Fight or flight

Phil Clarke answers your questions on the ball in play and gets his physiology books out!

Phil get's the adrenaline flowing by answering your questions!

It's been a tough week for rugby league with all clubs almost playing back-to-back games over the Easter weekend. this week Phil has chosen to respond top your questions and apart from keeping up with all the tries and tackles has had to dust off his old science books to get to grips with how hormones can affect a player.

Law changes?

Phil, don't you think that its about time that rugby league followed rugby union and changed the rule on attacking teams kicking the ball in to touch in goal and defending teams restart on the 20 metre line. I also think that to keep the ball in play more the ball should be taken back to the place it was kicked from.
Ian Melling PHIL REPLIES: I think already rugby league can be proud of how much the ball is in play. It is one of the strong features of the sport at present and I don't think we particularly need to worry too much about increasing the time of the ball in play. I think we certainly have enough of that and the balance is right. However, I do like your point about kicking the ball over the dead-ball line and I have heard other people within the game discuss altering this rule. It has been mentioned that a restart on the 40 metre line would be an appropriate punishment for kicking the ball over the dead-ball line and a reward for the side who are then going to receive possession. However, this would mean that we would need to have controlled restarts, there couldn't be quick-taps taken because it would involve the referee and two touch judges sprinting probably over 50 metres and we'd get a game with little control and so many players offside. But it may be worth considering and all rule changes like this should in my opinion be firstly trialled at a set period. It would makes sense if we linked up with the governing body in Australia to discuss this in a unified way so that we have one rule for the world game rather than one rule in each different competition or country. It's certainly something worth looking at yet not a big enough issue to blight the game - not my number one priority. I've said in previous articles that the application of current rules such as playing the ball with your foot, scrums being formed correctly, are of greater importance than this one at present.

Passes creeping forward

Hi Phil, Do you think that the forward pass rule is in danger of going the same way as other rules? Do it long enough and forward passes become part of the game. The number of forward passes being ignored or putting it kindly being missed is becoming a disgrace and embarrassing to our great sport. Wouldn't it be a shame if not even an injustice if important games like Grand Final and the Challenge Cup final were decided by an obvious forward pass being ignored. As for use of the video ref. could some highly technical person explain, possibly on Boots 'n' All why the cameras can be used to determine when a player is in front of a player who kicks a ball ie offside but cannot be used to determine when a player receives a ball in front of a player who passes a ball.
Geoff Lomax PHIL REPLIES: I don't think the forward pass rule is in danger of going the same way as other rules. You say that we're ignoring it but I don't think that is the case and as I've stated above, playing the ball with your foot has to be something the sports administrators, referees, coaches and players address. It is something over the last 20 years that has progressively got worse and it is a lazy part of the game. Scrums are another issue but perhaps not as important as the play the ball issue at the moment and people on the try-line where they should be penalised. But the question then comes, how many penalties do you want in the game and how often do you want the sport to stop? I'm not too bothered about restart of play, as long as it's restarted in a controlled manner then we want to see the ball in action. I don't imagine that the number of forward passes now is any greater than it was 62 years ago when you started supporting St Helens. I know teams do want to get the ball to their opponent and over the advantage point as quickly as possible, that doesn't mean they are intentionally passing the ball forward. Some players make very little, if any, attempt to play the ball with their foot, most players do attempt to pass the ball level or backwards, certainly not forwards. I don't think that the touch judges or referees are intentionally ignoring this, it's not something that they just want to ignore. I don't think that you could use the video referee no matter how clever the technical person involved, because a player being on or offside from a kick is one moment in time that's frozen, but a forward pass and you're talking about where the ball is passed and where the ball is received - two completely separate incidents over time. You'd only have to look at the one frame, when it left the man's hands, to decide in that one frame - is the ball going backwards, or is the ball thrown forwards?

Sports science 101

Hi Phil I have enjoyed RL since a youngster and am a regular viewer on Sky Sports. Most of your comments based on your sports science degree are helpful, especially when made along side commentators who can only spell three letter words like TRY. However, every now and then you might benefit from looking at one or two of your old text books. E.g. during the Good Friday Wigan/Saints game your explanation of Pat Richards' restart that was far too long was due to excess adrenaline causing too many muscle fibres to contract (paraphrased). I think you are getting mixed up with the heart, where cardiac myocytes do contract more forcefully in response to adrenaline. However, the skeletal muscle fibres in Pat Richard's kicking leg only contact in response to their motor nerve supply, not circulating hormones. If you can provide evidence to the contrary I would love to see it.
Dave Goldspink PHIL REPLIES: You're right Dave I do need to read up on my old text books because what I said was not factually correct. However, a read of my notes on endocrinology reminded me about the fight or flight response that adrenalin provides in the body. It does make the body ready for action and in a very short space of time I was trying to say that it can increase a person's heart-rate, blood flow to the muscles, oxygen to the lungs, and as a result increase the physical performance for a short burst of time such as kicking the ball over a long distance. How else would you explain, without the hormonal effect, that a lady can lift a car with a trapped child underneath it? Obviously the adrenalin has an influence on enabling such physical feats which would under normal circumstances not be possible. If you're interested there are articles I've read in the journal of physiology on the effects of adrenalin on the contraction of the mammalian skeletal muscle that were written in the 50s but I guess generally that your point is made. This is possibly the busiest part of the season when we reach the halfway mark when some teams have to play three games in an eight-day period. Castleford Tigers who are playing on Friday night against Leeds are one such example. The physical and mental challenge is taken to another level for Terry Matterson and his squad of players. None of the coaches particularly complain about this because all of them are aware of it on the 1st January when the fixture list comes out and have to try their best to plan for this situation. Luckily we have some excellent staff working at rugby league clubs in the area of Sports Science and one of the most qualified has helped me with this question. Colin Sanctuary is perhaps one of the best qualified in our sport and has done a tremendous job at Wakefield over the last few years. Not only is he incredibly well qualified but he also has an inquisitive mind which he relates to the sport that he is working in. With regards to your question above, he explains that as you identified, in a game of RL if a player has increased testosterone due to the game (or could you say increased adrenaline) when they kick a ball, it will not go further due to increased fibre recruitment. On reflection, the reason for the ball being kicked further would be psycho-physiological. I guess I perceived testosterone, in this instance, as a winning/confidence hormone. On reflection the ball could, in this instance, be kicked further due to increased stress/arousal, but you're right and I'm wrong it would be due to the hormone adrenaline.