Herald Sun Article - Rugby boring

[Set piece magic]

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, don't know if any of you have been reading the Daily Telegraph of late (I suspect not at all given the state of journalism in this country) however if you have had the (dis)pleasure, you probably stumbled upon this article...

http://www.news.com.au/news/minutes...-itself-to-death/story-fnejlub9-1226500603554

FOLLOWING a dour Bledisloe Cup clash on Saturday, rugby union writer Jamie Pandaram and rugby league's Dean Ritchie debate rugby's place in the sporting landscape.
YES, IT IS
by Dean Ritchie

What would you rather watch: curling, bocce, darts, synchronised swimming, billiards ... or rugby union? How about anything but the latter?

The question must be asked: Has rugby union become the world's most boring sport in the wake of Saturday night's mind-numbing Bledisloe Cup game in Brisbane.

Eighty minutes, 12 penalty goals, no tries, 50 stoppages, 15 shots at goal. How bloody embarrassing.

Players such as Mark Ella, David Campese and Stephen Larkham must wonder how their once-great game has gone so horribly wrong over the past 15 years.

In the three Bledisloe Cup games this year, the Wallabies didn't score a try.

That is four hours of footy without a try. The all-conquering All Blacks only got across the line three times.On Saturday at Suncorp Stadium, Australia made just one line break. In the rugby league Test between the same nations a week earlier, five tries were scored through nine line breaks.

There seems little doubt that the A-League has nudged ahead of rugby union in terms of interest, entertainment and media space.

Both sides ran for a combined total of 937m on Saturday night. In the league Test, they ran for 2867m.

Rugby union has been famously marketed as the "running game" but that's a pretty tough sell these days.

It is a game bogged down in pedantic referees, handling errors, penalty goals, field goals, reset scrums and rules designed for conservative northern hemisphere nations.

And who is to blame for the state the 15-man code finds itself? Rugby league, of course, the sport that in 1895 sensibly removed two players from the field to create more space.

League types taught union players how to tackle and to dominate when they do it, not allow runners to get over the advantage line.

The difference is that league defensive lines retreat 10m. In rugby, the ruck is too crowded to allow much hope of line breaks or offloads.

Rugby does little to reward creativity and flair, traits which made Ella, Campese and Larkham so special.

As former Kangaroo Benny Elias said: "I missed the game on TV. I woke up this morning to watch the highlights but there weren't any."Even rugby's own were frustrated. "We're really, really disappointed," All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said. "Too many avoidable penalties and mistakes.

"It was probably one of the ugliest games of rugby that I've been involved in."

The British and Irish Lions tour our shores next year. Platinum tickets for each Test are selling for $295. Surely, no one would be that stupid.

NO, IT'S NOT
By Jamie Pandaram
It is a big world, and there is a good reason why rugby is one of the biggest sports in it.

We can be guilty of looking through a narrow lens. NSW and Queensland may know Ben Barba, but South Africa and Wales know Kurtley Beale.

There is a reason for that.

Rugby is an everyman's game, not one where the prop, lock and winger all have the same physique. That means there are far more variables, skills and contests at play.

Rugby makes stars of Argentina's props, South Africa's locks, France's back-rowers, and Fiji's backs.

It brings together nations of varying and specialised skills, and critics expect it to flow seamlessly?

Fans love to see tries, but that is not all that is required to thrill the rugby masses. They appreciate the nuances and intricacies that make the game such a difficult art to master.

All rugby fans hate pedantic referees and stop-start contests, but they became fans because they have seen rugby at its best - it is the greatest game of all.

The Bledisloe series in 2000, anyone? Ask any of the 51,000 people at Suncorp Stadium who watched the drama unfold five minutes after the full-time siren had sounded on Saturday night whether they were bored.

Ask them if they thought there was not enough attacking motive when, having held off wave after wave of Wallabies attack in their own half after the final bell, All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw opted to take a scrum and attempt an 80m raid for the winning try.

McCaw risked conceding a scrum penalty, or a lost ball that would have given the Wallabies prime position for a field goal. He risked the game in order to win it. And they nearly pulled it off, but for a missed Dan Carter field goal.

At this level tries do not come easy, nor should they.

Just because two teams run up and back at each other all day, making all kinds of yardage, doesn't make it a thrilling contest.

The Wallabies drew against one of the best rugby teams ever assembled by scrapping, grinding and tackling beyond all levels of exhaustion.

And they did it without most of their top players.

Imagine a NSW Origin side without Paul Gallen, Mitchell Pearce, Todd Carney, James Tamou, Tony Williams, Jarryd Hayne, Josh Morris and Michael Jennings drawing 2-2 with a full-strength Queensland in the first game next year.

Would we be talking about the lack of tries or the Blues' incredible defence?

The recent league Test drew 26,000 spectators in Townsville. Double that turned up in Brisbane to watch the Bledisloe Cup after the series had been decided.

They may not have seen a try, but they saw one hell of a rugby game. So did many of our overseas friends.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/news/minutes-50-stoppages-12-penalty-goals-15-shots-at-goal-and-0-tries-is-rugby-boring-itself-to-death/story-fnejlub9-1226500603554#ixzz2A1K5Nehl​

Interesting to note that the mainstream media is not only generally illiterate / illogical, but also can't count. Australia scored 1 try in the bledisloe cup this year, old mate Sharpy himself getting a meat pie.

However Deano does have a point here. Rugby this year has gone down the toilet, no arguing about that. The referees have been shithouse at implementing ruck rules, consistently failing to give the game any type of flow.

No team in the world seems to have a truly coherent attack - the All Blacks have looked good at times, but nothing really special...

The Tri-Nations was about as dull as it gets, with just three games that featured a four try bonus point - all of which were at the end of the season... not one game featured a double four try bonus (in other words, there wasn't one great game).

In fact, I would describe the Tri Nations as an enormous bore fest this year to be honest, looking back, there was only one or two games that had a tight finish. No games were close and high scoring.

I's good news to see Quade and Will set to resign - like it or not these two are the lynchpins of Aus rugby.
Bring on 2013, bring on an improved Aussie conference, bring on scrum improvements, ball in play time improvements, handling improvements, ruck decision making improvements, attacking improvements, and FFS stop getting injured.

 

[Bardon]

The first reaction upon reading the article was. "There was a League game between NZ and Aus a week ago?".

 

[southsider]

only reason they score more trys in league is because they all try to go high in the tackle and get bumped off

 

[Train Without a Station]

What's the fascination with tries? There could have been 10 tries from 30+ phases of pick and drive, that wouldn't make it interesting. The ball handling was shithouse but I saw plenty of attacking play, I re member a number of occaisions where the ball was even run out deep from the defensive half. Not sure how a ball being placed over a chalk line a few times would have improved the quality of the game.

 

[KevinO]

2011 Rugby World Cup had 1,477,294 people attend matches

2008 Rugby League World Cup had 293,965 people attend matches

That is all that needs to be said about Union being a global game and having more support than 3 team league.

 

[Set piece magic]

Put aside league v union for a moment fellas, and think about union 2012/11 compared to union 2010. Big difference in quality imo, and this year tha lack of quality has seen it without doubt go down the shitter in Aus. Don't know about anywhere else

 

[disco]

It certainly wasn't the running spectacle of 2010 when the Wallabies backs really ran riot but that's rugby roundabouts next year we may see a complete try fest. Compare the AFL finals to the NRL finals series anyone who half follows both codes would say that the AFL finals series was far more exciting then the NRL.

 

[qwerty51]

I don't watch rugby for tries, if that's your go then just watch 7s.

I watch it for collisions mainly, and that game on the weekend had plenty. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The NRL final was defense orientated as well.

 

[disco]

The NRL finals series was shit this year, all blowouts & a grand final that never really had anyone on the edge of their seats although in saying that if Morris had scored that try off the Barba kick it would have been a thrilling final 10 minutes.

 

[KevinO]

Put aside league v union for a moment fellas, and think about union 2012/11 compared to union 2010. Big difference in quality imo, and this year tha lack of quality has seen it without doubt go down the shitter in Aus. Don't know about anywhere else

Well the fact the Australian team had a tour to Europe after the World Cup was a joke, these guys have had no decent break in the last year and are expected to provide entertaining rugby when they would be physically and mentally exhausted. Their is no wonder half the team is out injured at the moment.

European Rugby is booming, the ratings are stronger. This is why the RFU has tried to sell there broadcast rights separately. You look at a Leinster, Munster, Osprays, Toulon game and try get tickets when it's Heineken Cup and see how hard it is. The fans their even travel to away games in the hundreds (Cheap flights does help)

Even international games in these countries are impossible to get, where we had one sell out in Australia this year?

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

International rugby is boring at the moment IMHO and the Wallabies one of the most boring teams in it. I'll partially excuse the lack of scoring due to the injury list, but the problem existed before then. We've forgotten how to catch, pass, work moves or generally find the try line.

For each of the last couple of RWC's, the pool stages have been great to watch and the majority of the knockout games snooze fests.

I love the game as much as I ever have but frankly it's hard to watch at times. I haven't even seen Saturday nights game yet (I recorded it) and I may not even bother.

 

[nugget]

Thought the last bit of Sat's game was the most thrilling bit of rugby I've seen since Samo's try last year. When McCaw opted for the scrum the atmosphere was electric.

Geez, AFL must love articles like that one above. Divide and conquer and all that.

 

[BloodDRed]

Had the misfortune to read that article this morning. Dean Ritchie has long proved himself to be the most obnoxious of NRL journalists. He's lucky that most teams in league kick before they get to the final tackle 'cause I'm pretty sure he can't count as high as 6. He's well suited to commenting on rugby for dummies because as sure as shit stinks he's too thick to understand the real thing. He needs a brain reboot if he thinks a league test between NZ and OZ is comparable to a Bledisloe cup game. Saturday night may have had a few errors and no tries but it was exciting and the last 5 minutes was spine tingling. It proved that Rugby offers so much more than the touch footy with tackles that is league.

 

[hawktrain]

I'd rather see, say 4-6 good tries, in your average Super 15 game, than 8 tries in an NRL game where 2/3 of the tries come from kicks. The amount of tries through the hands is diminishing in league as well as in rugby, as defences get better and better.

Comparing a Bledisloe to a league test is silly too, look at most State of Origin games, they're rarely high scoring, just like big rugby tests. Ritchie should have a look at some of the tries NZ scored against Arg and SA in their last two away games, I believe it was 12 tries over the two games, and all of them top-notch.

 

[daz]

International rugby is boring at the moment IMHO and the Wallabies one of the most boring teams in it. I'll partially excuse the lack of scoring due to the injury list, but the problem existed before then. We've forgotten how to catch, pass, work moves or generally find the try line.

For each of the last couple of RWC's, the pool stages have been great to watch and the majority of the knockout games snooze fests.

I love the game as much as I ever have but frankly it's hard to watch at times. I haven't even seen Saturday nights game yet (I recorded it) and I may not even bother.

This pretty much nails it. Well said, you stingy dark coloured insect.

I actually think the code is in decent shape, from a global sporting perspective. But this is the rub; we have been fed test match crap for so long we have forgotten the magic of Gregan putting Morty into space. Of Larkham finding just the right bit of territory with his boot. The magic of the Ella's.

We once watched Horan and Little and Campese and Lynagh dance and pass and catch in a way that made a grown man cry with the sheer beauty of it all.

Now we have grubbers all day, a team that more often than not looks like it met only last week every week (are they fucking goldfish?) and unforced errors up the wahzoo.

And every excuse under the sun except the truth: No one in the ARU or the Wallabies coaching set up really knows what the fuck is going on.

Yeah, I love the game and the code too, Hornet. It would be nice if it loved us back again. Just a little bit.

 

[ChargerWA]

Simple people enjoy simple things. It's good they have League to pass the time.

 

[ChargerWA]

But this is the rub; we have been fed test match crap for so long we have forgotten the magic of Gregan putting Morty into space. Of Larkham finding just the right bit of territory with his boot. The magic of the Ella's.

We once watched Horan and Little and Campese and Lynagh dance and pass and catch in a way that made a grown man cry with the sheer beauty of it all.

I was discussing the game with a kiwi work mate today and his take was that the space just doesn't exist like it used to, because there isn't enough disincentive for the defensive team to not take up space and slow the ruck down. Unfortunately Rugby just doesn't work as well without rucking.

I unfortunately think he may be right.

 

[daz]

I was discussing the game with a kiwi work mate today and his take was that the space just doesn't exist like it used to, because there isn't enough disincentive for the defensive team to not take up space and slow the ruck down. Unfortunately Rugby just doesn't work as well without rucking.

I unfortunately think he may be right.

Sure, I understand the game has evolved and what worked in the past might not work now.

My bit of poetic hyperbole aside, my point was really that once we used to get really excited about watching a test match.

There is really good rugby being played at the moment, both at test and local level, no doubt. But it is fair to say there is also a fair bit of jaded and cynical juice in the average crowd.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Daz and Charger, agree with your comments. The disappearance of rucking surely has contributed to the reduction of quick ball from the breakdown and there are knock-on (pardon the pun) effects from that point onwards. Without the ability to stretch the defence or get them backpedalling, it's very hard to create the necessary space.

It's more than that, though. The quality of passing and handling in general has nosedived in recent years, especially in Wallaby ranks. The amount of basic errors these guys make, both in contact and not, makes me wonder what they practice all day. We used to be renowned for playing footy that was not only successful, but attractive to watch as well.

If we compare and contrast the current number one team, the AB's, they have a much greater handle on these basic skills. Sure they didn't win on the weekend and they haven't always played champagne footy this year, but there have been times when they have sliced teams open with near surgical precision as well. Some of the tries they scored in the Ireland games were perfect examples of the kind of backline play I would like to see us get back to.

It's not beyond us, we first have to get our best and brightest onto the paddock, but we also have to get them playing a more cohesive style. We seem to be relying on heroic effort and moments of individual brilliance. The great Wallaby teams of the past, who also entertained, did the exact opposite. Their success was built on a clear game plan that was executed by all fifteen men on the paddock. There were superstars in those teams, yes, but it was interplay between them that led to all those wins. What we do now is play with tremendous courage and grind out these very dour struggles. It's great that the boys have won more than they lost this year, but it's not that great to watch, to be honest.

 

[kronic]

Mentioned this over at my regular football/soccer forum, with a similar article, which hyped up the start of the A-League season and bashed Rugby in that same article.

The Telegraph as usual, is bashing any footy code but League. If it's not Football/Soccer, or some mythical war in the west of Sydney with Aussie Rules, it's Rugby.

With respect to the writers for Rugby Gold (Iain, Jamie, Jim, Russell, Leo...), most of the "sports" journo's at the Telegraph have an inferiority complex (Wilson and Rothfield specifically). I've hardly ever read such rubbish from other papers (Herald Sun, Courier Mail).