Phil Gifford run through his personal rugby wish list ahead of another busy year.
Dump the rolling maul
Everything about the rolling maul feels wrong. A player has the ball but can’t be tackled. That goes against everything rugby is about. A player is shielded by teammates from the opposition.In a sane world that’s obstruction. And perhaps most importantly, in an age where sport also has to be showbusiness, spectators can’t see the ball, which makes the maul, for everyone except a handful of deluded northern hemisphere fans, staggeringly boring.
A number of rule changes have been suggested. One that appealed was that if a penalty is kicked into touch inside the 22, the opposition gets the throw to the lineout. But it’s tricky. The fear would be that teams would set a scrum instead of kicking for a lineout, and then have their No 8 start a rolling maul. If World Rugby genuinely cared about the game they’d commission a group of recently retired international coaches, and give them the task of changing the maul so cleverly that coaches couldn’t find a way to keep using it.
My favourite rugby players are props. So while it pains me to say this, the fact is scrums are just a way to restart the game, not the be all and end all. If the first setting of a scrum doesn’t work, then go to golden oldie rules for the reset. Because props are clever, if they’re getting beaten at scrumtime some may just collapse the scrum. Hopefully refs could pick that up and give a penalty.
Cling to the Anzac spirit
To steal a line from the great Irish writer Brendan Behan, I think New Zealand Rugby officials will have worked out by now that by the time some Aussie rugby officials have an arm around your shoulder, it’s too late to get the knife out of your back. But we really need to play nicely together with Super Rugby. Given that a lot of it is played when the weather’s good and grounds are hard, the rugby can be sublime.
Seize the day
A fantastic chance to make women’s rugby a major part of the New Zealand sporting landscape has arrived almost by accident, and the game here needs to grasp every chance to capitalise on the massive goodwill and huge interest generated by the Black Ferns. For years male administrators would mutter, off the record, that “nobody wants to go and see women play.” They do now. The time’s arrived to make serious investments in the women’s game.
Do the right thing
Whatever your feelings about the Monarchy, it would be truly weird if the New Year’s Honours List didn’t have a bunch of people from the Black Ferns in it.
The Black Ferns celebrate winning the Rugby World Cup final. Photo / Photosport
Let the World Cup be won by tries
In nine Rugby World Cups the All Blacks have twice, in 1987 and 2015, scored three tries as they won a final. None of other winners, Australia, South Africa and England, have managed a hat-trick of tries even once. If Ireland or France are classy enough to win in 2023 good on them, but please let the final be won with some running rugby, not the tedious kickfests that, for example, led to victories for England in ‘03, and South Africa in ‘07.
With what is hopefully a genuine entente cordiale between New Zealand and Australia getting Super Rugby on track for the next eight years, the opportunity should be there for the Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika to grow and flourish. New Zealand rugby, from the All Blacks down, owes a massive debt to Pacific Island players. Certainty over the future of Moana and the Drua not only gives a platform for their players, but also adds a unique, exciting element to the game in the southern hemisphere.
