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“I’ll be quite honest, that’s one of the things that annoys me terribly. That drives me crazy.”
British and Irish Lions legend Willie John McBride has slammed the use of ‘bomb squads’ by the likes of South Africa as “absolute nonsense” and called for replacements to be used for injuries only.
Tactical replacements were introduced in international rugby in 1996 but have been increasingly utilised in recent years with Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus a proponent of the ‘bomb squad’ tactic which has seen him name forward-heavy replacement benches to unleash on opponents late on in matches.
Erasmus has often decided on a 6-2 split between forwards and backs when naming his replacements, bringing on powerful front-rowers and impact players in the latter stages of games to give his side a significant physical advantage against tiring opposition.
The tactic has helped South Africa win back-to-back Rugby World Cups and has been adopted by other international sides, but has proved controversial with critics raising safety concerns and arguing that it goes against the spirit of the game.
However, that has not stopped the likes of Erasmus from going further, with the head coach deploying a 7-1 split – or a ‘nuke squad’ – for some international matches, including their 73-0 drubbing of Wales last month.
That game also saw the Springboks make the unprecedented move of emptying their bench and sending all of their replacements on at the same time early in the second half, despite already being 49-0 up.
Now, McBride has spoken out against the tactic, admitting that he has little time for rugby’s move “from a 15-man game into a 23-man game”, with the ability to bring on almost a fresh forwards pack during a game “not fair” and a potential injury risk.
“We didn’t have any reserves,” the 85-year-old former lock told the Ireland Rugby Social podcast as he reflected on how the game had changed. “If you got injured with Ireland, they put you on the wing because you knew the ball wasn’t going to get there.
“If you could stay on the field, you stayed on and if not, you played with 14. So replacements were very important for injury.”
On rugby’s move to a squad game, McBride continued: “I’ll be quite honest, that’s one of the things that annoys me terribly. We have changed rugby from a 15-man game into a 23-man game and that drives me crazy.
“They talk about bomb squads…absolute nonsense. I think we should get back to a 15-man game with reserves for injury only and I think we’d have a much better game.”
The former Ireland lock added that the use of ‘bomb squads’ is “unfair” and “wrong”, citing an increased risk of injury.
“It’s just not fair,” he said. “The chances of injury are so much more because you’ve fresh men against tired men.
“These guys that they rush on at the end are 25 stone probably, huge guys who couldn’t play 80 minutes of rugby. That’s unfair for a start. The whole game is wrong the way they’ve done this.”
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