Why rugby is handicapped by its own rules

I agree the big difference in private vs public schools is the coaching and saturday sport. -Public school teachers don't do saturdays anymore period. -Where as private schools do , it is compulsory and teachers when working at private school have to accept saturday sports coaching they have to do a few hours on saturday , too bad if they don't like it work in a public school. -So club rugby union at junior levels turns to clubs form the people who don't go to private schools. -I went to both government and private, and the government if it had an inter schools comp would do a wendsday or thursday afternoon match. -But cos it is compulsory to play in sport in private schools unlike government where everything is just about optional, you are more encouraged in private school system. -In USA schools play sport on friday night, hence the term Friday night lights.

Well I agree with you there is something wrong with the education system. It is designed for teacher outcomes not student outcomes. The private system of schooling is quite a bit better than the State provided education in this regard, but both are riven with union influence. There are many more private schools in Australia compared with education in the home of G Nepia. The good thing about that is private education provides sports which normally includes rugby. Most State schools don't play rugby, although that is slowly changing. In the Eastern States, State schools tend to play League, in the Southern States it is Aussie Rules. School rugby is as good as you will ever see it. Like it use to be in NZ until the teachers stopped coaching as part of their job.

Sorry sgmc81 you have no idea. Having lived in Australia for a long time and getting league forced down my throat and now being back in NZ. I now know that rugby players have a lot more speed skill and power and brains than league players. League is so over rated and hyped. If you look past the hype it is a very robotic boring game.

Soccer is so popular globally not because of simple rules but because you can play with anything that can be kicked around and some markers (shirts) for goals. In other words you don't need money for proper gear. The poorer people/nations which is by far the majority of the worlds population can easily play the game.

Well if aussies cant understand union, but fijians and georgians can then theres something seriously wrong with the australian education system.

Probably the main difference is Aussies are educated at school compared to most of those countries ;)

Is it just an aussie low IQ thing? I mean, theres millions of welsh, english, french, kenyans, italians, irish, scots, tongans, samoans, kiwis, fijians, madagascans, south africans, cripes even the god damn argentinians and georgians that understand the game, so doesnt it say something about the australian public education system that so many australians cant understand union?

The Laws of rugby are a shambles. They are inconsistent and often lack a logical rationale. The breakdown following a tackle is perhaps the worst area. Breakdowns are normally rucks or mauls where the forwards (usually) come together over the ball and either wrestle or ruck for pocession. Did you know there are two off side lines that run through the hindmost heels of player committed to the breakdown from each team. For a player to be committed to the breakdown he has to be on his feet. If he goes off his feet he is no longer part of the breakdown and can be penalised. However if one goes down often everyone goes down. Technically the breakdown still exists even though no one is on their feet which places restrictions on what the players can and can not do. And so it goes on. You getting confused so am I writing it, so I will rest my case. Crazy laws written by a committee of persons who are the next level above being imbeciles. They come from all over the world representing their countries rugby organisation. There job is not to write good Laws but to make sure no other country is able to get Laws adopted that provide them a natural albeit short term advantage. For example many countries in the Northern Hemispherethat have wet winters hav edeveloped their game to included a lot of strong men for the wet slog. They like penalties as that provides a chance for teh big men to have a rest. They are very suspicious of anything that involves speed as they tend not to develop players with those abilities. So like anything designed by a committee, you end up with a horses arse pretending to be a camel. For all that it is a great game, it just takes a hell of a long time to learn it, which most players dont formally do. It is easier to get penalised and learn by doing.

League stops every time someone is tackled.

Actually they made a profit of $1.2m, most of that was then put back into NSWRU to develop the game. Leaving them with $50k. Seeing they made a loss of $200k the year before I think thats pretty good, so was the crowd of 31k that turned up to the game last Sunday.

You choose cronulla? You picked the Waratahs lowest crowd for the year. What about the 2 occasions that they have drawn 30k plus? A crowd of 15 k is a bad one for the Tahs whereas it's a good one for the sharks. When they can pull more than 30k 3 times a season likes the Tahs will do, please come back to me. Shall we talk about cronulla have a debt of 10 plus million or the Tahs with 3 mil cash in the bank? Shall we talk about the fact that the sharks can't find a major sponsor and had to give their shirt front away for 50k this year. The sharks are a shambles. The Tahs will have an average crowd of 25 k plus this season, are making a profit and have a truck load of cash in the bank. Compare and contrast this withe the sharks. Thank you students.

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By virtue of the saturation coverage of AFL on free to air TV most Australians never get to see a game of Rugby to actually find out if they think it is boring.

a Daily Telegraph 'reader'

The funny thing is this: the Rugby World Cup is the world's third largest sporting event in terms of viewer numbers. The Heineken Cup is more successful than ever with an annual profit of £40 million. The IRB has successfully won their bid for Olympic inclusion for Sevens. If the laws were confusing, or boring - with the 'yawnion' phrase coming to mind - then how come there are more players playing than ever before as well as more people watching the game then ever before? Something must be right in the formula.

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Sixthly, a bloke with a whistle should decide whether your team has an opportunity to win or lose.

The ELV's rocked, and created a better game. But, heck, with rugby union administrators ...