Melbourne Rebels,who are in voluntary administration,were beaten 30-3 by the ACT Brumbies on Friday night.Credit:Getty Images
Should it be of concern to stewards of global rugby that the most successful nation in the game’s shopfront World Cup has landed three of its four final triumphs without scoring a try? (Good luck to South Africa for figuring out that winning formula better than anyone.) That so much of the game’s tactics are now aimed at kicking for territorial advantage and inducing technical penalties within goal-kicking range,to produce scoreboard outcomes worth 60 per cent of what a try produces with a lot more certainty but also less entertainment value? That the predominance of backline tries in the inaugural 1987 World Cup has been largely replaced by crash-over tries by forward packs from within five metres,which spectators can’t see properly? That whenever a speaker at a rugby event these days says the game has become boring,there are choruses of approval from lovers of the game in the crowd?
A well-worn characterisation of this debate is “Northern Hemisphere v Southern Hemisphere”,which has taken the game precisely nowhere for decades. Likewise to say that if Australia wants to make the game more “entertaining”,it can have rules to that effect in Super Rugby. But if our elite players play a format one level below internationals that differs from international level,don’t expect the Wallabies to win very often. Which inevitably trickles down to economics at all levels of the game due to poor media contracts,and less competition globally from one of the sport’s supposed leading nations.