a rack of the ball, a loose ball more often than not ends up with a scrum, & sometimes a penalty against the defenders.
Last night I noticed a couple tackles that were slightly different ending up with the attacking player losing the ball, this was on both occasions the cows side. After the first one I started to watch the tackles a bit closer, what I saw was the first/frontal tackler getting his arms up under the armpit of the attacking player, the 2nd & 3rd player came in & wrapped themselves in the traditional way, but then the frontal defender pulled away with both arms coming out & the ball was affectively stripped & dropped to the ground. Knock & scrum ordered..
Next one had a variation the front on was the same to start then they other two came in & pushed down on the attacking player & the front on tackler came out again, bringing the ball out as the tackled player had his arm loosened in the way he was falling the frontal tackler by this time was just away from the tackle & the ref would have been able to see the ball coming loose, looking without any sign of a hand on the ball.
Very subtle indeed, not only is a scrum awarded & no penalty for what was a definite strip but a momentum killer in the early tackle count at the opposing end of the field placing the broncs in the try scoring position close to the line. They did score after each one of these events.
Replies
If I can I'll add a little of the player's perspective in here. I may be a long way from the NRL but we are coached to tackle in a similar way. First guy in has the priority to hit around the chest and lock the ball up, second guy comes in around the waist before the third comes in to take the legs. The first guy in is taught to wrap is arm around the ball and then use that as leverage to get the ball carrier to the ground. So in effect he is raking the ball but it looks like he's simply wrestling to get the runner to the ground.
Super, there are a few different ways, but the use of the front tacklers arms going under the arm pits also seems to hold the ball carries arm above the elbow out from the body, the ball carrier usually needs to keep the ball tight or in a position to get a pass away, not really possible with the way I saw it last night.
The forearm under the armpit also allows a smooth pull of the arm away, its smooth relatively fast & worked, I only saw it around 3 times but only two had the affect of the lost ball & scrum