Just ban the bowling that causes the damage. Simple really. Nothing allowed above the shoulder. Accidents will still happen but it should cut the concussions dramatically. And really short bowling is boring and unfair as the batter can’t even reach the ball. Call the really short balls wides and add 6 runs to the batting team.

Eddie has not lied. He received a briefing about the Japan coaching job before the World Cup. No interview. He was keen to make changes in Australian rugby but he was undermined from the very start. It was clear he would be sacked regardless of the Wallabies performance in the World Cup unless they won or reached semi finals. So who signed him to a long term contract? Someone who immediately deserted him during the World Cup. Australians seem not to care about evidence, hence the sacking of Rennie who did a remarkable job under injury stresses. Defeats of South Africa in Adelaide and New Zealand in Perth seemed to count for nothing. Argentina, New Zealand and South Africa were in the quarter finals along with Fiji. Note that. Three of of the rugby championship sides and a strong Pacific nation. The final was of course between the top two nations we have to play all the time. You can’t really blame Eddie. He was sold a poisoned chalice, gave it his best shot and left before he was dumped. Why sign someone to a five year contract if you walk away ( the bosses) when things don’t go the way you want. The people who hired Eddie and that ridiculous contract are the problem. And the media are a huge part of the problem. In Trumpian style they are a pathetic bunch of excuse makers for their unrealistic dreams. Look at how Pat Cummins is treated. Winning gave him a breather but the journalists are already out there reflecting the views of the dumped coach( keep it all behind closed doors!) who can’t seem to accept he was toxic to much of the team. God help us if the Wallabies start winning . Who will get the credit? Not the players I bet.

Winning has become an unhealthy obsession in Australian rugby. Get some things in place that lead to better outcomes. Three of the four semi finalists at the World Cup were from our rugby championship. Fiji made the quarter finals. At the risk of contradicting all the experts, there isn’t much wrong with Australian rugby as we punch well above our weight as a minor sport locally. I want a selection panel of three. Two Super rugby coaches ( top two Aussie teams each year) and the coach. Coach only gets to vote when other two cant agree and he has to pick one of their choices. This removes a lot of the problems facing recent Australian coaches who clearly did not pick the best players for each position. Let them focus on coaching the best talent chosen for them by the selectors. Play more tests against the wider world, Tonga, Japan, US, Canada and have all tests and Super rugby on free to air. And accept that without money our best players( like in soccer) will go overseas. Spend money on suburban grounds. Make them more comfortable. Promote sevens rugby as it is exciting and will develop the attacking skills we need. Don’t pick young players for the Wallabies and then discard them. Build combinations over the years. And put pressure on world rugby to do something about rush defending. It’s often offside and stifles attacking play.

If the focus continues to be on winning to the exclusion of all else the review will fail. While I was disappointed with the Wallabies performances at the World Cup , it is sport and things don’t always work out. Rugby league will be concerned that they lost by a record score to NZ in the Pacific cup final but they beat them the week before. Dave Rennie had to work with a third of the first choice Wallabies out injured. Eddie Jones had similar issues. Once again focus on the evidence. Three of the four semi finalists were from our rugby championship. Only once has a northern hemisphere team won the World Cup. Ireland has never made it past the knockout stage. There isn’t much wrong with Australian rugby except for the obvious. It is a relatively minor sport in Australia, is not available free to air most of the time, it lacks money and is traditionally a private school venture. Given all that it is impressive that Australia has won two world cups and lost in two other finals. When the talent comes along, the victories will return. At the moment, at full strength, the current players would perhaps win around 40% of their tests. We have no dominant halves but our forwards are potentially great. The world has improved. Australian and New Zealand coaches have lifted the standard in Europe but the heavier fields and longer seasons have led to an obsession with field position, penalties and power forwards. That approach often fails in Australia unless touring teams adapt to the faster conditions. Let’s play Japan, Tonga, Samoa and USA on a more regular basis. It’s not always about winning. Players have to enjoy the game. International exposure is what rugby has to offer. The money is there in the countries we ignore.

While I like some of the suggestions to create more game time hybrid teams never really work.
Oz rugby seems to delight in throwing out the baby, the bath water and the nice meal we were about to eat. Look at the recent World Cup evidence. Of the 4 Southern rugby championship teams 3 made it to the semi finals. Only the bottom team( Australia) missed out and were Fiji brilliant or were we pathetic? You can’t have it both ways. That tells me we are playing in the toughest competition but it is good preparation for knockout World cups. And all except one World Cup has been won by Southern teams. Go figure eh? You want evidence. There it is.
Our problem( and you see it in our cringe worthy sports reporting on a nightly basis where Aussies who don’t win are described as falling short etc and sometimes their victorious opponent isn’t named!) is winning obsession. We used to dominate Tennis, Swimming, Cricket ( still in there!) but the world has changed. I feel sorry for Northern Hemisphere teams ( no really, stop laughing) because when a game requires a try to be scored they can’t do it. 37 phases the experts gasp. Ireland were going nowhere. South Africa manufactured a try against England when they needed it and New Zealand did the same and so did Argentina. If kicks had succeeded NZ would have won. Excellent Bok defence was only part of the story.
And penalties. Let’s sort out this advantage nonsense. As soon as the ref indicates a penalty to one team they know. They don’t have to try too hard as it will go back for a kick. Either award some penalties immediately or call advantage over if the team progresses more than twenty metres. Or be brave like soccer where an advantage call does not come back. You must play on. So much meaningless play happens while the ref tries to decide what exactly? If it’s for offside and the team is making progress why call it back? Just because they then make a mistake?

And scrums. If players can’t physically manage to stay upright bring on a frame for them to lean on as they push! No resetting of scrums just play on.

And coaching and selecting. Coach doesn’t pick team he is one of three , he gets a casting vote but only between the two different choices of the others. I have coached and selected and while I was happy to stand behind my selections coaching is much easier if three minds decide the choice. Players can’t whinge then (:but they will anyway) about favouritism. And the coach then has to accept that others may see things they can’t and this invigorates, or should, your coaching approach. Look at the appalling treatment dished out to Kurtly Beale, Noah, Quade, James etc etc players who never realised their full potential as they were attacking players trying to survive in a corporate win at all costs environment where mistakes were seen as unforgivable not just what happens when you try variations. I’d say the Ella brothers would struggle to make a Wallabies squad today where individual brilliance and passing seem to be dismissed.
So Super Rugby is not broken but that doesn’t mean different things shouldn’t be tried. And forget about winning. Concentrate on playing great rugby, entertain the crowds, do back flips when you score and accept that winning is a privilege and losing is just the b side of love.

It’s not Kiwi propaganda, it is easily observable. The rush defence is a development of the kiwi one player just off side approach. In the rush defence almost every player is marginally offside and one player is always miles offside. I’m not making this up. It’s like what I call the All Black penalty. Give away three points to stop a try being scored. Rugby knows it has a problem as most tests these days are appallingly boring. The introduction of the 50/20 rule shows this. Here are some more ideas, not all new. Penalties worth 2 points, no injury stoppages unless serious, no going back to where the kick was taken if it’s too long, no more than one scrum reset.

The so called rush defence is mostly an offside defence. The All Blacks should be flattered as this is the Springboks copying them. Wallabies teams have been frustrated by this off side play for decades and the All Blacks were very good at it. You could analyse until you go crazy but it is really simple. Linespersons put a flag up in soccer. Rugby should do the same. Then we might see some freer running rugby. Cricket had to deal with over use of short pitched bowling. And what’s wrong with bringing a maul down. How else are you expected to defend a bunch of muscle bound idiots pushing and shoving their way at you. Call it a collective tackle!

Short memory syndrome or is winning the only metric? The Wallabies under Rennie led the French until the final few minutes and seriously challenged the Irish. In New Zealand the Wallabies led the All Blacks until a late penalty sank them. The previous season they beat both the All Blacks and the Springboks the teams that made the final ( and sorry to all the great final columnists, it was a painful, stodgy variation on rugby league without the excitement. One of the worst games of rugby ever. Why don’t stadiums have a roof to prevent the ruination of the field and the greasy ball?) also keep in mind that South Africa, New Zealand and Argentina all made it to the quarters and those three teams make up our rugby championship! Southern Hemisphere rugby has won all but one of the World Cups so the way we play is clearly suited to knockout rugby. We simply have to accept what soccer has accepted. Our best will play overseas as that is where the money is. How many Matildas play in Australia? When will we have a number one tennis player again? It will happen because there will always be talent. Winning the rugby World Cup? It could happen if the talent arises but maybe the glory days are over. I think Fiji shows us that the days of the Pacific are coming. After all many of the NZ and Australian teams ( not to mention some European teams) have had large contingents of Pacific players. Our most successful Super rugby coaches must be given the chance to coach the Wallabies and let’s not have five year contracts.

While penalties remain at three points running rugby will struggle. So how to fix this? Lower penalties to two points? Increase tries to six? Limit what can be converted as a penalty? Scrum penalties for example should not lead to shots at goal. The winning side should just get possession. Same with a failed line out. Just give the ball to the non offending team. Maybe just increase tries to six. Simple. And let’s not just point to Englands boring rugby. South Africa are painful to watch at times too. Maybe the box kick should be outlawed. Kick high chase through out jump the other guy! Really? Watch Aussie rules if you think that’s great.

Don’t keep doing the same thing. Innovate. 5 Australian super teams ( maybe add NSW Country?) play each other in a round robin. NZ does the same with their teams. The top two from each country play a finals series round robin style again. Maybe add Fiji to one conference and Moana to the other alternating each year. The eliminated teams play a cross conference knockout ( need the conferences to be 6 teams then) 8 becomes 4 becomes 2 becomes 1.
So the top teams play 8 games and the others play 6 , 7 or 8 games.
If that is seen as too few games ( one of the criticisms of super rugby) play each conference twice in the first situation. Then you have 13 games for the top 4 and 11, 12 and 13 for the others.
All of the top tier games to be refereed by British , French or South African referees to help Southern players adapt to northern interpretations. Referees to run workshops before the final round robin top series. No bonus points. Penalties to be worth 5 points. Any player conceding more than three penalties over the competition is suspended for the rest of the competition and fined.
Any team beaten by more than 40 points has to run ten laps of the oval and do 40 push ups. ( just kidding here!)
No yellow or red cards just citings unless extreme foul play occurs. Citings can result in long term suspensions and personal fines for players and coaches.

Australian rugby has an unhealthy focus on winning, not performance. The Socceroos don’t expect to win the World Cup. But they do focus on performing as well as they can. Rugby is a minor sport in the world. Television cash ensures that the best soccer players and rugby players are in Europe. Either select mostly overseas players or reject them entirely so a squad of local players gets to work together and establish a public identity. Will Skelton may be a great player but Aussies don’t know him. Reduce the coaches salary and you may get someone who wants the job for the right reasons. Rather than move further into the corporate world business should be on the outer. Money leads to poor decisions.

If any of the top teams lost their two best forwards they would struggle. Skelton and Tupou were critical to the Wallabies. That’s not to excuse poor decision making like not taking the points when trailing 10-6. The Wallabies need to learn tournament rugby. They almost scored twice in those first twenty minutes when they dominated territory and possession. Also a focus on winning above all else fosters anxiety. Focus on playing well. Require all selected Wallabies to take a rugby rules test and they must score above 95% to confirm their selection. Too many close games have been lost by Wallaby stupidity. Have a quota system where half the squad must be from public schools and half from private schools. The captain must be from public schools as we need a calm, smart, cunning operator at the top. Has anyone else noticed NZ And Argentina seem to have declined too? A few changes..three selectors where the coach only tiebreaks when the other selectors can’t agree in a position. Note.. coach makes no selections himself except where he agrees with the others. Other Two selectors are top two super rugby coaches each year. Less gym work as soft tissue injuries are caused by this. Also only players over two metres and 110 kilos can be selected as forwards. All backs must be able to kick with both feet. Our best goal kicker must always play even if it is Quade Cooper. Unless injured a selected player must have a minimum of three tests before being dropped and they must spend the next two tests on the bench as a replacement. We must play more tests against Japan, Fiji, Samoa, Canada, USA. We must invest more into sevens rugby. It is more fun to watch also. Fiji grew to dominate here before large scale test success as sevens requires quick and correct decision making under pressure. Younger Australian teams are doing better here. Referees from different countries should be hired to work with our players to help them understand how to avoid silly penalties. Any player who concedes more than three penalties in any test is banned from selection for two years.
And perhaps the top super rugby coach in Australia should get the Wallaby job on a five year cycle. Give each coach five years or four if you feel five is too much.
that should fix things ( note.. by that I mean players enjoying their rugby and having a crack without feeling the world is on their shoulders. I don’t care if they never win another World Cup. It is a game played in only a few countries and the money in the north makes it likely the Wallabies will have to be like the Socceroos, mostly from overseas.