How one of the chief architects of SANZAAR is now trying to revolutionise modern rugby and return it to its roots
While Super Rugby Aotearoa was a breath of fresh air for anyone lucky enough to catch the free-running New Zealand competition, the reality is that rugby as a sport has become less and less audience friendly as the years have passed.
That’s one of the key messages from David Moffet, the former New Zealand Rugby, NRL and Welsh Rugby Union chief executive who believes that World Rugby aren’t taking the game of rugby in the right direction.
“I’ve been a little bit disconcerted with the way in which rugby’s going and I think that it’s become so complicated with the constant law changes and the different way the interpretations are being changed all the time,” Moffet tells RugbyPass of his new venture. “It’s become too complicated for coaches, players, referees and, most importantly, the fans.”
Not one to simply bleat on about how the game is becoming stale without proposing a solution, however, Moffet has set about to change the way the game is played and has today announced the genesis of an almost entirely new game, dubbed ‘Rugby Rules’.
“I was having a conversation with [former Pumas and Wallabies prop] Topo Rodriguez and we felt that we could perhaps look at the laws but it became quickly evident that tinkering around with the laws – which is what World Rugby does – wasn’t going to get us anywhere different,” Moffet says. “So I think we eventually got to the point where we were heading towards a new game and that’s where it started.
There were a few catalysts for Moffet desiring change in the way the sport is played – primarily with regards to the entertainment and safety of the modern game of rugby.
“Ball-in-play at the last World Cup was something like 34, 35 minutes,” says Moffet.
“The scrums are a nightmare. The resets are just so boring. They eat up so much time. It’s the same for lineouts. The amount of time taken to throw the ball in at lineouts and get the lineout set and the amount of time it takes for a team throwing the ball in to actually get to the lineout… I mean, we’re moving away so far away from what I think the game should be all about.”
That’s where Rugby Rules comes in – a sport that Moffet hopes will be more attractive for players and fans alike that borrows the best rules of the traditional game while introducing a few modernisations to improve the spectacle.
The major changes include a reduction in the number of players on the field (down to six forwards and eight backs), creating safer (but no less competitive) contests in lineouts and breakdowns, opening up more space on the field and giving greater powers to the referee while limiting coaches’ input during a game.
Former rugby administrator David Moffett and ex-Wallabies and Argentina international Enrique Rodriguez have today launched a new version of rugby, dubbed '#RugbyRules'.https://t.co/IOr8nyLTNI
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 18, 2020
Moffet laments the fact that at the highest levels, the game now seems to be controlled by the chess masters in the grandstands while not enough decision-making is handled by the players on the field. Coaches are now able to regularly deliver messages to players through waterboys and other personnel, which takes autonomy of the park.
That’s only made possible thanks to the – at times – relatively muddling pace of the game, with its ample stoppages and slow-downs.
Reducing player numbers and limiting where on the field lineouts and scrums can take place will also reward teams actually running the ball, instead of some matches devolving into kicking contests.
The safety aspect is just as important to Moffet as the added entertainment factor that he hopes Rugby Rules may provide.
Off the ball hits and high shots have become part and parcel of the game despite being outlawed in the rules. That’s primarily due to the way the breakdown is officiated, says Moffet.
“They call it a ruck but it’s not a ruck; it’s just like Greco-Roman wrestling on the ground.
“Having been a referee, I find it absolutely incredible that the laws allow cleaning out – which is basically attacking someone without the ball. I think it’s dangerous. Brodie Retallick is a very good example with what happened to him prior to the last World Cup, and I don’t think he was at his best as a result of it.”
Moffet is referring to RG Snyman cleaning out Retallick from a ruck during New Zealand’s match against South Africa in last year’s Rugby Championship. While, to the letter of the law, Snyman had nothing to answer for, Retallick was in a prone position and the hit from Snyman led to a dislocated shoulder and almost three months on the sidelines for the All Blacks lock.
While the short-term impact of the clean out robbed New Zealand of one of their best players for much of the season, it’s the long-term effects of hits that are allowed during the breakdown contest that Moffet is more concerned about.
“It’s not so much the injuries that they get now and that they will overcome now but it’s what it’s going to be like for these players 20 or 30 years down the track if we continue to allow that sort of thing to happen,” Moffet says.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CD95itBgibG/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
It’s a similar story in the lineouts, where the advent of lifting has reduced the athletic contest while also making competitions for the ball a relatively dangerous affair.
“It’s all very well for highly trained athletic players to be lifted in the lineout but when you get down into the age-grades and what have you, it can be very dangerous when players are either being pulled down or aren’t getting supported correctly. We’ve seen a lot of injuries from that.”
Moffet is well-aware of the obstacles he currently faces to actually take Rugby Rules from a concept to reality.
“I’ll put it this way: I think we’ve done the easy part,” he says. “Coming up with the Rugby Rules and the rules of it, I think that’s been relatively simple. The hard part is going to be what we do now, the implementation of it.
“We need to get some teams playing the sport to see just exactly what the consequences of these rules are. We’ve put this in front of coaches, players, administrators and thus far we’ve had quite a good response. We’ve had some very positive feedback and made a couple of little changes here and there as well because you’re never going to get it right on your first try.”
And while Moffet is eager for feedback on the concept and to see it played on a park instead of simply in his head, the former NZR chief executive doesn’t want the game dictated by the coaches in the same way he believes rugby is now.
“World Rugby have allowed certain coaches to dictate the way in which they think the game should be played,” says Moffet.
“A new way of playing the game or law interpretation comes out and then instead of saying ‘the law is this, coach to that,’ they come out and they say, ‘okay, well we’ll interpret it the way you want it interpreted and then we will fiddle around with the interpretations’ and I just don’t think that that’s the right way of going about.”
It’s still very early days for David Moffet and Topo Rodriquez’s new rugby code which borrows a little from the past and, hopefully, a lot from the future. There’s no doubt that it’s an ambitious project for the man who helped significantly restructure the Welsh Rugby Union in the early 2000’s but it’s a project that could revolutionise the way the game is played.
Watch this space.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments