Paul Thomas: Cricket shines brightly as rugby just gets duller

Black Cap Daniel Vettori during an ICC Cricket World Cup match against Afghanistan. Photo / NZME.

All of a sudden we don't like cricket, we love it.

Usually at this time of the year the few remaining pockets of cricketing resistance are making a last stand in an obscure down-page corner of the sports section as rugby emerges from its brief hibernation to reassert its dominance. But in a recent Tom Scott cartoon a magnifying glass is needed to find the snippet of rugby coverage amid the acres of newsprint devoted to the Cricket World Cup.

True, this isn't an apples with apples comparison: Super 15 is an annual tournament and familiarity has bred apathy; the Cricket World Cup is a quadrennial event which we get to co-host every 20-odd years.

We are at the start of a long rugby season and, as we're reminded every year, Super 15 is a marathon not a sprint. As always, the All Blacks are easing their way back into the fray. With their own World Cup taking place in September and October, they will be even more preoccupied with not peaking too early. From what we've seen so far, they can tick that box.

While the Black Caps have captured our imagination and made the cricket world sit up and take notice, we're not yet into the knock-out phase. No Kiwi sports fan should need to be reminded that there's a phoney war element to pool play and sudden death competition poses a far sterner test of temperament.

As for the rush to put Brendon McCullum on the pedestal that Richie McCaw should have to himself, perhaps all that needs to be said is that it didn't take the All Black captaincy to transform McCaw into a great player. He was great from the word go.

That said, there is a glaring difference between the two sporting products on offer: the cricket is exciting; the rugby is anything but.

At the Cricket World Cup cat and mouse tactics and playing the percentages have taken a back seat to all-out attack. McCullum exemplifies this trend: he sets fields and manages his bowling resources with the aim of bowling the opposition out, rather than restricting them to a gettable total. With the bat, he seeks to dominate if not demoralise rather than accumulate.

Most of the realistic contenders have operated with the same intent most of the time. Of the heavyweight teams, only England - if they still qualify for that status - have taken the restriction/accumulation approach and look where it got them: they fly home this weekend to face the tabloid lynch mob.

But does anyone really believe the Rugby World Cup will be an equally exhilarating spectacle in which fortune will once again favour the brave?

All Black coach Steve Hansen wasn't reacting to the early rounds of the Super 15 when he warned rugby is in danger of becoming boring. He'd just watched two Six Nations internationals involving teams that, on the basis of history or recent form, should be regarded as genuine World Cup contenders: England, Ireland, France and Wales. The two games produced three tries, 13 penalty goals and a drop goal.

Rugby is now all about "line speed", a euphemism for pushing the offside law to its limits and beyond. The combination of encroachment and lax officiating means that even when the attacking team wins relatively quick phase ball, their ball carriers can still get knocked over behind the advantage line.

How can you play rugby under those circumstances? More to the point: why would you try? It makes more sense to kick the waterproof coating off the ball while suffocating the opposition with an aggressive rush defence.

Throw in some rolling mauls, an unlovely aberration that the game's guardians are unwilling to challenge and opponents do so at their peril. Persuade the referee that you have the stronger or less cynical scrum so that he penalises the other lot when he loses patience with collapses and re-sets. And, as arch-pragmatist and 2007 World Cup-winning coach Jake White advocated, embrace the humble drop goal: if you can't go through or around a disciplined and resolute defensive line, you can always go over it.

Chances are that will be the formula used by most of the big teams at the World Cup. They will argue that they are simply playing to their strengths, just as the All Blacks do when they play ball-in-hand rugby. The grim reality, however, is that rugby's present settings encourage that style - or lack thereof - of play.

We should enjoy the cricket while it lasts. It could be a long, cold, boring winter.

For more coverage of the Cricket World Cup from nzherald.co.nz and NZME check out #CricketFever.