Toomua wants more drama in rugby

Contested possession and creating drama around the ball are two of the keys to making rugby more entertaining, according to Wallabies flyhalf Matt Toomua.

Time wasted by scrums has been identified as a big weakness of modern rugby

Contested possession and drama around the ball are two of the keys to making rugby more entertaining, according to Wallabies flyhalf Matt Toomua.

Toomua, one of the architects of a rule tweak that eliminates marks inside the defensive 22, admitted on The Australian’s live Facebook Rugby Rescue debate on Wednesday night that he had been part of many teams guilty of slowing down games in order to gain advantage.

But he agreed that increasing the amount of time players had the ball in hand was vital to make rugby more exciting.

“One of the things I love about rugby is we have so much contested possession. You don’t get anything for free,” he said. “Slowing the game down through some injury checks or collapsed scrums, they’re the kind of play that we do need to get out of the game.”

Discussing the elimination of the mark, he said rugby needed to have more drama at the tryline.

“Personally I think that’s something that rugby league does really well. You see all the highlights in rugby league are around the tryline,” he said. “I think that fits the DNA of rugby. I think as a player you have to increase your ability to face tough situations and exit out of your half better.”

Toomua’s coach at the Melbourne Rebels, Dave Wessels, said although rule changes were important for improving the spectacle of the game, the thing that would make rugby more appealing was Australian teams performing better and winning more.

“I have to coach better and the players have to play better, it’s as simple as that,” Wessels said. “I think if we do that more regularly, people will want to watch us. I think winning is a big part of people wanting to be part of things.”

One of the most astute thinkers in the game, Wessels identified player fatigue as a key factor in opening up the game and improving the entertainment value.

“I certainly felt quite strongly about trying to increase the amount of ball in hand time,” he said. “There’s an entertainment value to that but it also increases fatigue.

“What happens in a game of rugby is that at the start of the game there are more structured tries, from lineouts and scrum. But at the back end of both halves you tend to see more unstructured tries. And that’s because at the back end of those halves, defenders are starting to get tired, and they’re not filling the space they maybe should be filling, opportunities open up and so good attacking players are able to use their individual skill to find those spaces.

Rebels Reece Hodge and Matt Toomua have maintained their fitness in lockdown

“So the idea behind creating more fatigue and again keeping the ball in play for longer is that those spaces open up earlier and make more attractive rugby.”

Former Wallabies coach John Connolly joined the debate and identified the three key areas where rugby had a problem appealing to the public: scrums, rolling mauls and too much kicking.

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In a wide-ranging debate that covered a range of issues facing the game, Connolly was one of several contributors to speculate on what Super Rugby will look like in the years ahead.

He said that with all indications suggesting Australia could support only four Super Rugby teams, a merger of the Brumbies and the Rebels was a possible option.

However, Wallabies legend Tim Horan, welcoming the news of a Fox Sports broadcast deal that will support an Australian Super Rugby tournament featuring the four existing teams and the Western Force, said he believed the competition a bright future.

“The competition from July 3 for 12 weeks is really important for the game,” Horan said. “It has certainly been a challenge in the last couple of months as it has been for all sporting environments and it’s exciting.

“I think you’ll hear some more developments over the next couple of weeks about the Test matches at the back end of this year with three Test matches against the All Blacks or the Rugby Championship in a hub in Australia. But it’s great news that rugby is going to be back on Fox Sports.”

Former Wallabies coach John Connolly has identified three issues for rugby fans

Toomua said he looked forward to taking part in a Super Rugby tournament in the future that focused on Australian and New Zealand teams.

“When I was a kid I used to love watching the Super 12 or Super 10 back in those days and I think a lot of it was because you understood the teams,” he said. “I think it’s become quite a hard competition to follow.”

“I think the time zones, the amount of teams from international countries, it makes it hard for supporters.”

Responding to reports on Wednesday that a US venture capital firm was in discussions about investing in Australian rugby, Horan said he saw opportunities for this in Super Rugby but club rugby and the Wallabies should be off limits.

This was a view strongly supported by incoming Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan, who sent a message to the forum indicating he did not support private investment in clubs or the national team.

The debate, moderated by The Australian’s managing editor, John Lehmann, also featured Wallaroos backrower Grace Hamilton, referee and former player Nic Berry and The Australian’s rugby editor, Wayne Smith.