If Cullen in his prime was dropped into today's game, would we see his talent?
At the end of the day, rugby is meant to be entertainment.
It is meant to bring excitement, joy, amazement and all the opposite emotions for two sets of fans as two teams do battle.
It seems as if the game in its modern state does more to frustrate, confuse and incite displeasing feelings for fans as the officiating overshadows the contest and we deal with the realities of a fully professional game.
The game as it is now, 20-odd years into the pro era, is played by machines built by cutting edge conditioning and training programmes. By extension, there is hardly any space on the field.
The field size has not changed but the players on the field have. Drastically.
The early era of professional rugby was almost the perfect blend. Athletes were getting better, but not too good for the size of the field, so the space to run was available. Stars could shine.
The motion of a player like Christian Cullen could be enjoyed as defenders struggled to catch one of the most graceful runners the game has seen. When brilliant players got into open space, it was magic.
If Cullen in his prime was dropped into today’s game, would we get to see his talent?
Since Roger Tuivasa-Sheck has arrived at the Blues, we have seen flashes of his incredible ability, but we are yet to really see the man in open space.
He can beat a couple of defenders with some sharp footwork, but is swallowed up quite quickly and has to resort to an offload. The game is suffocating him.
Space is in short supply, and so is attrition in the modern game. There are 130kg modern marvels who don’t tire out, and when they marginally do, they are simply replaced after 45 or 50 minutes by another one from an eight-man bench.
The games of old may not be as fast as people remember, but they did have moments of beauty that seem to go amiss today where a litany of passes strung together put together brilliant movements.
It had a different flow to it, flurries of activity followed by kicking duels. It had a chaotic and unplanned feel to it that could be mesmerising.
Today the whistle is blown so much the flow of the game in some instances the game never gets going.
In the amateur era it was not uncommon to see six or seven bodies pile into a ruck. The ruck might be slow to recycle, but there was tension building as to which side the ball would end up on.
Then, all of a sudden, with so many bodies committed, there was space out wide to attack when the ball came free.
It had much better contractionary and expansionary forces at play throughout the match. Despite a range of tempos, there was tension building all the time in phase play.
This tension and range of tempos created uncertainty, intrigue, and built excitement and anticipation.
The players controlled the flow and decided when they needed to kick the ball out to relieve pressure. Unfortunately, the ref controls the flow more than the players these days, and the stop-start nature is intolerable at times.
The rule makers have pushed to speed the game up over the last decade but failed to realise that slower tempo events, like rucks of old, brought tension as the ball was in play and created space elsewhere by bringing players inward.
Cleaning up the ruck to make the recycle laser quick had the unintended consequence of creating abhorrent ‘zero ruck’ defensive schemes, with no defensive players committed, that create nearly unbreakable 14-man walls of defence.
By cracking down on those that dared to slow the game down, rugby’s law makers introduced more and more ruck infringement penalties, but, in doing so, they got rid of this natural tension in phase play.
Tension never builds as one side is getting pinged for one infringement or another before any flow is reached. As a spectacle, excitement levels don’t peak they way they used to because, in short, they aren’t given in a chance to build.
Back then, a casual didn’t need to know the rules. They could enjoy the chaotic flow of the match, the skills on show, and understand simply that more points scored is what mattered.
Today’s casuals can’t understand the game, whilst there is limited flow for them to enjoy, and hardcore fans just argue and moan with each over the rules.
Spare us extra scrum referees and ruck referees please. One man with a whistle is enough. We don’t need three or four spotting every infringement known to mankind.
Re-opening the ruck could create some extra space the game that has been missing, while adding varying tempos of game play that add to the game’s unpredictability. A good old-fashioned pile-in at the ruck would be interesting to see and hopefully become a contractionary force again.
Any coach or player arguing for correct policing of scrums so more penalties can be dished out has no understanding of the original purpose of it.
The scrum was never meant to be a penalty-inducement machine giving your side a free out. It was meant to create space on the field so you could use the ball and restart play.
Use the ball and the space offered to you. Casual fans won’t tune in to watch scums, but they are more likely to tune in to watch a flowing contest where the stars are given space to show their athleticism.
What was a game of attacking space and evading defenders has become one about winning collisions and penalties – and that is what might be the death of it above all other things over the long term.
Because at the end of the day, the pro game relies on eyeballs and if people switch off so will the pay checks.
It used to be the game they played in heaven, will they be playing it in hell in the future? Let’s hope not.
Comments on RugbyPass
Less modern South African males predictably triggered.
10 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
78 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
1 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
78 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
5 Go to commentsOur very own monster teddy bear Ox😍💪
17 Go to commentsThis is might be the most generalised, entitled, patronising, out-of-pocket cultural indictment on a group of people you’ll ever see on what is supposedly a sports publication. I can only assume the author is weak like a woman or homosexual. I’m feeling an incredible range of emotions but I am not quite sure how to express them. I might go beat up a hockey player - assuming that’s okay with Duane and the boys? 🙂
10 Go to commentsBest thing the Welsh clubs could do is apply to join Gallagher prem surely be more exciting matches for there support than they have now.
2 Go to comments