OPINION

Soapbox

The Voice From the Stands

Tuesday 22nd July 2008

John O'Neill: Care to look at home first?

It's been a long week for rugby's law-makers and officials. The ELVs once again produced a game with just the same number of tries as a game under the old rules would have produced, and with a good deal less shape.

After the match came the now usual round of official-baiting... in fact come to think of it, there was a fair bit of that before the match too. Peter de Villiers was irritated he could not lean on the referee before the match, so he had a blast after it. The attack in English was thinly-veiled, the one in Afrikaans was not veiled at all.

It's getting a bit dull. It's like the TMO usage. Once upon a time, it was out of the ordinary, nowadays it's out of the ordinary if there's not some form of TMO consultation at every try/reported broadside at the officials - delete as applicable.

The 'cry wolf' principle applies here. The longer and louder one shouts, the shorter the attention span and the less the reaction. There's only so long you can ensure it's someone else's fault before the owners of the ears you are bending turn around and tell you to sort it out yourself. And quietly. Peter de Villiers - by extension, the Bok fans - have reached that level with me already.

So has John O'Neill. On and on he goes about the need for the ELVs and the quicker game and the more tries and the better this and the more exciting that and the closed game in the north and blah blah blah.

Saturday's game in Perth was exciting in the closeness of it all, but it yielded only two tries. One was a superbly-executed handling move in a confined space, the other a headstrong charge by one big bloke through some other big blokes. Not quite the sweeping end-to-end run-for-all O'Neill would have us believe.

Most of the second half was a shapeless succession of free-kick tap and goes, with even more big blokes dragging themselves back and forth across the turf in search of the ball before running into even more big blokes. There were some fun offloads and handling moments, but not very much tryline action. Whenever the ball did get towards the tryline, the play inevitably slowed down.

Berrick Barnes said afterwards he felt like he had been given a Rugby League workout, and he was spot on. Saturday's match was as near to Rugby League as I have ever seen Union come. Nice for Australia, where League is religion, not so great for the rest of the world, where it isn't.

O'Neill may be on the rant because the north has failed to find a competition to trial the Tri-Nations rules in, thereby breaking a promise, but he could also do with pulling his head in a bit until the ELVs as they are to be in all the north's major leagues next season - i.e. with penalties instead of free-kicks - have been trialled as well.

Having personally coached at a relatively high level under those for two months now, I can honestly say that the balance between accelerating the game and keeping its structure has been struck perfectly. There are more tries, as well as more room for tactical variety.

A decision on the ELVs is to be made next May 1, a long way off. The north's version of the ELVs will begin in August/September, and has already done so in South Africa (unfortunately the effect has been diluted by some asinine experiments to TMO usage which rendered one match 104 minutes long). O'Neill ought to wait and see what transpires in both the Tri-Nations and the north before opening his mouth, it's not as if the Tri-Nations has been thrill-a-minute. Unless of course, his agenda is to push through all the rules that would favour Australia...

Elsewhere, I am looking forward to seeing who gets the next two World Cups even more now that Italy are on the campaign trail.

In the past, the World Cup has always bounced between north and south in alternative years, which would mean that 2015 will be in the north. Indeed, the only country from the south to hint at a bid for either is Australia.

Looking at 2015, and bearing in mind the IRB's avowed intent to take the tournament out of a core market, it would appear that Japan are now head to head with Italy for 2015, and Australia in line for 2019 if they decide to go ahead with it.

Japan was tempting enough, but now Italy as an alternative as well? Oh yes!

More Kiwis fled to France this week, with Chris Masoe the latest to leave after not making the All Black cut.

Some people are quite acidic about the players who leave in their prime, saying maybe they should stay and fight for their place in the AB squad etc etc. But honestly, once the Super 14 has finished, it appears that unless they are in AB contention, there is very little that is meaningful to play for for eight months.

The Air New Zealand Cup (and all of this applies to South Africans and the Currie Cup as well) has become utterly devalued by the blanket television coverage and the disparity between the qualities and financial powers of the unions, and it becomes little more than a parade with an occasional competitive match and/or upset thrown in.

No wonder there is a stream of players heading north to the competitive leagues where there is a consistent challenge. Money talks, but so does competition.

The NZRU, to its credit, is closely examining ways of regulating this and making the playing field in the ANZ Cup more even. It shouldn't prove too hard in the end and it will take the game back to some forgotten heartlands.

Which brings me back to John O'Neill's words. If he, and his southern counterparts, want to keep their players, fans, and television monies, perhaps they need to look at their own national games and bring them up to speed rather than trying to change the speed of everyone else's. Meaningful domestic competition would be a good start.

What's your impression of the rugby world this week?