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My eldest son Finlay, like many kids of his age (eight years old) is obsessed with sport. However, perhaps unlike other children, sport for him appears to be a ‘way of life’.
Testament to this is the fact that he could be the only kid in Australia who currently has a poster of South Sydney great Bob McCarthy on his bedroom wall, but I am happy to stand corrected on this one.
On a usual winter weekend, he will watch NRL on Friday night, play a game of rugby union Saturday morning for his much-loved Brothers RFC before performing his duties as ‘ball boy’ and ‘tee boy’ for the 2nd and 1st Grade teams respectively for this same institution.
Once the 1st Grade game is complete, he with his younger brother Rudy (three years old) will hand out refreshments and pizza to tired and weary players before running his eye over the 7.30pm NRL game back at home.
To round out the weekend on Sunday mornings, he plays a rugby league game for his local club the North’s Devils before winding down by playing with his siblings in the backyard and/or pool (despite it being winter).
As Finlay plays both rugby union and rugby league concurrently and I uniquely work for the NRL but also coach rugby union, I thought it might be interesting to compare the two games at the Under-8s level. Using just a stopwatch and a keen eye I came up with the following results to test the hypothesis that rugby league provided more opportunities for kids to play and consequentially gave parents more ‘bang for their buck’ at this age range.
League: 80
Rugby: 30
League: 18 – 4x8min quarters
Rugby: 14 – 2x20min halves
League: 576
Rugby: 560
League: 461
Rugby: 218
League: Designated and accredited referees
Rugby: Parents (largely unaccredited)
League: Centrally run clock indicating start and finishing times
Rugby: At the discretion of the referee/parent
League: 180
Rugby: 390
(Photo by Richard Heathcote – World Rugby via Getty Images)
The results of this little experiment are intriguing with the disparity between ‘ball in play’ and obvious ‘cost’ for both games being remarkable. In both codes, most of the time that was lost occurred when players ran out of the field of play or dropped the ball with both actions necessitating a restart. In rugby union, this required the players to organise themselves into an uncontested lineout or scrum which on some occasions took upwards of a minute to assemble. In contrast, for rugby league, the ball was simply handed over to the opposition who played the ball, and the game was restarted with minimal loss of time.
The trajectories of both sports in terms of revenue, spectatorship, and performance are well-known and worlds apart in this country but this is not the focus of this post. Nonetheless, based on the results of this boutique study some key questions have come to light for rugby union administrators which are outlined below.
– Is there really a necessity to restart the game (at this young age) with an uncontested scrum or lineout? Why couldn’t the game be restarted with a tap?
– Is 218 min of ‘ball in play’ (substitutions not included) in a season for rugby union sufficient to develop a love for the game and the player’s skill level?
– Why is there such a discrepancy between the registration costs for both codes particularly given the level to which both are resourced? Have rugby union explained this at all?
– What implications does this cost have on ‘who’ can play both codes?
Ultimately, is it possible that rugby union administrators could rethink the game at younger levels to allow more ‘ball in play’ to simultaneously maximise their enjoyment and development? As always, I welcome criticism of my take on this topic.
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.