Andrew Slack: Why rugby’s on the nose
THE referees’ blitz on anything more aggressive than blowing kisses in rugby is driving Andrew Slack to take up ballroom dancing.
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THESE thoughts come to you from the US where, after the agony of a month’s worth of what might have been since Super Rugby 2017 kicked off, I’m hoping the land of the free and the home of the brave is bereft of any rugby coverage.
I’m not sure I could stand witnessing many more wasted scoring opportunities by the Reds, and I am certain the referees’ blitz on anything more aggressive than blowing kisses would drive me to take up ballroom dancing.
Which of course is something Roy Morgan researchers would have you believe is a pastime that has as many participants in Australia as rugby does. Understandably the ARU has refuted such statistics.
Rugby followers though shouldn’t really give a flying foxtrot about any perceived comparisons in the popularity of their game because they are well aware that at the moment in this country, the game is on the nose.
After last week’s debacle in Argentina, I had many conversations with loyal supporters — a lot of them former Wallabies — and the same question kept being asked: Why are we doing this to ourselves?
The Crusaders-Force game was a procession of re-packed scrums, the Stormers-Sunwolves game featured an Argentinian referee misinterpreting what the Japanese TMO said and subsequently making the wrong call (very amusing if it hadn’t been embarrassing), while the Eto Nabuli yellow card in the Reds match was the most ridiculous thing I have seen in rugby.
Yes, I’ve spent the past week trolling through 50 years of memories and I’m afraid Kiwi referee Mike Fraser’s call is top of the pops.
One-off frustrations with the code of your choice are part of the price you pay for being a sports watcher, but you should not be subjected to it week in, week out.
The world has turned. The Six Nations tournament was once considered a conservative ho-hum brand of rugby while the Australian Super Rugby teams and the Wallabies had fans wanting more.
Most of the matches in this year’s Six Nations gave solace to the faithful watching from Down Under but also invited the question “why can’t our teams play like that?”.
So while referees and players need to pick up their game, the one comforting aspect for Reds supporters, is that the season really only begins next Saturday in Canberra.
Winning the Australian conference is all you need to advance to the quarter-finals and while the early form of the five teams involved has had some suggesting it’s a race to the bottom, the more optimistic among us are relying on the reality that there is plenty of room for improvement.
In fairness to the Reds, some of the rugby they’ve played thus far has been more than promising, but 15, 30 or 50 minutes worth of good stuff won’t win you games.
And not only has there not been enough of the good, the bad has been very bad. One step forward, two steps back has been the theme.
The Reds have nine games left but, barring a series of odd results, there’s really only five that matter. Win all the local derbies and they’ll go close to the finals.
Anything less and they can think about putting on their dancing shoes.
Originally published as Andrew Slack: Why rugby’s on the nose
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