SANZAAR must rethink the bonus point system

The bonus-point system has allowed the All Blacks to be rewarded twice for the one performance.

Will Jordan crosses for one of the 16 tries the All Blacks have scored throughout the Tri Nations Picture: Getty Images

The All Blacks, with two wins, zero draws and two losses, have almost certainly won the Tri Nations Cup ahead of Australia and Argentina, one of which – barring another draw – will finish the competition next Saturday with two wins, a draw and only one loss. Somehow that doesn’t seem quite right …

In a former age, the All Blacks (2-0-2) would have finished the tournament with two wins for a total of eight points. The Wallabies and Pumas, with a match remaining against each other at Bankwest Stadium, currently sit on six points from an identical record of a win, a draw and a loss. But one of them will score a second win on the weekend to move up to 10 points (2-1-1), meaning the silverware would have found a home in either Buenos Aires or Moore Park.

Except, that is not how it plays out at all …

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Instead, in the intriguing world of bonus points, the All Blacks finished with three extra points. Their two wins each counted for eight points but, additionally, they received a bonus point by scoring three or more tries more than the opposition in the Tests against Australia (43-5) and Argentina (38-0). But wait, there’s more. Because they finished within a converted try of Australia at Suncorp Stadium – where they lost 22-24 – they also picked up a consolation bonus point. So, without doing anything more than they would normally have done, they have finished not with eight points but 11.

That leaves Australia and Argentina in a bit of a bind. They will start Saturday’s Test on six points but can equal the All Blacks’ tally by themselves scoring a bonus point win, which would take them up to 11. But with two teams equal on points, SANZAAR then has to go to the next tie-breaker – wins. Not wins and draws, just wins. So that’s no help. Next tie-breaker is wins against each other. Again no help. Each team – be it Wallabies or Pumas – will have had a win and a loss against the All Blacks.

So now it comes down to points differential. Here the All Blacks benefit from double-dipping. Not only have they benefited from their two blowout victories by gaining two bonus points but it also helped their for-and-against. They finished the tournament with +64, while Argentina finished with -28 and Australia -36. So in order to overhaul the All Blacks for the trophy, the Pumas would need to beat the Wallabies by 93-0, while the Wallabies, conversely, would have to score a 101-0 win over Argentina.

Apparently in the event that two sides finish level on for-and-against, SANZAAR then goes to tries scored. New Zealand has scored 16 throughout the tournament, Australia just three. So even if Australia scored 14 against the Pumas and converted them all, they would only tally 98 points. They still wouldn’t beat the All Blacks on for-and-against. Now, maybe that’s telling us something that we don’t want to hear, but I suspect even Kiwis are a little underwhelmed by how their team has performed this year.

Yet at what stage of the tie-breaker sequence does SANZAAR go to what should be the first checkpoints – wins, then wins and draws, to determine placings? After they have exhausted most line breaks or offloads or run metres?

Is not the fundamental objective of rugby, of any sport, to actually win the game? Yes, of course there are other massive benefits that flow from taking part in an organised activity but ask any footballer what he is striving before just as the referee is about to blow the whistle and he/she will reply: “I want to win.” Or at least “I hate losing”. So why are we overcomplicating the issue?

My wife, who has played sport at a high level, can’t fathom that teams require bonus points to ensure they keep pressing for victory or to encourage them not to give up when they are facing near-certain defeat. “Grown men, who are being well-paid for the privilege of playing for their state or country, needing a bonus point to keep going.” she would say. “Really, they get a point for losing! Get a grip!”

I confess I always used to rise to her challenge because I had witnessed the birth of bonus point-rugby in Queensland back in the 1980s when Terry Doyle was QRU secretary and somehow felt emotionally attached to it. But over time, I have witnessed its shortcomings ….

Each season as the Super Rugby competition draws to a climax, it becomes a case of “spot this year’s victim of bonus points”. Take the 2019 season … the Highlanders sneaked into the play-offs with six wins while the Lions of Johannesburg, with eight, missed out. Yes, the Highlanders did also have three draws in their season but under the uncomplicated points-scoring system outlined above, they would have totalled 30 points (6 wins x 4 plus 3 draws x 2). The Lions would have had 32 (8x4).

And the Highlanders were only the most graphic example. The Sharks and the Chiefs, with seven wins apiece, also finished ahead of the Lions. We are rewarding style over substance.

But back to the Tri Nations…..clearly Mario Ledesma, the Pumas coach, couldn’t care less about bonus points. With his side faced with playing the All Blacks and Wallabies on alternative Saturdays for four straight weeks, he quickly realised the Pumas couldn’t sustain their intensity all that time.

Hence, the 10 changes to his side that played the All Blacks on the weekend. His only hope was that his weakened team could deny NZ a bonus point, which it did for 68 minutes before the dam wall burst. That blowout has proved costly both for the Pumas and Australia but Ledesma is playing the long game. By keeping his first-string side relatively fresh, he knew they would be in a position to make a huge effort against the Wallabies.

It’s like best of five sets in tennis. A player wins the first two sets but then gets blitzed in the third. He starts off serving in the fourth but is broken twice and is forced into a decision. Either he digs in and attempts to claw his way back into the match or he can be as gentle on himself as possible for the remainder of the set, saving all his energy for the decider. And when he wins 7-6, 7-6, 4-6, 0-6, 10-8, he isn’t punished for that lopsided fourth set.

The NRL and AFL have flourished all these years without bonus points. Is it time for rugby to have a rethink?