If you are going to win the war, it is a good idea to understand that one has been declared. Otherwise you might find yourself in the position the Australian Rugby Union once did. Sitting at the desk back at headquarters, blithely assuming the sound of gunfire was just backfiring cars. ”Another cup of tea, colonel?”
Sydney Morning Herald
In becoming collateral damage in Australia’s battle of the codes, rugby union was in some ways a victim of its strengths. It was lulled into a false sense of security by the entrenched elite school and top-end-of-town support, and the high-profile international competition fostered the smug delusion that a successful 2003 World Cup would automatically accelerate the game’s growth, or at least allow it to tread water.
Yet, figures published recently that showed rugby union’s share of the Australian sporting market had slipped from 22 per cent in 2003 to 13.7 per cent merely put a number on what rugby’s rivals have long thought. Interest outside the hard-core constituency had diminished to the point that a once-thriving, nationally focused game was being reduced to its pre-professional status as a niche-market introvert.
Everyone has an opinion about ”what happened to rugby”: self-satisfied administration blindsided by fierce and hungry competitors; rule changes that made a once-expansive game about as exciting as Scrabble night at Aunty Beryl’s; a struggling, constantly changing and not particularly charismatic Wallabies team that failed to capture the public’s imagination, let alone the 2007 World Cup.
But if the theories are well worn, the debate remains relevant because, by good fortune, a rare window of opportunity is opening – although not by itself. It will be up to the ARU, and the Wallabies, particularly, to stick in a screwdriver and prise it open.
The window is the period between the Tri Nations series and next year’s World Cup starting in September, when rugby has a chance to regain momentum on the back of high-profile competition – or, alternatively, find Australian football’s Big Four has become a Big Three.
Any sudden reversal of fortune for rugby in the football wars will be driven by the performances of the Wallabies who, as a marketing tool, might be even more important to their game’s prosperity than the Socceroos are for football – especially if the FFA get an Australian World Cup in 2022 to hang their hat on. But the Wallabies are only a useful asset if, a) They start winning significant games regularly, b) The ARU can this time find a way to parlay the sort of on-field success enjoyed after the 1999 World Cup victory into enduring, widespread grassroots support – this time, in the face of far greater opposition from the invasionary forces of football and AFL, and the NRL’s belatedly reactive diggers.
In seizing such opportunities, a problem for rugby has been that it did not know – much less care – how it was regarded outside its prosperous, but too-small constituency. Again, the smug self-image of prosperity has been created by the fact large stadiums are regularly filled for internationals even when, as is often the case, too few outside those stadiums know or care what is happening inside.
The real talking point about the Bledisloe Cup game in Melbourne is how much damage it will cause the Etihad Ice Rink surface before Sunday’s AFL game. That is predictable in AFL heartland, but not inevitable.
Still, the Wallabies appear to be a growing force against South Africa. And beating the All Blacks on Saturday night would be the greatest sabre-rattling moment for the game in Australia since Jonny Wilkinson broke John Howard’s heart at the 2003 World Cup. Problem is, the other codes are not using swords any more, but missiles.
Yip, difficult times for rugby in Ozzie… but to some extent we all sit with this conundrum.
In SA, soccer is a hamper for rugby in as far as it clearly is the sport choice for certain sections of the population….
… but I think rugby has won a lot of ground, specially due to the Orlando Super 14 matches, continued integration…. and possibly now the upcoming Test at Soccer City (National Stadium).
But we sit in the same boat…. spectators back a success story, so continued wins at National level, an excellent Domestic season and good Super 15 next year… and every year, is critical!
gbs @ 1
well lets pile on the bad news
..
“The slippery playing surface at Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium is overshadowing the build-up to Saturday’s Tri-Nations clash, with the possibility that referee Craig Joubert could call off the Bledisloe opener if the ground is deemed unsafe.
New Zealand have been denied the right to train at the venue ahead of their meeting with Australia as ground staff prepare the widely lamented surface for a busy weekend of action.”
…
i for one cant decide what i would love more
1. see the game being called off and leaving the aussies with egg on their faces
or
2. let the game continue and hope a few crucial players from both sides get injured … and STILL leave the aussies with egg on their faces!!
…
hmmmmm
or
what about the game starting, they fall like flies
and
THEN the game get called off??
@ Ashley:
Where is the game going.
Everybody is moaning, what about the atrocious mud baths in NZ, JdV moans about a tip tackle, McCaw admits he stretches the limits, jersey pulling , handbags are thrown instead of a proper klap and a beer after the game……………….
Jean de Villiers has warned that players may start milking penalties if there’s an emphasis on eliminating the “tip tackle”
super @ 3
lol, jaaaaaa boet
een vannie dae gani haka ook nog geban word
of
die all blacks gaan gedwing word om dit meer “sensitief” uit te voer, lol
…
dink jou net in … richie begin die haka, 1 hand inni heup en sy anner hand fyntjies inni lug
“ka mate, ka mate”
enni anner ouens wat inval met hul 1 hand inni sy enni anner hand onneri ken
“ka ora, ka ora”
…
sal pragtig wees man!! 😆
@ Ashley:
😆
Dink in elk geval huidiglik is die Haka die mees geweldadigste deel van n game wat toegelaat word.
super @ 6
of miskien moet ons hier en daar ñ woord laat val dat ons nie dink die haka is baie oortuigend nie
en
dat hulle eintlik messe moet hê vir daai gedeelte waar hulle hulle hande so oor hulle kele trek
…
hopelik sny ñ paar van hulle hulle eie kele af!! 😉
trug na die ossies
..
Qantas Wallabies great Tim Horan has called for tournament-specific Rugby suspensions after Test playmaker Quade Cooper lost his appeal against a two-match ban that robs him of a eagerly-anticipated Bledisloe Cup debut.
Cooper copped a second blow in four days when a three-man appeals committee dismissed Australia’s objection to his punishment for Saturday night’s dangerous tackle on South African Morne Steyn.
The red-hot five-eighth will miss both Saturday night’s clash against the All Blacks at Etihad Stadium and the return encounter in Christchurch the following weekend.
Cooper’s punishment is effectively the most severe of three similar lifting tackles in consecutive Bundaberg Red Tri-Nations matches EVEN THOUGH HIS OFFENCE WAS ARGUABLY THE MOST TAME.
WHILE DE VILLIERS’ TACKLE ON ALL BLACK RENE RANGER WAS VIEWED AS THE MOST DANGEROUS AND FOURIE HAD A PRIOR CONVICTION, THEY BOTH ONLY HAVE TO MISS ONE TRI-NATIONS TEST. 😯
@ Ashley:
ek het mos vroeer gese dat Bakkies kwaai kwaad was nadat daai ou sy tong tot by sy kniee uitgesteek het vir hom. Dink as hy daai messe gryp, …. gruesome , jig net blood dinges en hare
super
lol
The problem with the All Blacks taking a “teapot” stance during the Haka, is the opponents will be laughing so hard, they will be down 21- 0 before they recover from the fits of laughter.
The Haka would be a lot more dangerous that way, even though perhaps less intimidating.
I think the Boks should do the “walk like an Egiptian” stappie doen na elke haka 🙂
@ bos_otter:
oops……sorry vir die afrikaanse/engelse sin. Einde van die dag…koppie nie meer so lekker nie.
Tjorts almal…ek is oppad huistoe.
13@ bos_otter:
Bos_Totter…. jou koppie is nooit heeltemal lekker nie…. hehehe
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