The National Rugby Competition
The NRC is already showing good signs after a somewhat scatty opening round of games.
I have had a chance to watch seven of the eight matches from the two rounds and here are some random thoughts on the comp and the Round 2 games jotted down as I watched them.
• In the two weeks I lost track of the score of the matches that weren’t on TV (because the scoreboard wasn’t featured much and there was no commentary) then realised that I didn’t care because there were more interesting things to consider than who was winning.
I daresay that will change when I go to Rays’ matches when the GPS season is over and start identifying with them, but meantime it’s a bit of a strange feeling.
• Round 2 had less Barbarian-type rugby, though too many miracle passes were attempted still. It was as though coaches realised that tries could be scored, and also defended against, by a strong effort from their forwards.
It’s an interesting concept.
• Scrumhalves – it was good to see Spirit scrummie Justin Turner healthy again and Rising srummie Nick Stirzacker showing his class. Frisby was outstanding for Brisbane in Perth.
• Spirit v Brisbane has been my favourite game so far. It was real rugby though played at a cracking pace.
• Phil Kite looks like he has swallowed a cow since I saw him last.
• This would be the first time many had seen 8. Ross Haylett-Petty (brother of Dane). It won’t be the last.
• That local (I assume) Perth flyhalf, Dillyn Leyds, looks handy—what’s his background?
• Crikey – McIntyre took a penalty shot late into the Brisbane game: the score must have been close.
• The Sydney Stars weren’t. They started with a hiss and a roar as they did in Round 1, but the Rising looked better-coached and fitter. Skelton had better start playing some solid rugby and not like a comic-book version of himself. I’ll back him to do so.
• Good to see 6. Luke Jones and 7. Sean McMahon playing in what I think are their natural positions—and playing well in them.
• It was funny to hear the referee giving a not-straight call against Rising and telling the hooker that it had to be a reasonable throw. The refs are allowed to give latitude if there is no contest but it still has to be credible. Throwing to the ball to the outside of the outside shoulder as Sexton did was beyond the pale.
That ref had a good sense of humour, by the way.
• The Brisbane and Rising scrums look like a class above. Some of the other scrums can’t operate as a pack.
• That was good video from Perth in Round 2 but the one from Viking Park in Round One did not zoom in enough.
• The scoring experiment that has penalty goals counting for two points and conversions three was doomed before its inception because it will not be accepted by the people that have power whatever we think of it when we watch NRC games and whatever the findings when the NRC is completed.
What is the use of testing players in a false environment?
• I wouldn’t be too worried about crowd numbers unless the teams have budgeted too hopefully and they fall into a financial hole. When Aussie cricket was in it’s pomp crowds weren’t flocking to the Sheffield Shield matches, yet it was a priceless resource to develop players.
• Don’t measure the standard of the NRC against the ITM Cup or the Currie Cup. In five years time you could make a comparison because the “franchise” organisation and the playing group will be shaken out by then and the right coaches will be in place also.
Even if it is never as good as those two comps because everything is done “on the cheap”, it will be streets better for Aussie rugby than without it.
