Uncertainty remains at breakdown

There is good news and bad news out of the Blues and Highlanders camps as Super Rugby Aotearoa teams wrestle with the new interpretations around the breakdown.

First, the good news: neither side has any intention of kicking away possession when they meet in Auckland on Saturday, despite plenty of penalties being dished out against the attacking side in the first two rounds of the competition.

But the bad news is that the breakdown remains a work in progress for refs, players and supporters alike, with Blues flanker

Dalton Papalii admitting he still wasn’t sure what the officials were looking for.

‘‘It’s quite hard, because against the Hurricanes I felt like I had an understanding of that but going into the Chiefs game it felt like it was such a different fine line,’’ the 22-year-old told Stuff yesterday.

‘‘I saw Chiefs doing stuff that I got penalised for, but against the Canes it was different.

‘‘The refs are still learning the rules, and we’re still learning the rules off them as well.’’

Papalii was yellow carded against the Chiefs for a ‘‘50-50’’ penalty that could have gone the other way for the Chiefs sealing off the ball, and that decision summed up the general state of confusion around the breakdown.

New Zealand Rugby is determined to back the referees to create a quicker, safe and fairer game, but there have been some teething problems in the opening two rounds.

Referees spotted 58 infringements in the opening weekend of the competition, and 49 last weekend.

Nonetheless, Papalii and Highlanders assistant coach Mark Hammett both found positives with the changes, and felt they were speeding the game up.

‘‘I don’t think we should get carried away with a number of penalties,’’ Hammett said yesterday.

‘‘What I’m seeing is a reduction in scrums and that seems to be the massive time killer, and is sometimes a bit of a blight on our sport.

‘‘If I was to have more scrum or penalties, penalties would be the preference.’’

The fear with the new interpretations is that they persuade teams that it would be better to play without the ball.

For example, Crusaders wing George Bridge was pinged for going off his feet against Hurricanes on Sunday, even though there was no opposition player in a position to steal the Crusaders’ ball.

However, the Blues and Highlanders both insisted they had no plans to change their attack and when referee James Doleman gave a presentation to the Highlanders coaches yesterday morning, Hammett said that the group had collectively agreed that in one supplied clip the ‘cleaners’ were deemed to be legal despite going past the ball.

‘‘The referees are giving us

‘‘The refs are still learning the rules, and we’re still learning the rules off them as well.’’ Dalton Papalii, above tackling Solomon Alaimalo during the Blues’ win over the Chiefs last weekend

really good feedback each week and it’s really interactive,’’ Hammett said.

‘‘We’re lucky because we’re playing in a one-nation competition with very few refs, so we’re going to get up to speed a lot quicker.

‘‘Give it another a week or two, and we’ll start getting better pictures

‘‘It’s a wee bit early to say whether we should be changing [tactics] but everyone can trust the discussions are being had and it’s not one way.’’

Papalii agreed that the Blues would keep the ball in hand and that the current crackdown will eventually create a better spectacle, if players and referees get on the same page.

‘‘It’s speeding the game up, which is good,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s creating a faster game which people want to see, and we want to play. We’ve just got to find that consistency around that ruling.’’

Meanwhile, Hammett confirmed that Josh Ioane and Nehe Milner-Skudder will miss the game at Eden Park.

However, midfield/wing Ngane Punivai has recovered from a concussion and is available for selection.