RugbyRebels

cashead wrote:The issue is that they're too much of a gamble, and patiently recycling the ball and going for a try would be a more secure method. This entire drop goal hysteria? We've been here before, right down to Lizard moaning about a lack of drop goals in a 20+ point win.

They're not a gamble if done well - the likes of Wilkinson, Goode, Walder, etc could hit 9/10 back when they used to be fashionable. They're a set piece move, like anything else and if they're set up properly, they're practically unstoppable. Any England supporter who lived through Jannie De Beer kicking 5 of the bloody things to knock us out of the 99 RWC can tell you that.

It is odd that no-one seems interested in spending the time in training to practice them anymore.

Puja

Given the game situation it was not a gamble at all. It would've been a drop goal off a stable scrum where the kicker could be parked so far back in the pocket that Perenara would need to pay international shipping to get the ball to him. I genuinely can't think of any other realistic match scenario where it would get any easier. Given the solid scrum, the only variables at play are the pass and the kick. Or, more specifically, the kickers nerve.

Gunning to score a try, on the other hand, is an absolute gamble. It introduces the myriad complexities of dealing with the breakdown, maintaining possession in the face of a desperate defence and invites an uncontrollable variable -- the referee -- to have a say in the result. It's sheer madness and, TBH, thoroughly unprofessional. I dare say McCaw would've had none of it and taken the simple three points.