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Former Wales captain Paul Thorburn has launched a stinging attack on World Rugby, accusing them of presiding over a game that has become needlessly dangerous and a diminishing spectacle.

The tournament director of the 1999 World Cup believes youngsters will start to turn away from the game in droves unless the authorities make a series of changes.

The 37-cap ex-full back wants:

the scrapping of mass substitutions;

an end to the "ludicrously dangerous" practice of lifting at line-outs;

referees to consistently penalise crooked scrum feeds;

more to be done to encourage forwards to commit to rucks and so prevent virtually entire teams fanning out in defensive lines.

For Thorburn, the status quo isn't an option.

"Rugby used to be a game for people of all shapes and sizes, but increasingly that isn't the case," said the former Neath stalwart.

"Now you have massive blokes bashing in to massive blokes for 80 minutes with all the risks that involves.

"You really do wonder whether parents are going to want to encourage their children to take up the sport or indeed if the youngsters themselves will be attracted to it as much as they once were.

"My guess is if we go on as we are many of them will turn away on the basis that it is simply too dangerous."

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Thorburn contends that teams being allowed to make up to eight substitutions in every match has had a negative effect on the sport.

"What justification is there for a side to change more than half its side during a match?" he said.

"Once, the fitness of a starting XV was often the difference in rugby.

"Wales in the 1970s, for instance, tended to cut loose late in games because opponents would tire and gaps would open up.

"Nowadays those gaps don't open up, because coaches have cleared their benches and sent on fresh players around the hour mark. It means the physicality of a game is maintained for the entire 80 minutes: no let-up, huge tackles until the final whistle.

"That in itself is dangerous because you have people coming on and playing against guys who may be tiring with all the increased risks that brings.

"Sides used to be allowed to use just two substitutes and then for medical reasons. I can't see why we have moved away from that.

(Image: Huw Evans Picture Agency)

"Nor can I see why line-out lifting is allowed. To have blokes being thrown 12ft in the air is ludicrously dangerous and the surprise is there are not more incidents like the one that saw Justin Tipuric fall awkwardly while playing for Wales against Italy last season.

"Line-out jumping used to be an art. Bob Norster, for instance, was a supreme technician who used quick feet, timing and the ability to get off the ground under his own steam to defeat bigger opponents. England had two massive locks in Wade Dooley and Paul Ackford, but Bob used to compete on equal terms because he was so good at a core skill.

"But now players are thrown up in the air by props who themselves have bulked up to be capable of doing the lifting in the first place."

The law on scrum feeds is unequivocal: the No. 9 should "throw in the ball straight along the middle line", but is is rare that a referee consistently enforces it.

"World Rugby should demand that their officials do their jobs and referee according to the rules," said Thorburn.

"What happens at the scrums is an absolute joke. The ball is sent towards the second rows and nobody bats an eyelid. It is almost as if it is now a law that the scrum-half must feed crookedly.

"Hookers tend not to hook any more.

"He used to be the pendulum in a front row, able to use his feet to send the ball back quickly; now he tends to be a 17st bloke sandwiched between two 18st blokes — three props, effectively, adding to the pressure coming through in the scrums and heightening the risks to those involved.

"How often have you seen the ball stuck in the middle of a scrum when a scrum-half does actually feed it straight?

"It won't be long before someone sends the ball straight to the No. 8, because referees so rarely penalise crooked feeds.

"The game has become less of a spectacle, full stop.

"There isn't enough space and sides who flood rucks to compete for ball should be rewarded by referees as it would discourage teams from having pretty much everyone strung out across the pitch in a defensive line.

"Phil Bennett and Barry John were great players who helped make rugby such an enjoyable sport to watch, but if they were playing today they wouldn't be able to do what they once did, for the simple reason that there is no space.

"But no one seems to care.

"We get the so-called choke tackle, where two or three players try to hold up an attacker, while everyone else is positioned across the field ready to defend.

"Attacking play as we knew it has become increasingly rare, but nothing ever gets done.

"World Rugby has created a monster by either moving away from old laws or failing to properly police all the ones that are now in place.

"Will anything change? Probably not, but that in itself reflects poorly on those in charge. Rugby isn't what it could or should be.

"World Rugby needs to act."