Week from hell could well drive us barmy
Peter FitzSimons
August 29, 2009





THE FITZ FILES
A SHOCKING, depressing week. This was our big chance, the one we were meant to win, were born to win, for pride, for national glory, for talent alone - only to completely blow it, against all reason. But enough about the Miss Universe contest. Of course, we also lost the Ashes and the Bledisloe, which some people found equally depressing. Still, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, and so have we. So let's get the gumboots on, the gloves, the safety goggles, the gas mask … and let's open the entrails. Nurse, pass us the scalpel. Gosh darn it, people we're going in!
We'll be kicking ourselves

So said Channel Seven's legendary commentator Gordon Bray at the conclusion of the Bledisloe Test at Homebush Bay: ''This had everything that was great about a sporting contest.'' Are you serious, Gordy? Ten penalty goals, one try and one conversion, mixed with enough up-and-unders to make your nose bleed, is all you want? You know, and I know, Gordy, that when you go to your well-stocked rugby cellar 20 years from now, to savour one more time some of the great rugby vintages, Saturday night's effort won't get a look-in. In terms of a great and entertaining sports contest, a much better argument could be made for the Tigers versus Eels rugby league match the night before, which had eight superb tries, only one penalty goal, and enough scintillating play from Benji Marshall and Jarryd Hayne to make a brown dog weep. When was the last time we saw a rugby league captain throw the ball to his goal-kicker when a chance to kick a penalty goal came up 50 metres out? It never happens! I am not alone in the view that rugby is being kicked to death, Gordy. Check the ratings - with Saturday night's Bledisloe numbers reportedly down 28 per cent on last year. And I am not the only one wondering if $228 dollars for two Silver seats high in the Gods of the Stadium is worth it. The way it is cannot go on. Elite rugby must either make some urgent changes - to the rules, the weight of the ball, the width of the goal-posts, the number of players on the field, the approach taken by the players to the game, you name it - or face carnage at the box office. There was an intemperate rant on the front page of last Saturday's Herald on this very subject, and as a matter of fact, I think I wrote it. I couldn't agree with me more.
Run for their money

Meanwhile? Meanwhile at least schoolboy rugby is going well. Last Saturday at Oakhill College, they played the finals of the Independent Sporting Association division 2 rugby competition from under-13s through to 1st XV (five divisions). Across the five games on grand final day, 30 tries were scored and not ONE penalty goal even attempted. This, despite many full-arm penalties given inside the 22m area, some right in front of the posts. Even when scores were nil-all, no side seemed to even consider a kick for goal. The result was a great day of running, exciting rugby, well supported during the day by many hundreds of families and school staff and students.


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