Technical points decide more close matches than anyone admits

Late entries, early crossings and stepping out of bounds are treated as trivia, and they are worth as much as a tackle.

Nobody clips a technical point for social media. A raider steps a toe over the sideline, an official raises an arm, a point goes up, and the broadcast is already showing something else. Yet in a sport where the median winning margin is small, those points are worth exactly the same as a superbly executed ankle hold that took three years to learn.

Count the categories. Out of bounds. Late entry into the raiding half. Crossing the baulk line without a proper cant. Failing to return in time. None of these involve a defender doing anything except standing still and waiting for an opponent to be careless.

What interests me is that teams treat them as accidents. They are not accidents, they are a rate, and rates respond to training. A side that gives away three technical points a match across a full season is handing over the equivalent of several results. That is not a discipline problem to be fixed with a talking to. It is a coaching output like any other and it should be tracked and reported the way tackle percentages are.

There is a tactical layer too, which very few teams appear to exploit deliberately. A defence that closes the corridor and herds a raider towards the sideline is not just trying to tackle him. It is trying to make him step out. The line is a seventh defender who never gets tired and never mistimes anything. Against a raider who is quick but not especially aware of his feet, working him wide is a higher percentage play than trying to catch him.

The counterargument is that chasing an out of bounds means breaking shape, and breaking shape against a good raider is how you concede a multi point raid. True enough. It is a trade, and it depends on who you are facing.

But the wider point stands. Every league publishes raid points and tackle points. Almost none of them publish technical points conceded per match as a team ranking, and the moment they did, some very well regarded sides would look untidy.

The cheapest points in kabaddi are the ones nobody films.