Take a breakdown from this weekend’s televised matches. Any breakdown will do. Now freeze frame it second by second and I guarantee you will find at least three players committing penalty offences according to the strictest interpretation of the laws of the game.

The breakdown is an unholy mess. The clue is in the name. Ever since real rucking was taken away, it has become a free-for-all. I often hear referees talk about players “painting a picture” at a ruck, which is basically code for pretending to be following the laws. It’s condoned cheating.

I have every sympathy for referees in this regard. They are in an impossible position. If every player at the ruck is cheating then who do you choose to penalise? Yet when they make their decision, you can also understand why the penalised team are angry that they, rather than the equally-culpable opposition, are punished.

This leads to frustration levels inexorably rising and, almost inevitably, incidents like the Joe Marler clearout of TJ Ioane. That resulted in a red card and a six-week suspension, which is an utter joke.

The first offender is invariably the tackler. In previous years as the tackler you would want to finish on top of the ball-carrier so you could get straight back to your feet and compete for the ball. However, the laws now state that the tackler must completely release the ball-carrier and come back through the gate before competing for the ball, which is virtually impossible. So now it is more of an advantage to be underneath the ball-carrier. This allows you to slow the ball down by holding the ball-carrier’s arm into his body to prevent him presenting the ball long.

That’s what Marler did about five minutes before the red card. He held on to Ioane’s arm after making the tackle. Ioane thought ‘I don’t like this’. So with his free arm he gave Marler an elbow to the face. He doesn’t quite connect, Marler doesn’t seem all that fussed, but Ioane gets a two-week ban off the back of it. A couple of minutes later, Marler accidentally gets booted in the face. Then Marler is presented with an opportunity to clear Ioane and takes it.

Joe Marler takes his opportunity to clear out TJ Ioane credit: BT Sport

Any tackler faces a catch-22 situation. Once you have tackled the player, you are supposed to instantly release him, but if you release him too quickly then he’ll just bounce up and claim that he was not held. If you hold on too long you get pinged for not releasing. There has to be a happy medium and the best way to do that is to hide your arm underneath the player. The tackler then won’t roll away because he claims he is trapped underneath the ruck. The whole time he will be looking at and talking to the referee claiming he is trying to move. Painting that picture. Again watch out for it this weekend: their body position will never be horizontal to the ruck but diagonal or vertical. This stops the players coming in for the clearout being able to position their feet correctly for the clearout.

I’m fairly convinced that it is impossible to clear out a player who has got over the ball in full accordance with the laws. In the real world at least. If you want a quick laugh then look on World Rugby’s website at the image of what they think a ruck looks like and ask yourself when the last time you ever saw this happen. Either you come off your feet, using your shoulder as Marler did, or you attempt a judo or crocodile roll, which in many ways is far more dangerous. This is how Bath’s Taulupe Faletau tore his knee ligaments was cleared out by Mathieu Bastareaud. But without these tactics, how do you remove a player who is over the ball? By tickling them?

The breakdown is an unholy mess credit: AFP

Then again, a lot of players competing for the ball are apparently defying the laws of gravity if they are genuinely supporting their own body weight. Maro Itoje is a prime example. He plants his feet so far back that he would have to be levitating like David Blaine to support his own bodyweight.

Even without referencing the tactic of the attacking team holding the tackler in the ruck, I have listed four offences that go on at pretty much every ruck. So what is to be done? Simple: bring back rucking. Remove the lottery and allow players to self-police the ruck. Players will very quickly learn that there are real consequences to lying on the wrong side of a ruck.

There will be some psychopaths who are prepared to take a slice of shoe-pie for trying to slow the ball down but that is their choice. I know people are squeamish about the use of boots but I truly believe that it would make the game safer in the long term. It would also paint a much clearer picture for the referees.

Austin Healey is a proud ambassador for Jeep Grand Cherokee. Visit Jeep.co.uk