Yep. And, from the perspective you note BH, the tragedy of Saturday's result was the enormous national showcase for rugby and a fabulous crowd atmosphere etc, and we produced an embarrassingly inept performance little better than that achieved in Marseilles October 2007, and a long way from the amazing thriller of November 2003.
We rugby tragics see things quite differently to the average sports fan. My experience with family members who are rusted-on mungo supporters but occasionally watch big rugby matches is that they didn't see "an embarrassingly inept performance little better......" They saw an exciting game with plenty of to-and-fro action, heavy defense, incisive attack and the Lions finally running away with it after the sixty minute mark. They enjoyed the game, though they were scathing about the scrum penalties, which they thought were an unfair way of restarting the game.
[
One had an interesting take on the game, saying that the turning point in the match was when the Wallabies had caught back up to 19-13 and got another penalty. "Why throw away all the momentum we had at that time by taking a penalty kick and not going for a converted try? At that stage the Lions were on the ropes" At the ground I had a similar thought but felt it was probably a 50-50 call. Given what followed he had a point. But most of the comment on this site from rugby tragics has been people decrying the times we went for the corner and didn't take more penalties.]
My point (yes, I'm getting there) is that to convert people to our game who are occasional watchers we need to foster an attitude of all out attack in the Aussie teams, keeping the ball in play as much as possible. I do not accept that we will lose all the time if we do, and sometimes in a game we will need to take the penalty points on offer. But if we want Rugby to rise above no. 4 in Australian winter sports then we have to make it more dynamic. In defense of my point, the greatest match I have ever seen was the 2000 Aust-NZ test at Olympic Park where about 80 points were scored and NZ won by a couple. Uncommitted fans talked about that game for weeks! It left mungo games for dead.
There are some promising things happening:
- The new scrum laws, if properly implemented, will get the ball in play quicker with less resets and less penalties. The scrum will still however be a contest.
- We have chosen a new national coach who has an attacking mindset. Had White been chosen we would have got SA-lite gameplans, which might have inspired us tragics and won games but would have entrenched our 4th position in Australia.
- We have a wonderful crop of talented players on hand right now. Folau, AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper), Foley, Genia, Cooper, Mogg, Kuridrani, Speight, Lilo, JOC (James O'Connor), Godwin etc. We are similarly blessed in the forwards. They have generally been poorly coached in attack at Super and National level, but Cheika's return and Link's elevation are steps in the right direction. Both the Brumbies and the Rebels have shown some excellent attacking intent this year.
I'm excited about the possibilities for the next few years. Sure, everything could be dragged down by lots of possible factors. But we can re-establish Rugby to its 2000-03 levels and win over converts from other codes if we single-mindedly put the effort in.
