Ideas for NRC 2015

[Strewthcobber]

The issue isn't that scrums and penalty goals take up too much game time, it's that they take too much time to resolve in themselves.

Nothing sucks the life out of a crowd more then a couple of reset scrums followed by a penalty and a shot at goal.

Its the "gaps" in the game that get called boring - especially if you are sitting in the stand, can't see what's going on, and the refs sticks his hand up one way or another seemingly at random

Stopping the clock doesn't solve this problem.

 

[qwerty51]

Would mean games could go a lot longer. Plus I guess it would make it even easier for teams to slow down play and get a breather. Rugby has become more and more of a power game as it is.

How is that a negative? NFL games go for the 3 hours. AFL stop the clock after each goal, they go for 2 hours. Right now rugby games are around 105 mins. I see no reason why 2 hour games are a negative. Top 14 already has a shot clock for all kicks that is visible to the TV watching public and stadium. Just stop the game clock after a try is awarded (or reviewed) until the restarting kick off. I take your point on scrums but just get the referees to be more strict.

Rugby is more physically demanding than those mentioned sports and I think players are at their limits just before the final siren so I wouldn't necessarily suggest the game needs speeding up too. They'll play longer but they need the constant breaks too.

 

[TOCC]

I think the new scrum laws have worked wonders, i would love to see the statistics but i definitely thought that the scrums have been better with the new laws.. less collapses and more pushover tries

 

[qwerty51]

Have they? The recent Test series featured numerous reset scrums.. I don't think they've done anything.

 

[TOCC]

Im happy to be proven wrong, that was my observation across Super Rugby and a lot of the international tests and i believe someone mentioned that statistically at super rugby there has been decrease in resets.

 

[brumbies20years]

i was bloody stoked with the first installment of the NRC. all i am after in the second year is maybe some merchandise and a few more people at games. i must say, i was bloody impressed with the crowds at the Canberra Vikings games. they were choc a block. didn't like turning on to empty stadiums each thursday nights though. they should move it back to local/suburban grounds

 

[TOCC]

they should move it back to local/suburban grounds

very few suburban grounds satisfy the lighting requirements for broadcasting on Foxtel

 

[qwerty51]

very few suburban grounds satisfy the lighting requirements for broadcasting on Foxtel

Other things to take into account too like camera positions (need a high position rather than using scaffolding all the time), big change rooms, media/medical/post-match function rooms.

 

[Omar Comin']

Rugby is more physically demanding than those mentioned sports and I think players are at their limits just before the final siren so I wouldn't necessarily suggest the game needs speeding up too. They'll play longer but they need the constant breaks too.

I would like to see it sped up a bit to stop the trend of players getting bigger and bigger. Rugby has a nice balance between being a power game and a skill game, but I think maybe it's slightly too much on the power side at the moment.

 

[brumbies20years]

Do you really think any young bloke is going to go against the grain and stop working out as much in the gym in order to improve his skills? It would be very very unlikely... Skill level needs to improve but not at the expense of size

 

[qwerty51]

Yeah nah, what's wrong with the power game? Freak athletes are what makes the game attractive, along with the collisions.

 

[brumbies20years]

Totally agree. That plus increased skill level and you have got a ball game.

 

[Omar Comin']

Yeah nah, what's wrong with the power game? Freak athletes are what makes the game attractive, along with the collisions.

Nothing, but the trend is that players are getting bigger and bigger and all of a sudden it could become a game where smaller players, who are often very exciting to watch, have no place. If it's not becoming that way already.

Speed up the game a little or reduce the stoppages or length of stoppages and you'd bring it back a little. Rugby needs to reward creativity and skill as well as power. Perhaps more than power. Surely we want to see teams creating and utilising space with skill and good tactics, not just boshing their way forward. This is part of the reason I think the NRC law variations are so positive.

 

[boyo]

Yeah nah, what's wrong with the power game? Freak athletes are what makes the game attractive, along with the collisions.

 

[Braveheart81]

Humans are getting bigger, faster and stronger.

This is further exacerbated in professional sport.

Unless you make it non contact I don't see how you're going to change it or really why you'd want to.

The smallest players will always have to be quite amazing to make it at the elite level.

 

[Omar Comin']

Plenty of small players used to make it at the elite level. Hardly any do now.

If the players continue getting bigger, faster and stronger there'll come a time where the field gets so crowded that you need to reduce the number of players per side. Would happen in a couple of generations at most I reckon.

 

[Braveheart81]

Plenty of small players used to make it at the elite level. Hardly any do now.

If the players continue getting bigger, faster and stronger there'll come a time where the field gets so crowded that you need to reduce the number of players per side. Would happen in a couple of generations at most I reckon.

Or is the size of the small player just getting bigger?

Average heights and weights are going up across the board. People have far better diets (in terms of protein etc.) which is making humans bigger.

Access and knowledge surrounding fitness and health are greater as well. Of course people are also getting far more obese but that isn't really relevant to professional sport.

Professionalism also has a big impact on these issues. Players will spend longer in the gym, they'll have sports scientists telling them what to eat and what supplements to take.

 

[Omar Comin']

This trend of humans getting bigger has existed for hundreds of years BH. But when it comes to rugby athletes it's accelerated since professionalism. Problem is the size of the field isn't growing with the players. Eventually either you change the game to reduce the size of players, or you reduce the number of players.

 

[Scoey]

You say some weird stuff Omar but you're just going all in now aren't you.

 

[Omar Comin']

You say some weird stuff Omar but you're just going all in now aren't you.

Great rebuttal.

I'm not the only one with this opinion:

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/jan/13/rugby-union-uncontested-scrums-ospreys-northampton

Another distinguished former Lions forward to whom I spoke last week also said something very interesting. Despite having played in the back row himself, he reckons the day is approaching when union will have little choice but to do away with flankers and become a 13-a-side sport, like rugby league. The reason scarcely needs spelling out: with players getting bigger, stronger and faster, pitches remaining the same size, and the breakdown becoming ever more congested, the amount of creative space available has decreased hugely. At the highest level, the sport continues to mutate ever further away from the game for all shapes and sizes it aspires to be.

So thats myself, the Guardian's rugby correspondent Robert Kitson and a distinguished former Lion that can see the painfully obvious.

Read the article, it's mostly about how annoying scrums have become. Yet by what some of you lot say you'd think the British all love to watch games spent scrummaging and kicking penalty goals.