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The fact the popularity of rugby in Australia is so reliant on the Wallabies is another problem. It won't become sustainably bigger while that is the case. But I digress. I don't think 8 games with less or no penalty goals (or drop kicks instead of place kicks) is going to destroy players...

Well personally I would like to see the rugby world become much bigger. And I'd like to see rugby in Australia become much bigger. I think it has a huge amount of untapped potential. I don't get you guys in the 'don't touch it, it's fine as it is' camp. Sure it is fine and at it's best rugby is...

Officially? What official body ranks the size of sporting events? The IRB have carefully selected statistics that would rank the RWC as the 3rd biggest non-annual sporting event in the world. Though I don't think there's many statistics that would put the RWC ahead of the European Cup in soccer...

The RWC isn't really the 3rd biggest sporting event on the planet. But even if it was it's still got a large runway of growth ahead of it. Just imagine how much bigger it might be if instead of having a snorefest final like in 2007, the finals regularly featured the sort of rugby we saw in the...

exISA, how does the German psychology effect how they play the game? I kind of imagine the German rugby style would be very structured and disciplined, as well as fast. Not a lot of flair but not too conservative either. I see Germany are up to 24th in the world rankings. A little more...

I'd bet you a billion monopoly dollars that rugby would be bigger everywhere in the world if kick the ball away and force penalties style rugby was not an effective way of playing the game. You might be disappointed when it's announced the NRC will involve rules designed to reduce penalty...

Teams already do everything to try and stop tries. It would make a negligible difference on the defensive team. If anything, they'd have to be more disciplined. It's easier now for the defensive team because they know if they give away a penalty the attacking team will kick for points. They...

On its own I don't think it would have as big an influence as you expect. The vast majority of the time teams would still kick for goal where they would normally. Scoring a try from a tap kick, even a man up is not easy. You'd have to go through the phases for 20-50 metres and most of the...

The problem is it's hardly ever that black and white. It's down to interpretation. And in a high percentage of rucks you could penalise either team. Players are almost always going off their feet as a consequence of competing for example. But you can't change that unless you want a game where...

The other thing is that penalty goals allow the referee to decide a game. A penalty in a kickable position is almost an awarding of 3 points. And penalty goals are quite often the difference between winning or losing. I don't think that is ideal.

You're always going to get infringements in rugby. Most penalties are not cynical infringements. Most are just guys competing and getting their timing wrong. People coming slightly from the side, or just failing to beat the ruck, or pushing off the defensive line a split second too early, or...

Talking of hyperbole. It's absolute rubbish to suggest I am trying to create a new game. What I've proposed is the exact same game...just without penalty goals. They take up about 10 or 11 minutes of game play so I'm suggesting we have more rucks, mauls, tries, linebreaks, passes, tackles...

I don't understand why NZ gets so little for its rugby broadcast rights given the numbers. From what I've read Sky pay less than $20 million per year for super rugby + ITM Cup + test matches. It's not much more than what they pay for the NRL rights (I'm not sure what they pay under the new deal...

Great to see a decent crowd, especially against what would probably be the lowest drawing team. The Tahs need to promote the hell out of the Brumbies game at ANZ. It'll be such a crucial match so anything under 30k would be poor, and I think they could push it up to 40 if there's good...

Nah, let's just do nothing and accept rugby as a niche, distantly 4th football code in Australia. Who would want to broaden the appeal of the sport anyway. We don't want an influx of riff-raff at games. They'd probably make too many loud noises.

I know live sport has become more and more valuable to broadcasters but rugby crowds and ratings have fallen over the last decade. So why would rugby get a 165% increase? Especially given the proposed model will actually reduce the amount of content. If they don't then is there a plan B? Or...

As it's written by Roy Masters people on this site will refuse to believe it isn't all made up, but this article provides some stark figures. http://www.irrigator.com.au/story/2286889/pulvers-super-rugby-tv-deal-promise-premature/?cs=12 "A subsequent GMS report in 2014, commissioned by the...

Without penalty goals the only possible way to score points would be with possession. Teams might still play for field position, but the fear of playing in your own half wouldn't exist to anywhere near the same degree so even conservative teams would mix it up if they wanted to win the game...

There is zero chance of NZ and South Africa not playing test matches against Australia. It would be cutting off the nose to spite the face. NZ is economically dependent on Australia - an economy 4 times the size of South Africa's and in a much better time zone. When it comes to the 2nd tier, why...

I wouldn't try and professionalise 10's. I think it would over-complicate the rugby landscape. One off tournaments between 15's teams maybe, but I think 7's has won the battle of the shortened formats and it's in rugby's interests to grow it further. I think if you were trying to start a...