Luckily for SANZAR the IRB CEO and Chairman, chose to watch the Bulls play the Lions rather than any other game on the weekend. Otherwise, they’d probably think SUPERRUGBY was decidedly underwhelming, and that the criticism of the Northern Hemisphere club rugby is completely misplaced. What a steaming heap of peanut infested uh…well, you know what I mean.

The level of handling, scrumming, rucking, kicking and even walking was distinctly primary school stuff, and not worth being labelled as sport, much less entertainment. The Sharks / Cheetahs game, as well as the Force / Reds match, was especially atrocious, and I had to stop myself getting physically sick. Nothing was seen of smart Australian rugby, or the flare of the Kiwi’s, it was in one word pathetic.

We saw that, except for the 4 points everyone gets for a bye, theAussies got two extra free weekends off when they play the Rebels, which is quite an apt name, seeing as they are rebelling against good rugby everywhere, and gave us an indication of what is awaiting the Kings. As the Rebels clearly showed, a few good signings and a good coach, can’t make a team, sorry Solly and Luke, you guys are screwed.

Unfortunately, even worse than the quality of the games was the referees. If I hear one more time that the referees between themselves, have decided to bring the hammer down on whatever it is that these imbeciles have decided to focus on for today, I might be driven to alcoholism.

Why can referees decide what they want to control and what not? Is it because of the crowds that come in especially to see a never-has-been excuse of a man, running around on ridiculously thin and pathetic white little legs? Is it because people want to see 1,000,000 reset scrums and 2,000,000 penalties and free kicks. Or do some people enjoy seeing a decidedly inferior little man force his will upon men who, in primal days gone by, would have ripped his head off, spat down his throat and used his sickly hide to make a coin purse?

Unfortunately a referee has become too much of an influence on the game. Insult the referee, and you’ll be playing uphill for the rest of the game. Insult the referee after a game, and you won’t be playing at all, why can thousands of Egyptians say they want to cut off their president’s genitals, but a poor rugby player is banned from saying that the ref might have missed a call here and there? How the hell did the ref become the most important man (and I say this in a very wide sense) at the game?

Too much of modern day rugby rests on the ego’s of people like Andre Watson and Bryce Lawrence, bringing all kind of hammers down on all kinds of rules, stealing entertainment value from the paying public, shortening the beautiful parts of the game, and all in all, making the game as boring as their non-existent sex lives.

In the TV Series, the A-Team, B.A. Barracus is famously quoted saying: “Suffer the fool…” (Yes, it sounded way cooler when I said it in my head, but you get the picture.) So, how long will we, the ‘fools’ that bankroll Superrugby stand for the slow deterioration of the sport that we love.

Rugby is unique in the sporting world, simply because the rules seem to have an expiry date. Soccer, golf, tennis, Gridiron, Basketball and the like, have been played the same way for ages, in rugby, the players are actually taught the ‘NEW’ rules at the start of each new season. Then we have Andre Watson coming onto Boots & All, saying that, actually, it’s not a new rule, we only decided to bring the hammer down, and focus on this part of the game especially, in other words, the referees are being taught the rules, bit by bit, and competitions such as Super Rugby, is there for experimentation.

It is from idiocies such as this, where it starts sounding as if the game is there for the benefit of the referee. In a perfect world, the referee shouldn’t even be named in the program, it should be a perfectly random chap, who just happens to have a grip on the rules. I have spoken to professional players, who says that their preparation before a game, usually differs depending on who will be blowing the whistle, and surely that cannot be right, can it?

I am all for safe rugby, and 44 players leaving the field, without an injury, but if that is the aim, why not just stop playing the game altogether? Rugby is characterized by blood, sweat and tears, if it’s not about winning at any cost, what is the use, who’d want to watch?

Take away the hits, the power and the sheer attempts at physical dominance, take away everything labelled as dangerous by skinny guys who withdrew from the sport because their mommies was afraid they’d get hurt, and what do you have? Yip, that’s right, chess, with the sharpish bit on the queen’s crown filed flat.