It’s rugby, Jim, but not as we know it, as they nearly said on Star Trek. The Northampton vs Bath try festival may not have been to every-body’s taste but what the hell. It was an 18-try romp, with Northampton running out 71-48 winners, the second-highest points total in a top- flight rugby match. It was great fun but more like a Harlem Globetrotters game than the intense pressure-cooker slug-fest that the home nations are going to have to win if they’re to have any chance in next year’s World Cup.
Earlier that day, a purring All Blacks side had walloped Australia by 50 points to 19: ten tries in all and a fluent, flowing New Zealand side that took you right back to the days of Carter and McCaw. So are we seeing the best of world rugby, here and overseas, or is it some curious blip? No one wants to go back to the days of dour, sodden 9-6 games with some burly miner shoving the ball up his jumper for an hour. And we won’t.
A range of rule changes has made it easier for attacking sides to prosper, especially around the maul where defending forwards have much less freedom to disrupt play. So they have to bring in more players to stop the drive which creates space out wide for attackers. This creates the pattern whereby from any penalty in or around halfway, the attacking side will boot the ball to the five-metre line, knowing they will probably win the line-out then score a try from the resulting maul. Where’s the jeopardy?
Similarly, players are now fitter, stronger and more athletic and willing to attack from anywhere. They are also highly skilled and pop up anywhere, so the idea that a winger just stays on his wing has long gone. Is it the defence? Well, Northampton missed just 10 per cent of their tackles and still shipped 48 points. You can’t blame the defence. The weather is warm and the grounds are hard: perfect for attacking rugby.
But why aren’t more people going to rugby? Exeter’s 34-28 victory over Newcastle Red Bulls at the weekend was watched by a Sandy Park that was less than half full. The total gate was just 7,071 at one of the more luxuriously fitted-out of England’s rugby grounds. Maybe it’s the price: grandstand tickets at Exeter will set you back £97, just short of Bath at £100. That’s quite a lot of money even if Prince Harry might be in the stands.
So how does English rugby calm down, pull in the crowds and start winning big European honours? Well, they could start by ditching the terms ‘Prem’ and ‘Champ’, as if rugby lovers couldn’t cope with anything polysyllabic. Rugby’s Champions Cup, a highlight of the winter in my view, eases into life this weekend, with one of the favourites, Bordeaux Bègles, at Kingsholm on Friday to play Gloucester. Unmissable, I hope you agree.
A range of rule changes has made it easier for attacking sides to prosper
The other favourites, rugby royalty Toulouse, home of Romain Ntamack, Antoine Dupont and Thomas Ramos, entertain Exeter, though I doubt entertain will be the right word. ‘Slaughter’ may be more appropriate. French clubs, the two favourites this year plus La Rochelle, have won this tournament for the past six seasons. Can any other club upset these odds? Northampton, Bath, and Leinster maybe. But let’s hope some jeopardy creeps in: what is sport without uncertainty?
Talking of crowds, Australia’s relatively stress-free nailing of the World Test champions South Africa unfurled over five days at an astonishingly empty Kingsmead stadium in Durban. It looked like the perfect setting for Test cricket – blue skies, perfect weather until the clouds rolled in, and the sides ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the world going at each other. In truth it seems that no one in Durban is especially interested in Test cricket, and never has been, and the area around the ground was racked by anti-immigration riots, with cars smashed and buildings on fire.
In England we like to think that we sell out cricket grounds effortlessly. True, the Ashes next summer are already sold out, but it might be hard to fill Edgbaston if there were blazing cars lining the Pershore Road.
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