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How a well-intended New Zealand initiative could threaten the integrity of rugby

By Hamish Bidwell
Crusaders vs Blues (Photo: Getty Images)

It’s a laudable idea.

New Zealand Rugby (NZR) are attempting to eliminate any potential impediments to the playing of club and secondary schools rugby in 2020.

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Dubbed ‘Game On’, NZR’s new initiative will allow premier men’s club matches to be played by as few as 10 players per side, with rolling substitutions and maybe uncontested scrums. The same rules would apply to all adult and college grades.

In 10 a-side children’s rugby, if you only have seven players on Saturday, then the opposition will only field seven at a time themselves.

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Again, these sound like good things.

In consultation with the match referee and opposing team, premier sides will need to come to an agreement about whether there will be pushing in the scrums. Finding four capable props every week isn’t easy for teams and it’s hoped that making scrums uncontested would mean fewer defaults.

In a season as disrupted and unusual as this one, the theory is that we want as many people playing as much rugby as we can.

Game On will be reviewed after this year and amended, if necessary, for implementation again in 2021.

Not every provincial union has to adopt Game On. Or they can choose to use it in some grades and not others.

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NZR says Game On is already being utilised in some provinces, including at premier grade level.

The worry here, though, is the way these new protocols could be manipulated to one team’s advantage.

If Saturday’s opponents say they can’t rustle up any – or enough – props, who are you to argue? Never mind that strong scrummaging is integral to your own team’s success, if the opposition say they can only field a pack of eight loose forwards, then that’s that.

Among the reasons why rugby has connected with so many New Zealanders over the years is because it’s a broad church. Big or small, white or brown, fast or slow, tall or short, rugby had a place for you.

But as times change, and playing numbers dwindle, we seem to be going further and further down a path towards 10 a-side rugby and to a certain build of athlete. And, if we’re being absolutely honest, to a game that looks more and more like rugby league.

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The NRL returned to our screens over the weekend, along with a couple of tweaks designed to make the game more free-flowing.

On average, the ball was in play for 57 of the 80 minutes and featured more tries, more play-the-balls, more linebreaks and fewer penalties than had been the case in the two rounds of football played before the COVID-19 lockdown.

That’s nice, but NRL head of football Graham Annesley said he’d been around too long to assume those trends would continue.

“I’m not complaining, but the coaches will be looking [at] how to counter the changes,’’ Annesley told The Sydney Morning Herald.

Rugby league identity Phil Gould has talked long and loud over the years about, what he calls, the “law of unintended consequences.’’

Of how well-intentioned officials, often in consultation with stakeholders, make changes to the game with certain outcomes in mind, only to find something quite different emerges instead.

We all recognise where rugby is going in this country. From next year, under-12 and 13 grades will change from 15 to 10 a-side. Under 11s have already gone that way.

For now, premier grade club teams have the option of playing 10 a-side. Before long it’s not hard to imagine that will become the norm.

If there are scrums, they’ll be of the five-man variety and won’t feature any pushing.

And, again, that’s fine. The game has to evolve and it has to adapt to its changing circumstances and maybe a time isn’t that far off when high-performance rugby goes 10 a-side as well

It’s just that, at that point, rugby will cease to be a game for all shapes and sizes and simply one in which everyone is 1.85cm and 100 kilograms. Heck, maybe we could even go under-85kg rugby across the board, eliminating great swathes of the current rugby-playing populous.

In the meantime, Game On’s rules look ripe for exploitation. For fair contests to be altered to become unfair ones and for relations between clubs and teams to turn sour.

It’s great that community rugby is about to kick off, but just be aware it might look a little different to how you remembered it.

 

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Jon 2 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 5 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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A
Adrian 7 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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T
Trevor 9 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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