THE HERALD REPORTS TODAY

Craig fires volley at rugby shoot-outs . . .
KEVIN FERRIE, Chief Rugby Writer May 09 2009
One of the Scots who was partly responsible for the introduction of penalty shoot-outs in top class football has registered his dismay at seeing them cross codes into rugby.

As a member of the legendary Lisbon Lions, Jim Craig could be forgiven for being fixated on footballing matters this week as his former club prepared for today's potential title decider against Rangers.

However, his family links with rugby have been close in recent years with all four of his sons playing the sport to a good level while the youngest of them, James, represented his country at Test level.


Consequently, Craig was watching with a combination of fascination and horror when the Cardiff Blues and Leicester Tigers players were subjected to the test of technique and temperament that shoot-outs represent in sorting out last weekend's Heineken Cup semi-final.

"I was appalled," said the former full-back. "It is one thing using penalty shoot-outs as a way of sorting out football matches, but surely having a kicking competition in rugby misses the point completely.

"After all, legend has it that the sport was invented when William Webb Ellis picked the ball up and ran with it and it has always been essentially a handling game."

Craig was a member of the Celtic team whose involvement in the previous way of sorting out football matches brought matters to a head after they knocked Benfica out on their way to the 1970 European Cup final on the toss of a coin.

"It was one of the longest nights of my life as a full-back because it was an excellent Benfica side, but one of the German sides had already lodged a protest after being knocked out earlier in the tournament on a coin toss and Celtic protested too because it was an unfair way to decide the tie," he explained.

Doing so came back to bite them two years later when the club's first experience of a penalty shoot-out allowed Inter Milan to claim revenge for their 1967 European Cup final defeat after goal-scoring machine Dixie Deans infamously blazed his penalty over the bar.

It is a bitter memory but one which Craig only half-jokingly reckons gives him more right than most to offer a view because of his own performance.

"People wondered what on earth was happening when we were 2-0 down after Dixie missed and I walked up to take the second penalty, but we'd had a penalty competition the day before and I hadn't missed and so at least I am in a position to say that my opposition to shoot-outs is not based on my experience.

"That was the only penalty I ever took for Celtic and I put it exactly where I had planned to, in the top half of the goal to the keeper's right, so with a 100% record I think I'm entitled to consider myself an authority on shoot-outs," he laughed, before adding more ruefully: "Then again in that penalty competition we held among ourselves Dixie was knocking them in with both feet . . ."

Craig's personal view is that even in football a better tie-breaker would be that adopted in the US a few years ago when each participant took possession of the ball on the centre spot and had a limited time in which to attempt to beat the goalkeeper.

With that in mind he believes rugby should seek to adopt a method that is more in tune with the sport's skills and he has a recommendation to that effect.

"There would be 15 players on each side at the end of the game, so why not split them into five groups of three," he suggested.

"The first two groups of three from each side would line up against one another and one of them would have a set time in which to score a try from the point at which they took possession.

"After all five groups had done that then the roles would be reversed so that all those involved would have an equal opportunity to defend and attack."

Craig said he had no set view on whether these plays should begin at half-way, or perhaps on the 10 metre line.

He also accepted that an alternative way of doing the same thing would be to break the teams into three groups of five.

"The important thing is to stimulate discussion.

It should not simply be a case of copying football's way of doing it," he said.

This article was originally posted on 9-May-2009, 07:41 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 9-May-2009, 08:02.