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At sixes and sevens (and nines and tens)

13th February, 2017
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Are we going overboard with the short form of the rugby codes? (Photo: www.photosport.co.nz)
Roar Guru
13th February, 2017
31
1471 Reads

As a multi-sports watcher it’s hard to keep up with all these abbreviated versions of rugby. In fact when you start switching between channels, it can get downright confusing.

We’ve been through it all with cricket. You know, 50 overs-a-side with two 15 over power plays with two fielders outside the circle for the first 8.3 overs and two non-catching slips fielders on the square-leg fence…

Oh, I give up. Then we had this 20 over thing. But, that’s cricket, and at least they still have 11 players on each side like they always have done.

But now it’s time to turn our attention to the footy seasons. And look what’s served up for entree. Seven-a-side rugby, nine-a-side rugby league, and now ten-a-side rugby. What the hell?

What is normal nowadays?

Look, the sevens and nines and tens are a lot of fun, with their restricted time periods that allow you watch 63 different teams play on the one day in the blazing hot sun. And that reminds me, did you see how bloody hot it was?

At 45 degrees it seemed to accelerate evolution at my place. I swear our cat has almost figured out how to turn on the air-conditioner.

How the players could keep running in the heat was beyond me.

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Certainly the fans were smart. Apparently the crowds weren’t too bad but you wouldn’t think so from watching the daytime sessions on TV.

I assume the spectators were taking cover somewhere.

The Cowboys celebrate

Where this gets really tricky is when you are trying to explain it to a partner who is not a massive sports fan and struggles to tell the difference between rugby league and rugby union (and women’s AFL for that matter.)

Take the previous weekend for instance. I was flicking between the rugby sevens in Sydney and the rugby league nines in Auckland. Here is some of our exchange.

Me: Oh look, Australia scored a try.
Partner: rugby league?
Me: No, union.
Partner: What’s the difference between league and union?
Me: Union has two more players per team than league.
Partner: Ah, so the sevens is league and the nines is union?
Me: Yes. I mean, no.

Then on the weekend just gone I had to provide another long explanation as to why they were playing ten a-side rugby.

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I didn’t really know why but I did my best. And no, it’s rugby union not league. Got it? You don’t have to snap, she said.

So what to make of the games?

Sevens has the advantage of having national teams and being an Olympic sport. It has wonderful passing movements with tons of pace. But this is also a drawback. Just run around enough, pass it enough, and you’ll get outside the defence and score.

NRL nines seems closer to the normal game of rugby league. In other words, what’s the bloody point of shortening the game? Yeah, there’s some good tries but I miss seeing the cover defence trying to stop the line breaks.

Rugby tens was an interesting one. Perhaps the best part was that there were a couple of heftier blokes involved. And really, without its big blokes, rugby loses a bit of its soul don’t you think?

So, of the three, I reckon rugby tens was the superior version. It seemed the most balanced between speed and strength.

However, all of the shortened versions, taken over a whole weekend, have a certain monotony about them. After watching a couple of games I found myself reaching for the remote. It reminded me of a school athletics carnival which is as boring as hell until your race is on.

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From now on we go back to the normal rugby season. I told my partner that Super Rugby will start up again soon.

“So,” she says cautiously, “will they be playing with seven, nine or ten players per side?”

“Err,” says I. “Super Rugby will play with 15 and the NRL will have 13 per side. At least that’s what they did last year. Don’t quote me though.”

All of this leads me in a roundabout way to the vital question. Which game did you prefer: sevens, eights or nines? See. I got mixed up again. I’ll rephrase it.

Dear Roarers, which sport do you prefer: Rugby sevens, rugby league nines or rugby tens?

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