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Just read this article on Planet Rugby
Will someone tell him to STFU! If we wanted to watch League - we would go to the matches and watch on TV. The whole Mungo support/buying/adoration thing coming from NSW has gone too far already.
Did anyone else notice the GREAT forwards clashes during the RWC? Where did Argentina, France and even the Boks have the best players - in the forwards. I said some time back "I'm not sure what JON has (thats new) to offer Rugby?". I think he is presenting the case to 'abbandon union and just adopt league' on the basis that the Aussies always win at that.
Jon, we don't want to 'always' win. Losing in rugby is a natural risk - thats what make it exciting.
Aussies want `League` rules Tuesday 23rd October 2007
http://planet-rugby.com/Story/0,1825...819971,00.html
Australian officials' love affair with everything that is Rugby League has once again come to the fore as they look for answers to and excuses for their early exit from the World Cup.
Neither the Wallabies nor All Blacks reached the semi-finals in France, which in some quarters is seen as the best World Cup in the tournament's 20-year history.
The Wallabies crashed out in the quarter-finals, following a 10-12 defeat by England - a game in which the victors scored no tries and saw the Aussie forwards dismantled and their scrum pulverised.
Not surprising then the Aussies have also latched onto the tryless World Cup Final between England and South Africa in Paris last Saturday as a reason to go the 'League route'.
It is a move they hope that will devalue set pieces and create a game where backline play is the dominant feature.
The fact that these changes will rob Rugby Union of its unique characteristics have been lost on the Aussies, who were once again shown up for their shocking poor set piece play in the World Cup.
Australian Rugby Union (ARU) chief executive John O'Neill on Tuesday argued that the Final and two "very poor" semi-finals showed Rugby Union's rules need an urgent rethink to "preserve spectator appeal".
O'Neill, who spoke to reporters on his return from attending the World Cup in France, said that Rugby Union needed to "learn" from Rugby League.
He said League changed its rules to improve its spectator appeal.
"Rugby League went from unlimited tackles to limited tackles, it went from three meters to five meters and reduced the value of a field-goal [drop-goal] to one," he said.
"When you say 'why did League do that', they did it for some pretty obvious reasons and we may be confronted with the same reasons.
"We need to create space, we need to create time, we want to create a philosophy that encourages try-scoring, that's what people come to see."
O'Neill pointed to a number of low scoring matches in the World Cup, including South Africa's 15-6 win over England in last Saturday's Final, as reasons why Union might struggle to retain its crowd appeal.
"We had two very poor [World Cup] semi-finals and we had a final in which there were no tries scored, that will not bring the crowds back," he said.
"It's fair to say the semi-finals and Final were disappointing in terms of a spectacle.
"Heartiest congratulations to [champions] South Africa, but it was not what you would call a showcase of rugby."
O'Neill said SANZAR - the rugby alliance of South Africa, New Zealand an Australia which oversees the Super 14 and Tri-Nations competitions - would be foolish not to embrace experimental laws recently trialed in all three countries.
"What I think it has done is convince people that the new laws, the experimental laws, must come in sooner rather than later and we expect that the International Rugby Board [IRB] will write to SANZAR inviting us to use the experimental laws in the Super 14 [next year]," he said.
"I think SANZAR would have rocks in its head if it didn't accept the invitation."
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Originally Posted by hopep
