Not everyone is getting a kick out of the game

Not everyone is getting a kick out of the game

John Connolly | November 9, 2008

I recently read Mark Ella's comments about the obsession with kicking in rugby and the unwillingness for teams to chance their arm. He also stated that rugby league has become a very predictable game. I tend to agree with what he's saying. There's no doubt that the clash between the Wallabies and the All Blacks in Hong Kong was not a particularly entertaining spectacle, although I enjoyed the battle. The conditions probably contributed partly to that, with the rain and the heat. But teams are now becoming very selective about when they run and when they don't run.

In my time as coach of the Wallabies, everyone remembers the horrible game between Australia and South Africa in Sydney in 2006, where there were 30-odd kicks in the first half. Unfortunately we've seen that matched plenty of times since. That clash was a great example of a coach having a view of how to win the game and sticking to it. We knew that the only way South Africa could beat us was to attack with lineouts in our own half. Consequently, if we kept the ball in play, they would control field position, so we did a lot of kicking downfield. While most opposition teams would attack from halfway, they kicked it straight back to us. In hindsight, it might have been better to play more attractive rugby and risk losing, rather than winning ugly.

Not everyone is getting a kick out of the game - rugbyheaven.com.au