ozbash
Referee
- Messages
- 26,922
Found this on stuff by Lindsay Knight, who i always thought was a die hard union man.
Makes for interesting reading.
I wonder if last weekends crowd was a one-off, helped along by leitchy's advertising of family discounted prices.
The acid test will be v the Sea Eagles.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4165747a1823.html
If the rugby authorities needed a wakeup call as to the true plight of the game in New Zealand at present then it was surely provided last weekend when in Auckland the Air New Zealand Cup and the Warriors' involvement in the Australian league competition clashed.
The Auckland-Waikato ANZC match kicked off at Eden Park at 5.35pm, followed a couple of hours later by the Warriors' match against the Gold Coast Titans. The rugby match attracted a crowd of just over 14,000, despite having many positive aspects.
Both Waikato and especially Auckland are playing attractive rugby and, as expected, produced a rousing contest. The game was also preceded by an appealing curtainraiser, the Gallaher Shield final between Ponsonby and Waitemata.
But the Warriors easily won the box office battle.
At Mt Smart there was a crowd of more than 20,000, which was a fair and accurate reflection of where the two codes may be in public estimation at the moment.
Now the Warriors are looking for an even bigger crowd at their next home game, against Manly.
Even a rugby connoisseur would have to agree that the way the Warriors are playing they deserve every plaudit they are now receiving.
Surprisingly, because he is an Australian, their captain Steve Price is gaining a folk hero status comparable to even great All Blacks like Dan Carter and Richie McCaw.
And it's beyond any argument just which is the easier game to watch these days, even if the rugby lovers among us find some of the gloating of the likes of league guru Graham Lowe hard to digest.
But it has to be said they have a point. With its constant scrum re-sets, confusion by referees, players and everyone else at the tackle ball breakdowns, rugby, with the occasional exception like the Auckland-Waikato game, has been all year a frustrating exercise.
The game, for the most part, gives every impression of being over-managed and certainly over refereed, and for all their numbers and visual aids referees still manage to miss what really matters, such as a punch.
It can only be hoped that the experimental laws, which will be used in the upcoming provincial second XV competition, will bring much needed improvements.
But the advice of a cynic is to not hold your breath on that one, either.
Over the past 100 years there have been frequent efforts made to streamline the playing laws.
The last was the extensive exercise of about 15 to 16 years ago, "The Game for the 90s," in which a number of leading coaches and lateral thinkers, such as Laurie Mains, were involved. That did lead to some excellent innovations, many of which are still in force, including the five point try.
But, mainly through British intervention, many of their basic aims have long since been compromised, including an intended reduction of penalty shots at goal.
Besides the laws, though, there are many other practices and policies the New Zealand union should urgently review. As well as being over-refereed, over managed and over analysed the game is also being over exposed.
Instead of berating the public of North Harbour, Dunedin and Counties-Manukau for not supporting games, the NZRU, and Sky TV itself, would be better off looking at themselves for reasons why some matches are not drawing crowds.
As one example, a game anywhere in Auckland on a Friday night should be an obvious no-no because of traffic problems.
We all know live telecasts are essential in the professional era, but it has got to the stage now where emphasising the interests of television are to the detriment of the product itself.
A return to a few basics may be long overdue: more afternoon games, more room in the calendar for domestic club competitions. But both of those, alas, appear to be casualties of commercialism.
Right now the NZRU needs to launch a major public relations offensive to restore some of its battered image.
It certainly deserved much of the criticism heaped on it recently for not being involved in the 20th anniversary reunion of the 1987 All Black World Cup winning side. Apart from president, Andy Leslie, attending as a guest that was left instead to the Halberg Trust.
Just as the 1987 success came as a tonic after a couple of turbulent years, so too may another win at this year's tournament in France be the game's salvation.
There would be a certain irony to that, of course, for one of the main contributors to what has been a dismal season so far has been the obsession with winning the World Cup, and the license All Black coach Graham Henry has been given to re-arrange practically everything else to suit his cause.
If the World Cup is not won then New Zealand rugby's future may be grim. There are already signs that sustaining professionalism, and financial liquidity, is undergoing huge strains which eventually may become intolerable.
Makes for interesting reading.
I wonder if last weekends crowd was a one-off, helped along by leitchy's advertising of family discounted prices.
The acid test will be v the Sea Eagles.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4165747a1823.html
If the rugby authorities needed a wakeup call as to the true plight of the game in New Zealand at present then it was surely provided last weekend when in Auckland the Air New Zealand Cup and the Warriors' involvement in the Australian league competition clashed.
The Auckland-Waikato ANZC match kicked off at Eden Park at 5.35pm, followed a couple of hours later by the Warriors' match against the Gold Coast Titans. The rugby match attracted a crowd of just over 14,000, despite having many positive aspects.
Both Waikato and especially Auckland are playing attractive rugby and, as expected, produced a rousing contest. The game was also preceded by an appealing curtainraiser, the Gallaher Shield final between Ponsonby and Waitemata.
But the Warriors easily won the box office battle.
At Mt Smart there was a crowd of more than 20,000, which was a fair and accurate reflection of where the two codes may be in public estimation at the moment.
Now the Warriors are looking for an even bigger crowd at their next home game, against Manly.
Even a rugby connoisseur would have to agree that the way the Warriors are playing they deserve every plaudit they are now receiving.
Surprisingly, because he is an Australian, their captain Steve Price is gaining a folk hero status comparable to even great All Blacks like Dan Carter and Richie McCaw.
And it's beyond any argument just which is the easier game to watch these days, even if the rugby lovers among us find some of the gloating of the likes of league guru Graham Lowe hard to digest.
But it has to be said they have a point. With its constant scrum re-sets, confusion by referees, players and everyone else at the tackle ball breakdowns, rugby, with the occasional exception like the Auckland-Waikato game, has been all year a frustrating exercise.
The game, for the most part, gives every impression of being over-managed and certainly over refereed, and for all their numbers and visual aids referees still manage to miss what really matters, such as a punch.
It can only be hoped that the experimental laws, which will be used in the upcoming provincial second XV competition, will bring much needed improvements.
But the advice of a cynic is to not hold your breath on that one, either.
Over the past 100 years there have been frequent efforts made to streamline the playing laws.
The last was the extensive exercise of about 15 to 16 years ago, "The Game for the 90s," in which a number of leading coaches and lateral thinkers, such as Laurie Mains, were involved. That did lead to some excellent innovations, many of which are still in force, including the five point try.
But, mainly through British intervention, many of their basic aims have long since been compromised, including an intended reduction of penalty shots at goal.
Besides the laws, though, there are many other practices and policies the New Zealand union should urgently review. As well as being over-refereed, over managed and over analysed the game is also being over exposed.
Instead of berating the public of North Harbour, Dunedin and Counties-Manukau for not supporting games, the NZRU, and Sky TV itself, would be better off looking at themselves for reasons why some matches are not drawing crowds.
As one example, a game anywhere in Auckland on a Friday night should be an obvious no-no because of traffic problems.
We all know live telecasts are essential in the professional era, but it has got to the stage now where emphasising the interests of television are to the detriment of the product itself.
A return to a few basics may be long overdue: more afternoon games, more room in the calendar for domestic club competitions. But both of those, alas, appear to be casualties of commercialism.
Right now the NZRU needs to launch a major public relations offensive to restore some of its battered image.
It certainly deserved much of the criticism heaped on it recently for not being involved in the 20th anniversary reunion of the 1987 All Black World Cup winning side. Apart from president, Andy Leslie, attending as a guest that was left instead to the Halberg Trust.
Just as the 1987 success came as a tonic after a couple of turbulent years, so too may another win at this year's tournament in France be the game's salvation.
There would be a certain irony to that, of course, for one of the main contributors to what has been a dismal season so far has been the obsession with winning the World Cup, and the license All Black coach Graham Henry has been given to re-arrange practically everything else to suit his cause.
If the World Cup is not won then New Zealand rugby's future may be grim. There are already signs that sustaining professionalism, and financial liquidity, is undergoing huge strains which eventually may become intolerable.
