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Joined January 2023
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League player here who IS concerned with state of Rugby in Australia. As a small winger, who was always targeted by forwards (who don’t have to let go of the ball) I enjoyed dropping them. The first thing I was taught was tackling technique. For most of rugby’s history it’s never been a priority simply because of the rules of the game. It was/is about stopping the release of the ball…resulting in a National team that at times has a defence like wet tissues. But the few games of rugby I played 40yrs ago the instant you touched the ground you had to let go of the ball (which is why, as a back, I never took to the game). Now I see players holding it in the ruck for ages. From an outsider looking in rugby’s problems are worse and bigger than what’s being mentioned in here. When I came back to Australia as a kid and as an above average athlete I had the choice of Cricket, league, Union, hockey, athletics, swimming, soccer etc (too short for basketball). I chose cricket, athletics and league mainly because in north Qld, few schools played Union. In 80s, even though I was a league fan, I still followed the Wallabies. Yes it helped we were winning, but it was HOW the game was played that I enjoyed. It was a running game back then. Campese lost more games for Wallabies than he won…but at least he was moving. In 2003 when WC came to Oz I went to a couple of the games here in Brisbane. Watched Australia demolish an Eastern European side 100+ to nothing. Now you’d think that would still be lots of action and interest (aside from the one-sided nature)? But I fell asleep. It felt like 80% of the game was a bunch of unfit players dragging themselves from one breakdown to the next. IMO Rugby is suffering an identity crisis. It needs a serious reboot. I simply can’t watch it at all now. When an ex-Australian captain commentating on a game has no idea what a whistle is being blown for 80% of the time and when you only need to get within 40m of tryline to score points and ultimately win a game…it might as well be soccer. Union has to be one of the most over-engineered games on the planet now. For viewers who don’t live and breathe the game that’s not a good thing. My ex-in laws who were born/bred ra-ra tried to convince me it was a thinking man’s game. No sport can afford to be an island. With such reliance on media $ to survive, the game needs to really look at itself. Putting my marketing cap on, when they’ve attempted this to date they’ve looked at it as if they’re targeting themselves. They need to wake up and realise that the true rugby fan is a diminished species. AFL & soccer are both swamping traditional league and Union heartlands. But the game needs clarity and a solid identity before it can hope to attract new fans and ultimately players. And even between the 2 rugby codes, show an uninitiated yank a World Cup final or a State of Origin and ask which is the better game?? Now, be honest!!
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