Good article and some fair points raised. If you haven’t watched Bordeaux vs Harlequins on the Champions Cup, this year’s men’s Six Nations or England v Ireland in the Women’s Six Nations, I strongly suggest you go and watch them and remember how great a game rugby union can be when played well. For those of us who live in countries were League is virtually non existent, it’s always strange to see union fans suggesting that rugby should try and resemble League in every single aspect. I still feel that if refs were able to enforce the laws as they exist then union would be a much more open and attractive game most of the time. Anyway, although this website obviously focuses on the game in Australia, you should just look at the game in North and South America, Japan and Europe to see how it’s booming and it’s an attractive game.

Lomani’s ban is a good reflection of how strange a position rugby union finds itself in currently. There’s a lot of emphasis on player welfare, especially hits to the head and brain injuries, where tackles are highly scrutinized and punished when gone wrong, which I certainly celebrate. But here you have a clear as day literal attack by a player on an opposition player, with no context or mitigating factors whatsoever, which literally targeted the head of a player with force and absolute disregard for his well being, and it only got 6 weeks? I’ve been a rugby fan my whole life but these kind of issues keep pulling me away from the game, if I’m honest.

I haven’t seen a lot of Jorgensen but his last game against the Drua was poor. Is he worth the hype over someone like Corey Toole, for example?

So Eddie led the Wallabies to a worst ever WC result, fought with everyone that dared to criticize him, made baffling decisions all around, couldn’t bother to do anything with the Wallaroos, while secretly negotiating a deal with Japan and helping Manly prepare to their trip to Vegas, AND he splurged a fortune from a bankrupt code’s coffers? He really was on a mission to kill rugby in Aussie.

I’m not offended at all. I am a Union fan but can see there’s many issues in the game nowadays and certainly enjoy some banter between the codes. But here’s three examples of what I’m saying, taken verbatim for this article:

“As if sparked into action, Bath and Gloucester in the English domestic league engaged in a 12-part kicking duel that couldn’t have been a better advertisement for rugby league if Tina Turner had risen from the grave to star in it.”

“Funny as it is to make the same joke about union today in relation to league, the same methods expose something similar about our code.”

“If punters wanted a form of rugby that involved poor defence, inscrutable refereeing and needless kicking – well, it does exist if you use your imagination.”

I read plenty of Union news and features and you very rarely see Union journos talking about League, and certainly almost never making fun of it, but the opposite is very true for League journos. That’s all I’m saying,

my point is that even though he is writing a piece on League, he can’t help himself but take digs at Union any chance he gets.

Rugby union really does live rent-free in your mind, doesn’t it?

there’s tons of good, Test material japanese players in key positions like back rowers and half backs. If you use Twitter check Asie Rugby and T2 Rugby’s accounts and you’ll see a full list. Joseph knew perfectly well what he was doing.

A key reason of Japan’s fall from grace is that Jamie Joseph refused to pick the best japanese players (of which there were plenty) and instead always favoured bigger, bulkier eligible foreigners, thus filling the squad with south africans, tongans, and kiwis. When half the team is not japanese, several of which didn’t even speak japanese, it is no wonder they looked like they have no cohesion on the pitch and no ideas either.

I used to watch a lot of Super Rugby but now only watch the odd Kiwi derby and the Drua games. Here’s my two cents:
1. Competition: The Crusaders have won the last 5 seasons. It’s boring to watch when one team is almost certain to win it. It needs to be way more competitive. I rarely watch games between aussie and kiwi sides because they are usually a non contest. Australian teams need to be more competitive for the tournament to create any interest. This is a MUST. NZ has lots of quality players, Aussie doesn’t. A draft seems like a good idea to reignite some competitiveness to the competition, even if it is for only a few seaasons. Teams like Moana Pasifika are not adding much to the competition. Which brings me to the next point.
2. Atmosphere: most games are played in massive, mostly empty, soul less stadiums. Part of the reason why the Drua have been a breath of fresh air is because they are followed by good crowds in Suva and Lautoka, in smaller stadiums that always look packed with a boisterous crowd. This is what people want to see. Seek smaller stadiums, lower the prices, improve the food and bev options, make a day of it. But until something changes the match-day atmosphere will look flat and unattractive to casual fans.
3. Stop with the enforced rest periods for Wallabies and especially All Blacks. I am all for player welfare but Super Rugby has been treated as an afterthought for years and now the consequences are for everyone to see. Fans want to go and see the world’s best players on the pitch, not on the stands.
4. Stop tinkering with the format. There has been so much chopping and changing that it really diluted the competition. Commit to a format, stick to the same teams and build a good brand. This includes the playoffs: in a competition where 66% of the teams are guaranteed a spot, there’s not many incentives to remain as competitive as possible for the whole season. Stick to the first four or five teams with semis, or get rid of them altogether and crown the team that finishes on top of the table after the regular season is over.
Did I miss anything?

love it 😂

When McLennan started creating imaginary quarrels with the NRL, taunting them with “hit lists” of league players they’d like to “poach” and ultimately poking the bear, many of us said that there was nothing to be won from such stupidity. Then the RWC fiasco came. Then Eddie went. Then McLennan. And now one of the few highlights of the Wallabies is gone. I do hope that both McLennan and Jones are remembered for the enormpous level of harm they inflicted on rugby union in Australia.

“In a sport that plenty of people find really boring to start with, it’s not surprising that RTS fancied returning to a league in which he would be challenged every week”

I have come to the conclusion it is really impossible to read a League article that does not attempt to lambast Union in some way. The RWC just finished and there was an average attendance of 50,000 spectators per game, across 48 matches played, some of which were Samoa v Chile, Uruguay v Namibia, Georgia v Fiji and Tonga v Romania, hardly a priori blockbusters. Yet League writers somehow manage to have a dig even if their sport only really exists in eastern Australia, Auckland, Northern England and PNG. Jeez.

“Men don’t cry. I am really sorry but I have never cried in my life. Yes, I was disappointed, I was pissed off that I lost, but we never cried.

Sir it’s 2023. Time to leave your cave.

For me, the thing is that rugby union can still be a phenomenally entertaining game when played right. But sadly the laws are geared towards searching for kickable penalties and position within the pitch. For me, some very useful law variations would be:
1. Penalties should be reserved for the most serious offences (dangerous tackling and everything regarding rucks) and the rest should just be free kicks. Certainly any indiscretions in the scrums should not yield a penalty but a free kick, imagine the amount of resets this would save us.
2. Kicks that go out on the full should always end up in a lineout from the position where the kick was taken, regardless of where you kicked it.
3. End with the mark if you catch a kick straight from the air inside your 22. Let the players play.
4. A bit controversial, but do not allow tries to be scored directly from rolling mauls. The ball must be passed away from the maul so that a try can be socred.
Any thoughts?

I’m no fan of the Nations League concept but saying that “The time has come to strike on producing similar outcomes for the stream of talent that comes out of Tonga and Samoa, but has just been told that rugby union doesn’t care about them” is a very ignorant statement to make. Samoa and Tonga have had plenty of funding over the years from World Rugby, a full Super Rugby team (that they are hopeless on the pitch is another matter) and have just been the recipient of new eligibity rules that were explicitly built to help them cap players who were All Blacks or Wallabies and has now put other “Tier 2” countries that produce their own players at a massive disadvantage. Furthermore, the fact that Samoa and Tonga keep coming up in both codes basically rests on the diaspora. Samoa has 218,000 inhabitants, Tonga has 106,000. In this edition of the Rugby World Cup, only 15% of the players in the Samoa squad were raised in Samoa, while 30% of the Tongans were raised in Tonga (most of the players used by both countries were born and raised in NZ or AUS). I imagine the RLWC squads for both nations are of similar compositions. If they were required to play international rugby with home-based players, thay’d be gone. So, investing money into Samoa and Tonga is tough as there’s no big market, not a lot of players and scarce opportunities. An interesting exception is the Samoan 7s team, which is pretty much 100% home-based and has overachieved in the circuit.
Although both island nations rely on foreing born and raised players to be competitive on the international stage, RU is actually played in Samoa and Tonga, with some of thir best players actually coming from there (like Theo McFarland for Samoa). Is league actually played in those countries to a good standard? Honest question.
Anyway, my main point is that although I really dislike the Nations League concept the fact is that both Samoa and Tonga will continue to play international rugby union, with games being played in the islands as well. Rugby union does care a lot about the Pacific Islands, but there’s a whole international game out there with or without them and already a lot has been done to help them. Having more games against Tier 1 opposition would be brilliant but the likes of Portugal, Chile, Uruguay, Georgia, USA, Canada, Spain, Netherlands etc deserve more chances too. I get that in order for rugby league to have a chance at being an international game having strong presence on the islands is a must, but Union has other responsibilities as well as way more countries play the game and need support to develop further.

After this, who could possibly trust Eddie in a work environment? And who can really believe McLennan knows anything about administration? This whole saga has been a sh!t show from start to finish.

The Irish squad for the RWC has 33 players, 8 of which were born abroad. Of those, two grew up in Ireland (Loughman was born in the US to Irish parents and moved back to Ireland at 12, and McCarthy grew up in Dublin). Loughman and Herring qualify via a grandparent, Hansen via his mom, and the rest via residency. These are the so called “project players” directly recruited from abroad to Irish teams so they can qualify for Ireland. So, 80% of the squad was born and/or raised in Ireland.
Here’s in better detail: https://www.americasrugbynews.com/2023/08/30/foreign-born-produced-homegrown-players-at-rwc-2023/

For the record, the scrum half’s surname is “Marques”, not “Margues”. And it was not him who kicked the ball in the end, it was the fly half Jerónimo Portela.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the fact that the ARU let both Mack Hansen and Sione Tuipulotu (two very good australian union players and proper footballers) go abroad and is still obsessed with bringing over NRL players says all about the state of the administration in Australia. I wonder if they look at these players tearing it up for Scotland and Ireland and feel at least a bit of frustration, or if they truly believe everything is part of a “master plan”.

The Wallabies play the Rugby Championship every year. That means away games in Argentina, South Africa and New Zealand. The november northern tours usually involve playing 4-5 games around Europe. Say London, Dublin, Cardiff, Paris, Rome or Edinburgh. Then throw in the odd tour to Japan where you often play in Tokyo. In recent years NZ teams have filled stadiums in Madrid, Chicago, Vancouver, Sao Paulo and Santiago. If the Wallabies toured the American continent they would get good crowds too.
Sure, Twickenham can get boring after a while, but there’s still many more countries to go to and play Test rugby.

I don’t deny that money is a huge factor. I’m just saying that the “travel and see the world” bit does not mean they are trying to offer holiday packages, it’s the opportunity to experience playing rugby around the world in iconic stadiums.

Surely you understand that when Union authorities try to lure League players to the code by mentioning the travel it’s not holidays at the beach they are talking about, but the chance to play in front of packed stadiums in North and South America, Europe, Japan and South Africa and to play in a competitive World Cup that’s also a massive sporting event. Surely your contempt towards Union is not so strong as to prevent you from understanding this.

It’s sad to think about the players that could be available for Wallabies selection had they been retained by RA. Imagine having Sione Tuipulotu at 12 and Mack Hansen at 14. Game changers.
Same with Bundee Aki. He kept being overlooked even when he was on fire for the Chiefs, and now the All Blacks have chopped and changed looking for a game-breaking 12 when it was under their noses the whole time. It’s crazy to think that Gibson-Park and Lowe were never really in the All Black’s radar and now they are smashing it for the world’s N°1 ranked team.

you do understand rugby is played elsewhere, not just in Australia?