- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Roar Rookie
Joined September 2020
0
Views
0
Published
3
Comments
Published
Comments
I honestly believe that the game is likely doomed in Australia to increasing unpopularity and irrelevance.
The issue is that what makes the game unpopular in Australia doesn’t seem to upset people on other rugby playing countries. In fact they may even prefer it that way.
Australians see a sport that has never been more frustrating. More penalties, cards, TMO interventions than ever before.
Defensive rugby is much more successful now. There’s little correlation between possession, # of passes/offloads, # of linebreaks, # of rucks and success. More often now the metric is inverted. It is much smarter now to kick the ball away and defend unless specific criteria are met which makes attacking play worth pursuing.
The issue is that to most Aussies and an increasing number of NZers, this is making the sport subjectivity unwatchable.
It’s down to historical understanding of what rugby should be AND the constant and ongoing comparison that is made to rugby league.
This paradigm doesn’t exist in the same way in most other rugby playing nations.
So my conclusion is that the sport will follow the majority, who are fine with lots of penalties, cards, TMO interventions, kicking, and defensive rugby.
The sport will simply fade into obscurity in Australia and be increasingly less dominant in NZ.
It's not just the Wallabies - Australasian rugby is withering on the vine as self-interest, arrogance and denial take hold
At the end of the day, the game has never had more penalties, cards and TMO interventions.
This is seen anathema to entertaining rugby in the south.
The game is perceived as boring, stop-start and much too influenced by the whims of referees.
The game is dying in popularity. In Australia, it’s got a bad reputation among the majority. NZ, a historical bastion of the game, is now following that same path.
It’s getting less popular all the time, using virtually any metric. Less people play, watch, or contribute money to the game.
The NRL is winning.
So while your position makes sense from the perspective of countries that aren’t experience this decline, it doesn’t help rugby in Australia or NZ.
Things are getting increasingly desperate.
People are bandying about increasingly desperate ideas. Hence the suggestion Aus and NZ just go it alone (which is unrealistic in reality).
If things continue as they are though, things will only vontinue to decline. There will be a point where the game is not financially viable in Australia really at all.
It’s already one of the least popular team sports and declining. The World Cup may as well not be happening if you look in the media. The only coverage is how bad the wallabies are and how the game is dying. No one is paying any attention beyond that in the media.
Australia is one thing though – it’s always been in the shadows of the NRL.
What’s more alarming is that it’s starting to happen in NZ.
It's not just the Wallabies - Australasian rugby is withering on the vine as self-interest, arrogance and denial take hold
Honestly, I don’t enjoy the game nearly as much as I used to.
There’s more penalties, cards and TMO interventions then ever.
It’s never been more defensive.
It’s slow, turgid stuff.
'How much does Australian rugby want to learn from the world?': Why you've got to stay tuned into World Cup