Get up to speed and give rugby in Australia a kiss of life

New laws have done nothing to fix the problem of the scrum. Picture: Getty Images

A strange week in the world of rugby, which struggles for a headline.

It is commendable that we are proposing to bid for the World Cup; but 2027 seems a long way away in the light of our immediate challenges.

I am delighted that the trans-Tasman rugby concept, which I argued for in this column months ago, may have some legs.

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This week, a study by Otago University has supported trans-Tasman travel without the need for a two -eek quarantine process.

The big question is, who plays?

The Kiwis are very happy to be playing their Super Rugby Aotearoa competition over the next 10 weeks. As I said last week, we don’t kick off until next month. Could the two competitions be combined?

Our enduring problem is, we don’t have a lot to offer in the competitive world of the modern game. It’s not so long ago that Australian Super Rugby teams lost 40 consecutive games to New Zealand teams from 2016 to 2018.

It is a big ask to convince a New Zealand rugby public, which senses Australian rugby weakness, that Australian rugby can make the turnstiles turn.

But if I was asked for a Wallaby initiative to kickstart our game at the highest level, why not a Wallaby tour of New Zealand later in the year, the old fashioned tour, like we did in 1986.

Midweek and weekend matches to feed a starved rugby public.

But again, the question arises. Would the Kiwis and the broadcasters trust that the Wallabies, under new management, could do better this year than they did last year?

Who will want us if the thought is that we can’t put up a fight, even against tough provincial opposition?

There is a simple message here. The Kiwi teams always guarantee quality.

What can we guarantee? A lot of talk, foreign coaches and a disillusioned public. It’s a hard road ahead.

I have tried, for months, to indicate how we could best navigate that road.

Recent weekends of rugby league and rugby union have provided further insights.

You may remember the 1986 smash-hit movie Top Gun, where Tom Cruise plays the hot-shot fighter pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.

In a memorable scene where he and his wingman “Goose” are walking on the tarmac towards their fighter jet, Maverick says “I feel the need, the need for speed”.

These sentiments pretty much sum up my feelings, having watched all the rounds of the NRL and the Super Rugby Aotearoa last weekend.

Never before has the need for speed been higher on the rugby viewer’s want list.

The NRL has not only gone back on air first; they have tweaked their laws to make their game lightning fast.

It is highly watchable rugby league, played at breathtaking speed. The public love it.

In contrast, Super Rugby Aotearoa launched last weekend and the referees dished up more than 60 penalties in two games. The contrast between the codes is huge.

Early statistics on the new NRL game have the “ball in play time” at around 60 minutes, compared to Super Rugby where the “ball in play time” is around 35 minutes.

Peter V’landys has shown outstanding judgment and leadership. By introducing the six-again tackle restart, he has eliminated half the penalties and stoppage time in rugby league.

In a bid to make Super Rugby more viewer-friendly, Scott Johnson seems to have decided to do something to justify his massive salary.

He has come up with seven new laws which are essentially “ripped off” from the NRL. The changes include “Super Time”, which is extra time when games are drawn at full-time.

I’ve never understood why, when full-time arrives in a rugby match, it is not the end of the game. The ball must be dead before the whistle is blown.

When 80 minutes is up, the game should stop. That happens in rugby league.

Nonetheless, the notion of “extra time” has merit. Goal line dropouts are to replace some 22m restarts. And there is even a “40/20” rule, ripped off, called “22/50”.

Pleasingly, Johnson stopped short of reducing the playing numbers to 13 a side, just in case rugby fans thought Super Rugby, Australian style, was copying the NRL.

Another Johnson, Clarence Leonard “Kelly” Johnson, was one of America’s most talented and prolific aeronautical engineers.

He designed and built jet fighters, much like the planes Tom Cruise’s character, Maverick, flew.

Kelly Johnson was the man who coined the phrase “Keep it simple, stupid”. He was known as an organising genius, and his KISS philosophy has become a guiding force for leaders in all fields of endeavour.

For all his imitation of rugby league reform, Johnson, having brazenly ripped off NRL ideas, has completely overlooked the two main time wasters in rugby union, the scrum and penalty goals.

Scrums chew up around 15 minutes a game; and more than 10 minutes are wasted setting up for penalty goals.

Let me deal with this in a later piece of writing.

But as a start, eliminate scrum penalties in favour of free kicks, where teams must tap-and-go.

But before even that, the first thing we need to do is extend the game to 90 minutes.

This will give broadcasters and fans more bang for their buck; and with the ridiculous levels of interchange now in the game, independently of whether a player is injured or not, perhaps the players might also like to do more to earn their keep.

Forget all the other fancy stuff stolen from the NRL. Keep it simple, stupid.

Two simple ways of keeping it simple are to extend the game time and reduce the painful incidence of scrum penalties.

We don’t need to make seven changes to the laws.

But why does Johnson have this authority?

Johnson is not the Wallaby coach; he is not adding value anywhere else.

So how long can he escape the chop in any restructure?

Hopefully, Hamish McLennan will keep it simple.

Forget 2027, Hamish. The rugby patient needs immediate medication.