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Penalty count stacking up against the powers that be as Southern Hemisphere rugby takes a tumble
What a confidence-building week that was for rugby.
There we were thinking SANZAAR could disband at any minute, that South Africa’s referees were back to cheating again and rugby in New Zealand was going down the gurgler.
Fear not fans. “Handy” Andy Marinos and the gang at SANZAAR reckon it’s all a figment of someone’s imagination.
Continue reading below…
Yes, South Africa aren’t leaving SANZAAR and, in fact, reports that the organisation has no future beyond 2025 are simply fanciful.
“It’s nothing more than media speculation and I think someone’s just trying to stoke a bit of fire,’’ Marinos said in Sydney last week.
Marinos and his ilk can cite 2025 until they’re blue in the face. The facts are that the member SANZAAR unions – South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina – have agreements in place until 2025 and then all bets are off.
The game across the globe is struggling and, at the risk of having to mention this every week, being propped up in the Southern Hemisphere by South African television network SuperSport.
If SA Rugby and SuperSport decide that they’ll get more bang for their Springboks’ buck in Europe, then the whole thing falls over. Again, Marinos can cling to 2025 all he likes, but it could be a rather different rugby world by then.
But Marinos wasn’t done there. No, not by a long chalk.
New Zealand fans of a certain vintage will remember referee Gert Bezuidenhout and the towelling he gave the touring All Blacks in 1976. Seems old habits die hard, if the widely-reported numbers run by Green and Gold Rugby are anything to go by.
Super Rugby ‘home town refs’ penalty awarded differential since 2017:
Australia (+16)
New Zealand (-15)
South Africa (+159)
Argentina (+19)Yes, that’s right, +159 pic.twitter.com/DkIg8cTAvx
— Green and Gold Rugby (@GAGR) February 16, 2020
Other outfits have since done their own analysis of those figures, without disproving the theory that South African referees favour their own teams to a startling degree.
Marinos countered by suggesting the numbers had been manipulated by unhappy Australians and that SANZAAR would respond with their own statistics in time.
“I just don’t understand where, after 10 years of meritocracy, suddenly now neutrality becomes an issue,’’ said Marinos.
Maybe news gets to Marinos more slowly than the rest of us. Just last year, for example, much was made of the performances of Egon Seconds and Rasta Rasivhenge in games in South Africa between local sides and the visiting Highlanders, Waratahs and Rebels.
The combined penalty count against those touring sides was 46-3, in case Marinos hasn’t heard yet or had forgotten.
Why mention this stuff? Because rugby is battling right now. Anyone involved with the community game or who turns on their television to watch Super Rugby or who reads about another All Black playing golf in Queenstown for the week knows things have to change.
And yet the game’s leaders, in this case the boss of SANZAAR, insist it’s in rude health and that anyone who suggests otherwise is a muckraker with an agenda.
At least New Zealand Rugby (NZR) have been prepared to admit the game faces issues. It’s just that nothing out of head office last Friday indicated they have any viable solutions.
Apparently NZR are going to lose some money. No bull. They announced a $30 million deficit for the next five years at last April’s Annual General Meeting. It’s not a newsflash.
I won’t bore you with the findings of NZR’s independent report but, to summarise, they want to find more junior players, keep them longer, hopefully contract them straight to Super Rugby franchises, make more money and try not to spend quite so much.
Wow, what a blueprint that is. You can imagine other businesses and sports organisations lining up around the block to hear how NZR came up with that.
Here’s something not in the press release. Unions around the country have been offered the opportunity to make all adult rugby, below premier level, 10 a-side with uncontested scrums.
That’s already the case up to under-11 level in age-group rugby, with under 12 and 13 to follow next year.
Ten a-side rugby with golden oldies scrums? The secondary schools that can afford it will still have first XV programmes, but the rest of the country will play 10s, if they’re bothering to play rugby at all.
Good luck creating All Blacks out of a pathway like that.
But then luck is a big part of the NZR strategy. They’re crossing their fingers a private equity firm, such as CVC Capital Partners, will come to their rescue and stump up the $30 million they’re short of.
That’s another reason why Marinos’ show of confidence was so misplaced. Never mind SA Rugby jumping ship, NZR will go anywhere and play anyone so long as CVC, or whoever, are paying them enough money.
But, hey, who are we to talk. Marinos and company have clearly got everything under control.
Six Nations won’t rule out paywalled broadcasts:
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Comments on RugbyPass
It’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
2 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
27 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
1 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
1 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
2 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
24 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
3 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
27 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
2 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
2 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
14 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
27 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
14 Go to commentsDoes the AI take into account refs? hahaha Seriously why not have two on field refs to avoid bias?
24 Go to comments