This week’s Roar and Against debate is about which product is better to watch on television considering the poor pay television ratings for Super Rugby versus the National Rugby League pay television ratings.
Each week two writers will go head-to-head, and will only have 250 words to get their point across on one of the big sporting issues of the week.
It will be up to you, in the comments section, to decide the winner. That winner will stay on and take on a new challenger and new topic. That challenger can be anyone, including any commenters who throw their hat in the ring.
To debate this week’s topic, Roar guru Scott Pryde and Roar editor Patrick Effeney will have a re-match after finishing neck and neck in last week’s debate on the Australian cricket team’s woes in Twenty20.
This week’s topic comes after the ARU announced the rather meagre goal of having 100,000 viewers for each Super Rugby match played in Australia. This comes as the NRL continues to average around 200,000 viewers just on pay television for each game.
TV ratings prove league is better to watch at home than union
AGREE
Scott Pryde (Roar Guru)
Rugby League has always been the superior football code in Australia. It receives better coverage, analysis and talk in the media, plus the TV ratings, particularly when compared to rugby, absolutely put it on a pedestal above the pack.
I draw Roarers back to the TV deal for Super Rugby before this season got underway. For the first time in recent memory the competition would be ‘on’ free-to-air TV.
Not really though, just a replay of an Australian game on Sunday morning.
Really, the ratings they have received for that, and the live games on pay TV are – to put it short – not good. The NRL meanwhile, receives massive ratings for both its games on both pay TV, and free-to-air TV, with three live per week on the latter platform.
Broadcasters willingness to pick up the games and make a massive profit from them, as Channel Nine have been doing for years and years, compared to rugby where broadcasters are simply scared to touch it prove a thing or two about which sport is better to watch.
Many who don’t understand the game of rugby union, simply find it boring. It is not enjoyable to ‘watch blokes kick the ball over the sideline and then throw it back in’. Union has more to it than that, but for an audience that don’t know the game that’s what it is like.
Right at the moment, league is the best sport to watch at home, and the population of Australia are voting with their remote controls.
DISAGREE
Patrick Effeney (Roar Editor)
If you think TV ratings are the be all and end all of what’s good about sport then you might as well kiss off everything else you love aside from NRL and AFL.
Golf? Gone. Football? Don’t think so. Cycling? Forget about it.
No, instead it would just be hit up after hit up, and hit out after hit out.
TV ratings are a reflection of a number of things, but certainly not the quality of any given contest. Some of the matches played between two New Zealand sides in Super Rugby are the best footy you’ll see around – and that includes the NRL. And the Brumbies, Waratahs and Rebels are all capable of beating those teams, as are the Reds and Force from time to time.
I’ll concede that rugby league provides a more consistent form of entertainment – you know tries will be scored and something great will probably happen (though tell that to the people who rocked up to watch the Eels beat the Wests Tigers 8-0 in one of the worst games you’ll ever see).
But rugby, played well, is the most beautiful game to watch. Think the Highlanders and Hurricanes of 2015. Think the Waratahs of 2014, when they had the second highest rating show on Foxtel ever in the final. And think the Reds of 2011, when they broke the record for the highest viewership on Pay TV of all time.
Rugby union, played well, is just as entertaining as a truly great State of Origin contest or a close NRL final.
Television ratings do nothing to prove otherwise.
The power of Will
Roar Pro
NZ rugby is definitely exciting and pulls in the viewers whereas Aussie vs Aussie games appear very slow and boring to someone who does not understand the technicalities and rules of union.
Pickett
Guest
What a dumb argument. And Billy Slater smashed all opposition in the Gillette sportsman contest or something (2 or 3 years running?) In the Leagie v Union boxing, it's something like 30-2 leagues' way (or something like that).
ads2600
Guest
And yet Greg Ingles lost a race to Lachy Turner an amateur Rugby winger...& Jarryd Hayne...with all due respect the NRL does have a lot of exceptional athletes. But it's much easier to look good on attack when there's two less players on the field.
ClarkeG
Guest
Soapit – The whole part. I’ve more or less said that have I not. The whole part from the time he turned up unable to play until late Nov, missing several Club Premiership and European Cup fixtures, the wavering over his most suitable playing position, through to the time he returned to Bath post RWC played one game then was given 10 days off never to return (he chose to leave) and then the part where the England coach said he regretted having selected him. The whole part – beginning to end. I have answered your question. As I have said it is your prerogative to view his short time in the game as a success. If that is your view then we agree to disagree.
Matthew Tomczyk
Roar Pro
Not the best debate I've ever witnessed. The reason that the NRL is such a good product is because the game has been engineered to be so. They've made it faster - so fast that 2 men are required to officiate. It's essentially a violence-a-thon spliced with a beep test run over 80 minutes. The new cornerpost rule means we see wingers scoring tries suspended 8 feet in the air, over the touch line, upside-down. And so on and so forth. Rugby is only now coming to terms with changing its product for mass consumption with experimental rules and point structures. It all comes about 12 years too late. I will watch the Wallabies play at any hour of the morning, but have never watched a game of club rugby.
Emric
Guest
TF you made me laugh thank you :)
soapit
Guest
yes i know you think that clarke. im asking you yet again which part of his time in union you dont consider to be a success (in the first place - before he left)
ClarkeG
Guest
Having failed to make any sense of your previous post I thought you might have already put away a few too many beers today. ;-) Not only do we have old boys clubs but now we have submission and beatings from your wife.....ohhhkkkk ;-) Could be an interesting BBQ. Enough said.
Birdy
Guest
My surrender is now unconditional . Thank god for my pre arranged BBQ this arvo with lots of beer. My wife wants to get some ideas off you on how to beat me into submission . Lol
ClarkeG
Guest
Birdy – giggle it means google it – I was being light hearted :-) You’re now talking about court rooms, old boys clubs, snobbery, prima donnas, campaigns against foreign coaches, conceding defeat, your shoes, rewriting your defence. What on earth are you on about? Nooo – don’t answer that one. You are all over the kitchen on this.
Jacko
Guest
Wow KPM do you hate facts so much that you wont use any? You must have a massive Bib.
Jacko
Guest
Yes KPM Qld are obviously the stronger SOO side as the All Blacks dont play SOO. You are such a genius. Qld are the second ranked SOO side in the world based on the current trophy holders being Nsw
ClarkeG
Guest
AussieIrish – You can speak for your own perception but you can’t speak for mine thanks. Again you are just repeating yourself and speculating. My perception is based on what I saw of Burgess on the rugby field in the short time he spent in the game. He was not forced out. He chose to leave. Bath wanted him to stay. If he had stayed he might very well have been selected again for England and gone on to have a long successful career at international and club level. But he did not stay.
Jacko
Guest
Well KPM a person can only be told the truth a certain number of times before it becomes obvious that no amount of facts will make them accept it. All these League legends you name, where are they legends? Most Americans even believe that Hayne is a kiwi Union player anyway. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
Jacko
Guest
Hey KPM go back to the Couch as you obviously havnt finished your treatment yet. If league players are sooooo superior then why are so few signed to play union? The wages in union around the world are so superior than league that surely 10-15 players a year would be applying for those better paid jobs. Utube highlights of anyone are hardly going to prove anything but go ahead and look at some of the worlds best union players and you just might be shoched. Origin is a set of games between two teams selected from 60% of a 18 team competition. Hardly awe-inspiring stuff there. If you take the NSW or QLD emotion away from the hype you find games which are far less entertaining than most NRL club games. You say " Rugby has possibly never had players of such quality in one position in the modern era" well you have never watched super Rugby then otherwise you would know that the depth in NZ rugby is amazing. Do the names "Carter, Sopounga, Barrett, Cruden, Slade and McKenzie ring any bells? That right they all played in the same position last yea rin NZ. What about Milner-scudder. Dagg, Piatau and Smith at fullback? Smith, Perenara, Kerrbarlow Pulu at half back? Get the picture????? Make comments by all means but dont make things up just to suit you. Back on topic, If ratings determine which is the best sport from either League or Union then i guess League is the best in Australia and Union is the best everywhere else in the world.
Birdy
Guest
No Clark I'm not laughing or giggling , I'm totally frustrated . I will admit that my personal remark , although caused by frustration was uncalled for. You take a light hearted social media article and turn it into a court room hearing. England had to employ an outside coach to fix the shambles theERU was in . That means , in my terms , break up the old boys club and get rid of the back stabbing prima donnas . Enter eddy Jones. All that rubbish also affected Burgess's decision to leave . Is that bad sportsmanship or just old boys club snobbery? As for the media only success wiil pull them up but then, in my opinion they will rejoin with the English hierarchy and start a campaign against a foreign coach . So Clark I'm conceding defeat on all counts with 1 condition . I think all my reasoning is in place but possibly not up to your standard. So how about you put yourself in my shoes and rewrite my defence of burgess as you say it should be. Could be interesting.
AussieIrish
Guest
Well, I believe the English Press and some in the RFU are to blame for Burgess returning to league and it has much to do with the entrenched class system. Your peception that he was not a success is a result of their manipulation not Burgess's performance on the field. By forcing him out they did a disservice to English Rugby and a service to the rest of world Rugby.
vlad
Guest
Rugby does not appear to have with the do or die intensity of League. It's impossible to show the tiring work load of a forward in Union to an outsider. League is like a game of "Celt champions" showing off their individual strength and Union the Roman Legions in formation. Was the spectacle of the colliding scrum set up actually a good thing for TV purposes? But it was always the formations that interested me as a back. Chess on the playing field. Feint, fake, wrap around, chip, long pass. NFL reduced their game to just formations and plays and it makes billions a year whereas Total Rugby easily degenerates into generic bodybuilders running and falling a lot. Folau does not show any of the skills Davies and Hastings did the 1980s. The "total rugby" looks at its best against classic Northern Hemisphere teams. But, since there are now 6 types of Rugby (Union, League, Sevens, Touch, that new sort of touch, and Nines) played by so many more people around the world than when I was young, I can always see one of my favourite games in some form or another.
ClarkeG
Guest
AussieIrish – But none of that has anything to do with my view that Burgess was not a success in Rugby.
winston
Guest
Tennis for sure :)