Newstalk ZB rugby commentator Elliott Smith analyses the latest from the world of rugby.
An explanation...
The last few days have reinforced that union has forgotten that its main shop window is as a broadcast product. The way to connect your sport with the greatest number of fans and gainnew ones is with the biggest spectacles. Rugby has become so obsessed with the minutiae that it has forgotten the bigger picture. Slowing down every collision, possible try and neck roll to super slo-mo and then having referees commentate over it is a dreadful spectacle. Resetting scrum after scrum until the front rows converge on each other in an acceptable way is not what people want to see. The sport has become obsessed with micromanaging every phase of play to make sure it is technically correct that the overall product is suffering.
Last week's All Blacks v Ireland test featured a number of interventions and a debacle of a running time. The Australia v England game the same. The obvious comparisons are to State of Origin, played at a frenetic pace and allowing the players and their ability to be the stars, not replay upon replay of officials building a case to make a decision. It'd be like going to the new Top Gun and wanting to see more of the theory sessions rather than Tom Cruise kicking ass.
I'll ALWAYS prefer rugby, but you could see why a neutral would complain about the rugby last weekend and then love watching the Origin: pic.twitter.com/Ew5MqviFi7
— Rugby Fixation Podcast (@RugbyFixation) July 14, 2022
Let's not pretend league is perfect. There were a number of incidents in the opening 20 minutes of the State of Origin decider where players put themselves in dangerous positions or made dangerous tackles or decisions that endangered themselves or particularly, the tackled player. One sport has gone too far in one direction and another hasn't gone far enough.
A suggestion...
Adopt a report system for anything not clear and obvious as foul play. It's better to deal with that on a Tuesday night in a conference room than on worldwide TV and speeds the game up.
An observation...
Rugby's noble (sort of) crusade on head contact has reached a juncture where they have to turn back. The Angus Ta'avao red card bordered on absurdity as he was given his marching orders while receiving medical treatment.
Rugby has done well to try and eliminate the lazy tackles and recently poor cleanouts which went unpunished for a long time as the breakdown became a frenetic mess of collisions and bigger body types.
How, when Ta'avao returns to the training field, post injury and suspension, does anyone suggest he corrects his technique when he wasn't even aware he was deemed the tackler until he and Garry Ringrose bounced off each other. The spectre of brain injury lawsuits casts a shadow over rugby's decision makers, but the overcompensation has gone too far.
Jordie Barrett of New Zealand during the Steinlager Series match between the New Zealand and Ireland at the Forsyth Barr Stadium. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
A question...
Is there a worse rule in any sport than the deliberate knock-down rule, where every failed intercept is now treated as a crime worthy of 10 minutes in the bin? It's gone well beyond being used for its original purpose.
A prediction...
Nothing will change in rugby. A maudlin finish to the column but it feels like we are swimming against the tide of common sense.
