I think the biggest risk for rugby is that we get series of dead dull games with aimless box kicking, ponderous referee decisions, copious scrum resets etc
Absolutely, and to be fair, its a pretty good chance.
Its been interesting to hear some of the comments from Nine about what they want from the teams as well, how they want them to take ownership of the entertainment, and didn’t say it exactly but sounds like they want more then your standard cliche replies and responses to interviews. I guess they want this to help drive discussion and headlines.
Also, ill be interested to see what Nine has demanded in terms of access to the players/interviews. Years ago my roommate dated a rising Ch 9 sports presenter, who is now quite prominent. I asked why she didn't do more interviews on rugby teams, she said it was all too hard. They would go to a training sessions and wouldn't be allowed access to the player they wanted, or it wouldn't be for enough time for anything reportable. Whereas they could go to a NRL team training, and be given complete access and get some quality interviews to broadcast that night.