The dying - perhaps death - of Rugby in Australia.

[Hell West & Crooked]

I was chatting with an influential employee of an Australian team and he is adamant for things to improve the scrums need to be sorted (everyone knows that) and that there are two too many players on the field.

Paradoxically, Your friend is Right - and Wrong - at the same time. Simply put, the problem is this...

We are playing fully Professional Rugby, with extremely Fit, extremely Fast players, with significantly more sophiticated Defensive Strategies, on the same fields we used to watch Lawyers, and Doctors, Policemen and Accountants with a bit of time off from work, play the same game....

I have been advocating these past 5 years that ALL international Rugby Pitches be widened by MIN 8.0 metres and MAX 16.0 metres in order to accommodate the faster, more sophiticated game.

It is not that there are 2 too many players on the field, it is the fact that the fields are now 2 players too narrow.

16 metres would be ideal / 8.0 metres would be a compromise.

Many people would suggest that this could never be accommodated; It might be painful, but if the IRB gave all member countries 6 years to comply for all Provincial and International Venues, I think that one would find that it would happen quite calmly, without too much grumbling, and nobody would be killed in the process...

In terms of the crowds I am seeing lately, they would not be trroubled by a couple of less rows of seating - and If Capacity is the great untouchable, I did not see too many complaining when they dementedly reduced Stadium Australia from 110,000 to 88,000 a few years ago.

Its not what you do that matters, its how you go about doing it...

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

that is an aggressive widening of the field of play at 8m per side.
i would suggest all you would need is an extra 5m width (2.5m per side).

 

[Hell West & Crooked]

I think it needs to be aggressive - but the number is not sacred... I just base it on the width of a good solid passing width for a running backline on full attack...

The point being - the players have gotten bigger and faster, and the fields have not.

 

[Bruce Ross]

HW&C, I gave your post a "like" not because I necessarily agree with it - I don't necessarily disagree with it either - but because it is a very interesting and well-argued idea. Either one of those qualifiers should ensure that it gets nowhere.
.

 

[Hell West & Crooked]

2 days ago, I was able to watch a replay of the 2000 Bledisloe Test at the (then) New Stadium Australia.

What was remarkable - apart from realising what a stong team we had then, was 2 things:

1. It was shocking to see how different backline play was just 13 years ago - and how much more room the backs had to move around in.

2. How 'dubious' all the interfering with forward play has been - in an attempt to 'simplify' things, they seem to have taken all the natural flow out of forward play - and virtually killed-off the Ruck.

I don't expect much common-sense to win-out any time soon, but when I see all these think-tanks carrying on about changes to the Laws and Opening-Up the game for the spectators, I just about want to scream; "just give 'em more room to run around in!"

 

[Braveheart81]

Hell West & Crooked - The Front Rowers Union will be turning up on your doorstep with baseball bats if you keep pushing that agenda!

 

[GunnerDownUnder]

1. Bring back rucking
2. Sort the p*ssing about by the weaker front row and refs at scrums
3. Bring back rucking
4. Encourage teams/stadiums to increase width of pitches if stadium allows (perhaps just increase both minimum and maximum allowed dimensions)
5. Bring back rucking
6. Sort out the citing process and suspension periods
7. Bring back bloody rucking - would solve so many of the problems we all moan about

 

[Hell West & Crooked]

Possible.... But the Front Rowers of today are relatively fit and athletic... I doubt any Prop from my days would even get on the field today! - and Hookers now look like Flankers use to look like...

They have only brought it on themselves...

 

[Hell West & Crooked]

I used to play with a Kiwi Prop down at Parra Colts... every week he would turn up 15 minutes before a game, and someone would say
"How're ya doin Stewie"?
and every week, he would say " Oooh - Im a but crook, ektually"
and every week, we would say "Whadja have for breakfast Stewie?"
to which he would invariably pause from his ciggie, and reply a version of; "Two VBs end a cold Big Muc"...
and then he would go out and play like a champion.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Hell West & Crooked - The Front Rowers Union Cauliflower Club will be turning up on your doorstep with baseball bats if you keep pushing that agenda!

Fixed.

Donate for every 5 pointer scored by another member of the aforesaid club.

 

[Badger]

To state the bleeding obvious, Rugby cannot neglect it's heartlands (from a Sydney centric perspective the North and East of Sydney), but there is a great opportunity for rugby in Western Sydney. Although we don't have the AFL "war chest' we can learn from the AFL and concentrate on specifc areas/schools and we can learn from Rugby League in what not to do. It could take a while, but we could do it one suburb at a time.

There always seems to be talk from either the ARU or NSWRU about having a greater presence in western Sydney.

The Tahs are running rugby clinics around Sydney, including one at Carlingford which is booked out, and holding an open training session in the lead up to the Brumbies match out at Homebush . A good start, but a constant presence is required.

Have the ARU/NSWRU considered partnering with the University of Western Sydney to establish a training facility or Centre of Excellence which could be used by the rugby community in the west and UWS students? The facility would benefit the UWS Health and Science Faculty and the rugby community in western Sydney leveraging off the intellectual capital of UWS.

The AFL rightly target newly arrived immigrants as a source of new fans. In western Sydney, the NSWRU should consider exploring this avenue if they haven’t already done so. In tandem with the local rugby clubs, the NSWRU could be making contact with local community groups and provide the opportunity to run Try Rugby clinics to introduce rugby, especially during the school holidays. Also a good way to expose new immigrants to a wider cross section of the general community.

Another interesting statistic from RUPA is that 43% of Super Rugby and National Academy players are studying at Uni. How many other sports can say this? This is a great selling point for rugby as it highlights that involvement in rugby doesn’t have to detract from succeeding in academic studies.

Lots can be done if there is the will to do so. It will cost money and, hopefully, some of the much touted bounty from the Lions tour can be used towards this end. Sadly though, no meaningful commercial FTA exposure makes it harder than for the other sports.

 

[Badger]

Sounds like grassroots league isn't going too well at the moment either.

League powerbroker Nick Politis feels the east has been ignored for the west: "They worry about the west but obviously they have given up on the east because we are dead anyway. Dead and buried because nobody is playing rugby league in the area."

Politis again: "Have they given up on the east coast? You've got the central coast, North Sydney and the eastern suburbs where there is no rugby league. What are they going to do about that? Have they given up? Don't we need help? We probably need more help than the west."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/the-fitz-files/hird-allegations-shock-sadden-20130412-2hrdm.html#ixzz2QoiQ2aT3​

 

[p.Tah]

Not something I would have expected to read about. Sounds good.

RUGBY players from Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania will converge on Kew's Xavier College this weekend for the 19th Victorian Schools Xavier Rugby Sevens Carnival.

More than 200 players from 20 secondary colleges in Melbourne, Ballarat, Hobart and Adelaide will contest the 34-team round-robin event on Saturday.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/...-sevens-carnival/story-fngnvmox-1226623476184

Read more here:

http://www.vsru.rugbynet.com.au/verve/_resources/XAVIER_7s_EOI_Flyer.pdf

 

[wamberal]

IMHO, the biggest blight on the game is the constant kicking. I am been wracking my brains trying to think of an answer.


Maybe we should go back to the old rule, where a mark (a "fair catch") could be taken anywhere, not just in the 22. But no kick for goal allowed, of course. That would be a pretty strong disincentive against the constant up-and-unders.


The rule of unintended consequences apart, this might be worth a trial.

 

[Bowside]

I think the ARU should offer a free year of junior rugby to the kids of all recent immigrants. Half price for the second year and by the third year hope the kid will want to keep playing enough that the parents will pay.

 

[USARugger]

Bowside

That's not already a thing?!?! Lots of juniors clubs (at least around my area) offer discounts for new players and I know lots of university and men's clubs who have a no-dues policy for rookie players.

 

[rugbysmartarse]

I think the ARU should offer a free year of junior rugby to the kids of all recent immigrants. Half price for the second year and by the third year hope the kid will want to keep playing enough that the parents will pay.

make it part of the citizenship test maybe. Stuff "who was Don Bradman", try "what are the relative merits of Quade Cooper as starting 10 against the Lions"

 

[GunnerDownUnder]

Having just completed my citizenship test, I can confirm there is nothing about sport in there at all. A few questions like -
Who were the first immigrants to Australia? When is ANZAC day? then the rest are about the senate and parliament.
Took me 2min 15secs to complete - its basically a test to see if you can fill out a form in English and read a few very basic questions in English without help from someone.

 

[USARugger]

Hell West & Crooked


So do you change the pitch size for professional games only? How do you enforce that? The vast majority of the rugby players on Earth still hold a day-job, including the vast majority of this board.

And where so these clubs and unions source the funds from for these stadium reconstructions? How do you explain to the administrative boards that you want to increase field size while diminishing possible ticket revenue and with a pretty hefty price tag to boot? The clubs and unions which operate in the black are the exception in rugby, not the rule.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Just a couple of observations on the last two posts. Firstly, AFL, NRL and soccer have two very important advantages. They are all very simple games that are relatively easy to watch even if you know nothing about the rules. Soccer and NRL both televise extremely well.

Secondly, all three are on FTA (in soccer's case, only internationals at this stage, but I believe the ALeague will be on SBS next season).

Thirdly, both the NRL and the AFL control their own rule books, so they are able to tweak their games whenever they want to. In contrast, our game is complicated - yes, we all love the complications, but what about a viewer who is new to the game?

As for the expansion of rugby into places like Asia, and the Americas, I will believe it if and when it happens. Japan used to tour here and play Test matches, many years ago. South Korea had a very competitive national team, I used to enjoy watching them when I lived in Hong Kong. China was going to be the next big thing in rugby, just as it was going to be the next big thing in just about everything.

Argentina is a bright spot, but they have had a strong national side off and on for many years.

Brazil? I doubt it. Let us wait to see whether or not they can get into the HSBC Sevens circuit first.

Asian Rugby is developing quite nicely actually. It will likely never be able to compete with the bigger nations (physically) but their is depth growing down through the divisions. Some of the Rugby played by the Sri Lankan, Thai, Chinese Taipei and Kazak national teams in the recent D1 championship was really impressive. What Japan possess over them is a level of professionalism well above their national competition structures.