- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Is it as simple as this for Australian rugby? Northern Hemisphere rugby prefers the boring conservative, kick penalties to win, type of rugby, and the Southern Hemisphere prefers more open and exciting running the ball type of rugby.
So if the ARU is going to really gain momentum in this country, we need international rugby to be running rugby. Except, of course, the Northern Hemisphere shut down the ELV laws hoping for them never to be seen again.
So then Australian rugby’s future needs the Southern Hemisphere to ‘break away’ and play ELV rugby for the Tri Nations and the Super 15.
Except after a few years of simply making up the numbers, South Africa are now World and Tri Nations champions by having a great penalty kicker, so they won’t be changing anything soon.
And New Zealand, with their comparatively small population, are happy to flog the Wallabies at the one sport that can always compete with (and usually dominate) Australia and the world in, so they won’t be changing anything soon.
Plus both teams will not want to give the Northern Hemisphere any advantage by playing a different style of rugby from what will be played at World Cups.
Australian rugby fans can look at how the NRL is fast flowing and increasingly popular and ask their Tri Nations foes to help them fight fire with fire here in Australia, except that league and rugby are in reverse order in New Zealand to Australia and the average South African doesn’t know what rugby league is.
So if Australian Rugby cannot get help from the Northern Hemisphere or from SANZAR to promote running rugby, the only option left is for Australia to think a bit laterally and play the ELV laws, or an abbreviated version of it, in our own provincial championship to help promote the game at home.
Except, of course, there is no Australian provincial championship.
We have no choice but to promote in Australia the rugby the world plays and that’s that.
Where does this leave the future for the ARU to grow the game at home? How can we ever hope to dominate the sport internationally? Or am I simply being over-simplistic?
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.