Roger Moroney: Rugby better on TV

TV doesn't get much more real that this.

I've long harboured doubts about the so-called television "reality" shows, because to me they still seem to be ever-so-slightly scripted.

There is the usual playing up for the camera by the participants, supposed to be behaving in a "real" manner rather than with learned words in their heads and a plotline to pursue, and there is the inevitable editing of it all before it hits the screen.

But over two days I think I changed my mind. I feel there is very much a place for reality television because I have witnessed two dramatic and unscripted slices of life which featured every possible aspect of what can make a television show appealing.

Drama, controversy, colour, edginess, division, harmony, laughter, tears, aggression, uncertainty, fear, uneasiness ... I could go on.

But I'll leave the rest of that for the chaps who attended these "reality" events and who reported on them.

The Rugby World Cup semi-finals.

Now, while there is no script involved, at the conclusion of the second of these remarkable games I sort of thought that if this was a production drama created in Hollywood, the way it all played out was well-written.

I doubt I'm the only one who a month back bantered about the idea that "wouldn't it be amazing if we end up taking on the Aussies in the final".

And so it came to pass.

You couldn't have written that scenario any better ... because along the way the All Blacks had to knock over another traditional old foe from this hemisphere, South Africa.

And what a romantic scenario the gods of reality delivered in the case of the other semi.

Australia we all kind of figured on ... but Argentina?

Whoa.

And to be honest, as this great unscripted yet Oscar-quality 80-minute show played out I was starting to hum the Argentinians' song.

The games were superb and the plot now has a most excellent finals recipe ... one we think we may have seen coming but were never quite sure.

And the one underlying golden thing about rugby today is the coverage.

It has come a very long way.

At these great games there were remarkable aerial shots of scrummages and line-outs as the great overhead strung cameras whistled along the wires to produce images from every angle.

The shots at goal, no matter from where on the field, were perfectly covered.

We at home knew before the very players themselves if the thing was about to go over.

And the referees now carry not only a microphone so we can hear them admonishing a couple of props for smacking each other ... they also bear a camera.

Watching front rows preparing to go down from about a metre away is stunning ... and frightening.

I guess some may argue that it has been television which has reduced the numbers of people who turn out for provincial games these days, given they can watch them at home for the cost of a subscription, but if you tried to get as close to the action as a camera can take you you would be marched from the ground.

So no, there is no script and yes, this is harsh, uncompromising reality.

The final will stop two nations ... although at that time of the morning they are probably usually stopped anyway, but you know what I mean.

Television drama at its best.

A game show where there is only only one winner. And a game show where blood will most certainly be spilled. Pass the valium will you?

-World Cup Rugby Final, New Zealand vs Australia, Sky Sport and Prime from 4am this Sunday, November 1:

The only thing which would have made this event even more special would be holding off and staging it on November 5 - Guy Fawke's night. That would be so fitting given what is likely to erupt here.