Rugby: Return of the beautiful kick

Darter Carter in training. Photo / Getty Images

Schoolboys who grew up with visions of becoming the next Grant Fox or Andrew Mehrtens will remember it as vividly as their first kiss - the day they hit their first perfect spiral.

The school field, the leather ball, the pain-free connection of foot with sweet spot, the magnificent sight of the ball fizzing through the air like a missile rather than a wounded duck.

The spiral was the apex of punting mastery, but just as suddenly it became as much part of rugby antiquity as oranges at halftime and setting up a "wall" on a tap penalty.

But don't write that obituary yet. The spiral is on the verge of a tentative comeback. There's a chance you might even spot one at Millennium Stadium this weekend.

All Black skills coach Mick Byrne is an advocate of the forgotten art. If you get to a test early, you might find him on the field, kicking beautifully struck spirals touchline to touchline with the likes of Mils Muliaina and Dan Carter. Now it's just a matter of giving them the confidence to do it during a game.

"There's still a place for the spiral on clearing kicks," Byrne said. "In terms of kicking for distance, the spiral is still clearly the longest."

So why did it ever disappear? The answer is simple but sad.

As the positional play and link-up between the back three - the fullback and wingers - became more sophisticated, poor kicks became more costly. A high price was placed on accuracy and the drop punt, where the ball rolls end over end, was easier to master and invariably more accurate.

In effect, the spiral was coached out of the game. "A lot of players lost their ability to kick a spiral," Byrne said. "It disappeared from the game, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. You still see guys like Jonny Wilkinson and Ronan O'Gara kicking spirals, but it's rare."

There's a misconception about what a spiral should look like, too. The belief that a well-struck spiral should curve, for a right footer, tended to restrict its use, even in its halcyon days, to kicking for the left-hand touch.

"If you kick it properly, it actually snakes like an 'S'," Byrne said, meaning it was even more effective when kicking for the right-hand touch.

With the advance in ball technology and the bigger sweet spots, there is scope for the very best to steal phenomenal distance on clearing kicks using the spiral. There's also the chance of not catching it right and seeing it flub its way to ignominy.

"That's the challenge," said Byrne. It's a challenge that needs to be met, if only for the sake of future generations.