So it's not all doom and gloom, and I don't mean any disrespect to Lee Grant, but why not have a bit of optimism about this place too?
No disrespect was inferred, after all: in the preface to my
"What gets up my nose" posts, which were turned into a blog by Moses, I took care to preface my comments with
"Our sport is more enjoyable to watch than it was in the olden times when I was young, but there are a few things about the modern game I would rather be without."
I also posted:
"The rugby I watched as a young bloke was a horrible spectacle but we didn't know any better."
It's much more enjoyable now: Until the late 1950s you couldn't even pick up the ball after a tackle without being pinged: you had to play it with your foot first.
As for lineouts: until about 1970 you could kick the ball directly into touch and gain ground from anywhere on the field. And in those days before there was a credible gap in the lineout and wingers used to bowl the ball into them over-arm, the team that kicked the ball out on the full in general play had about a 40% chance to get the ball back. It was kick, kick, kick in international games (though fortunately Oz had dispensation to use something close to the current law in domestic rugby.)
How does a tragic like myself pick what aspects of the game they like now? Apart from the scrums, which were much better then, because it they were real contests and had a high completion rate, most of it is better. The negatives relate not so much to the game itself but how it is treated by negative players, referees who ignore some of the laws (all eras had good and poor referees), commentators who seem bigger than the game, officials controlling the sport, and yarda, yarda. People.
But I tell you what an old mate of mine liked about the modern game; well, not too long ago on my time scale. Wal is no longer with us but he was a Rabittoh (South Sydney rugby league) fan and I always tried to get him to come with me to watch the Tahs, but he wouldn't. Then one day he said he would.
I asked him why he wanted to this time and he said it was to watch league player Mat Rogers play his first game of rugby union in Sydney. (It must have been 2002.) On the way home I asked him what he liked most and he was stuck for an answer because it was clear he didn't like most of it, though he was glad that Rogers wasn't going to be playing against Souths any more, or so he thought.
Then he said that he liked the lineouts. It was a technical element of the game (my words) that was interesting because they were easy to understand for a league fan. And the lifting of guys up in the air after deceiving opponents, or the contesting for the pill way up there from a precise throw if they weren't fooled, was like an aerial ballet contest - (my words again, Wal was not much for dancing.)
Wal never went to another game of union: one was enough for him; but I remembered his comment. I think he had it right: the lineout is a wonderful element of our sport and much, much better than in the olden times of my youth when Rafferty's Rules prevailed.
Come to think of it: it was a bit like the scrum is now.
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