Monday 14 July 2008

Aussies treaten to take their toys away

As long as France and the UK maintain a population greater than the combined population of Australia, New Zealand and the rugby playing part of SA, the money, TV and your players will follow the code of the game that is played up North.

O’Neill: game could split in two - Rugby Union, Rugby - The Independent

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That article is hilarious, but also kind of frightening. As a referee and a fan, I can see that some of the ELVs have merit (the 5m offside line at the scrum, tidying up the line out) and some should be binned immediately (pulling down the maul, free kicks for breakdown offences), but what really hacks me off is the way the southern hemisphere try to pass off the entire package as an all-or-nothin fait accompli.

Also: “If we want rugby to continue to grow as a true international game second only to football, we’ve got to move away from this southern hemisphere-northern hemisphere battle lines” shows a staggering lack of perspective... if you really wanted to grow rugby as a true international game, the 2011 Rugby World Cup would have gone to JAPAN.

Total Flanker said...

The man's an idiot.

Here's my very reasonable take on the situation...
http://totalflanker.blogspot.com/2008/07/johnny-tourette-strikes-again.html

cheers,
TF

Unknown said...

As it stands, the ELV to be implemented in the UK I can live with and most participants are resigned to accepting thse. Though the line-out numbers opening up 'non-competitors' to target the fly-half could cause trouble.
The RFU seems to be stiffening its resolved following on from the climb down on U19 maul collapsing, so lines are hopefully becoming entrenched.
I couldn't agree more with your comments on RWC in Japan, shocking horse trading.