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Thread: The State of the Union

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    The State of the Union

    What's wrong with rugby

    Adrian Proszenko, c/o Rugby Heaven
    Sunday, February 25, 2007


    Wallabies greats have slammed the state of rugby union, claiming a combination of negative play, confusing rules and a lack of leadership from the ARU has plunged the code into crisis.

    The criticism comes after a lacklustre start to the Super 14 season in which the four Australian sides have scored only 14 tries between them, and last weekend's much-hyped Brumbies-Reds game was panned as one of the worst spectacles in the competition's history.

    Former Wallabies breakaway Simon Poidevin led a scathing attack on the game, saying there was no excuse for the defensive displays at Super 14 and Test level that were driving fans away from the game.

    "It's created a crisis - the crisis is that the game needs to reinvent itself again otherwise it has a very bleak few years ahead," Poidevin said.

    "You hear coaches say 'we won ugly, but we won'. That's great that you've put your points on the board, but you're starting to lose a whole army of supporters out there because people are sick of seeing no tries and sick of fly-halves kicking the ball away.

    "I still think last year's South Africa-Australia game at Telstra Stadium [which Australia won 20-18] was inexcusable.

    "That to me was the lowest point for rugby since rugby went professional because we had two sides performing on the world stage that played the most pedantic, terrible rugby out there and expect, a) to get paid for doing it, and b) for supporters to support them again.

    "I can't see people turning up and paying again if there's the threat of that happening again.

    "The frustrating part is there are fantastic athletes playing the game of rugby in Australia which don't get the accolades of players in AFL, soccer and rugby league. They don't get a chance to fully show their skills."

    Rugby legend Mark Ella, when asked about the state of the game, simply stated: "Rugby in Australia is just boring", while former Wallaby Bill Young said the implementation of the four-stage "crouch, touch, pause, engage" sequence for initial scrum engagement was a turn-off for fans.

    "I don't think that's adding to the game from a spectacle point of view," he said. "Scrummaging is a very confrontational area and people want to see two 800-kilo packs tear into each other. They don't like to see them touch each other on the arm before they go in."

    Former Wallabies forward Dan Crowley called for administrators to limit the amount of full-arm penalties given by referees and to reintroduce rucking into the game.

    "That would get rid of half the guys in the ruck and maul because they won't have the courage to stay in there," he said.

    "That would get half the backs out of the breakdown because they don't like getting the shit kicked out of them. I've never seen anyone get significantly injured in rucking ... it frees up the ball quicker."

    The former undercover police officer said the ARU had shown a "lack of leadership" on many issues, most notably the ongoing saga to re-sign winger Lote Tuqiri.

    "They should have said 'this is what you're worth, take it now or we'll [subtract] $20,000 a week," he said. "No one person is bigger than the game. From that perspective we haven't done ourselves and our fans justice."

    Poidevin went a step further and joined John Eales in calling for former ARU boss John O'Neill to return to the post to bolster the ARU's ranks alongside Gary Flowers.

    "We've got a guy [O'Neill] who is willing to put his expertise into the game but the constitutional body-huggers [prevent him] from coming back," Poidevin said.

    Wallabies World Cup-winning coach Rod Macqueen and IRB referees chief Paddy O'Brien headed a rules discussion in Sydney last week.

    The pair are behind the "Stellenbosch" laws, which will be trialled in the Sydney and Brisbane club competitions and the inaugural Australian rugby championship, aimed at making the game quicker and easier to follow.

    O'Brien conceded the current rules were "too complex for the average punter" to understand.

    "There is something fundamentally wrong when two people, with rugby knowledge or not, sit in Aussie Stadium and one's cheering for the Blues side and you think 'No. 7 red should be penalised' and your mate thinks No. 7 blue should be," he said. "In actual fact both could be [penalised] under present laws."

    Macqueen said the trial rule changes were necessary to speed up the game and make it a more attractive to watch.

    "The IRB would be silly to think that the part of our decision-making process doesn't encompass making it a good game for spectators, that's certainly right up there on our list," he said.

    Flowers said it was an appropriate time to review the code's laws, but added it was important the core principles of rugby are retained.

    "Those are, that it is a game for all shapes and sizes, that the line-outs and the scrums remain key parts of the game, as well as the breakdown," he said.

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    Immortal GIGS20's Avatar
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    I agree, as long as they don't monkey with the distinctives of the game, the last sentece of this post is the clincher. Rugby is characterised by the Scrum, The lineout and the breakdown, without those three key apects, you might as well be playing league where everyone is a mobile back of varying size. I don't want to watch a game where the importance of the pack is reduced to the level where an old halfback can play hooker and a big centre can play prop!

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    Quote Originally Posted by GiteauIsGunnaScoreTwenty
    I agree, as long as they don't monkey with the distinctives of the game, the last sentece of this post is the clincher. Rugby is characterised by the Scrum, The lineout and the breakdown, without those three key apects, you might as well be playing league where everyone is a mobile back of varying size. I don't want to watch a game where the importance of the pack is reduced to the level where an old halfback can play hooker and a big centre can play prop!

    Summed it up beautifully, GIGST.

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    Thanks mate! I try!

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    League has very little to do with RUBGY now. It gave away line-outs way back, and the scrums are a joke. If the ball ever went in straight into a scrum the hookers wouldn't know what to do- cos half of them are old half backs. Good point GIGST. Thats what I like about rugby- all the specialist positions. Plus the counter attacks. And the unpredictability of possession.

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    Veteran Contributor frontrow's Avatar
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    Bring back Rucking, never a better statement have i heard regarding the state of our game...I know that technically (for the refs out there) that rucking is still allowed, but it has been highly sanitised, to the point of a whistle being heard at the first sign of boot on flesh...It is part of the game, and has been for over a hundred years with no reports of serious life threatening injuries, apart from flesh wounds, that i can recall...Bring back the ruck, bring back the ruck, etc....

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    I'd like to see France and Argentina and Samoa tour Oz to show us flair and counter-attack, every year, in the style that Ella would endorse.

    For the forwards who don't like the changes made already, wait till after the World Cup and the rule changes being introduced from the Stellenbosch experiment ! There'll be more changes to get used to next year ! So yes, the state of the union is changing, hopefully for the better, but until new stuff is trialled and ironed out, its a case of wait and see. What gels and what smells ? Then complain like hell !

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    Rucks need shake up?

    How about defending team players unless attached to the ruck must stay 5m behind ruck prior to ball being cleared?

    http://www.rugbyheaven.smh.com.au/ar...166803704.html

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    Hmm, does that mean you have to be 5m back before you can legaly join the ruck from the back?

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    I think you can basically put all of the dramas with Rugby down to the fact that players in every position have got bigger, faster, fitter and more agile yet the field dimensions and off side rules etc have remained the same.
    This has led to the field being "smaller" and #9's & #10's having far less opportunity to get the ball away.
    Let's face it, Openside Flankers can now be quicker than your average 80's Winger and Props are seen running down Outside Centres.
    Unless field dimensions or player numbers are changed or new initiatives such as Woolfe's 5m rule are brought in, Union is destined to become more and more a Forwards rumble with the odd intercept try, much like its earliest years!

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    Veteran Contributor frontrow's Avatar
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    I don't know if i like the five metre rule, tooo much like league for mine...Basically, the refs should be able to do the job they're paid for and if they are struggling, then calls from the touchjudges would be of benefit...Basically someone needs to address the situation and create new moves to free the ball quicker from the back of the rucks and mauls, perhaps 1st receiver directly behind the ruck, then swing it wide from thier...I know it is like two steps back to go forward, but it frees up the players to mix up the attacks...

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    Too much like league, FR?

    Not really commenting on the 5m rule. But ruling out any change that may help free up play in Rugby just because it's similar to RL seems counter-productive. The two have too many common rules already. I follow both but I lean more to Rugby now because they've taken most of the contests for the ball out of RL.

    Turn on ABC2 at 9 one night and have a squizz at some of the old RL matches. Unlimited tackles & EVERY scrum, tackle, PTB a contest. Plenty of tries.

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    Veteran Contributor frontrow's Avatar
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    I too like league. or at least i used to...Now i appreciate union for the free flowing-ness of the contests, and with all these changes being made, we are in danger of ruining what i believe is an already great game...

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    Quote Originally Posted by frontrow
    I don't know if i like the five metre rule, tooo much like league for mine...
    Surely rather than being a adjunct of leage, this rule is an admission that refs aren't controlling the ruck. A well set up ruck by the team in posession of the ball could easily set the defender 2 or 3 m away from the scrumhalf when the ball is out. I'd suggest there are two problems at the ruck which get in the way of open play
    1, teams are not setting up rucks in such a way as to get the ball away from the opposition pack for the scrumhalf (mainy due to wanting quick ball but regularly simply becuse they don't want to commit forwards to the ruck rather than have props running in the centres)
    2, Refs are really quite crap at caling offside at the ruck right now, surely the first fix would be getting the call right befor moving the defenders (and the ref) back 5m and having the same crap cals occuring there.

    The South African teams seem to be best at taking advantage of this refereeing trend by pushing the line as far as the ref will allow. maybe we should take a leaf from their playbook

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    Veteran Contributor frontrow's Avatar
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    I agree, the SA teams and richie have been pushing these boundaries for years, and i believe it has been let go by the refs because it occurs so much with these teams and certain individuals that to pull them up and penalise them would make them look too strict in thier enterpretations of offside, and possibly exposing themselves to criticism in the process...I have seen many games were every ruck could be blown up due to offside, and no penalties are awarded...It really does come down to refereeing i believe...

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