Rugby borrowing league’s 40/20
Tears will hardly be flowing in the packed streets of Tokyo at the Sunwolves’ Super Rugby axing, but Sanzaar is guilty of a lousy sense of timing.
The decision to dump the Japanese-based franchise isn’t a wrong one, but it has come at a time when the Sunwolves have finally started to find their feet and Japan is poised to host the 2019 World Cup.
World Rugby – which is endeavouring to make the game more global with its proposed Nations League – must be cringing at Sanzaar’s call.
This is basically a business decision. Sanzaar’s call to pull the Sunwolves after the 2021 competition is a tacit admission the Japanese experiment hasn’t produced the commercial boost first envisaged, or the television ratings.
It was wrong to let Japan into the Super Rugby fold in 2016 ahead of a Pacific franchise given the respective playing depths.
The Sunwolves were last overall in 2016 with two wins, finished bottom of the Africa 1 conference and second-last overall in 2017 with two wins, and were bottom of the Australian World Rugby will experiment with a radical law change which will bring the code closer to rugby league.
The Times in the UK has reported that the sport’s governing body will trial a law allowing an attacking team to kick the ball out and get the throw-in at the lineout, similar to a 40/20.
The difference is that the rugby version would be a 50/22, meaning the attacking team’s kick would have to be made within their half and go out beyond the opposition’s 22m line, after bouncing in the field of play.
Under the current laws the defending team get the throw into the lineout, but World Rugby’s proposal would give the ball to the attacking team, granting them a great scoring opportunity, while reducing the number of head-on collisions.
The thinking is that it would cause defending teams to keep players back to stop the 50/22 kick from going into touch and this would therefore create more space for the attacking side.
Another suggestion for after the World Cup is for all sin binnings to be examined by the television match official while the offending player is off the field, to make a decision on whether the punishment should be upgraded to a red card.
Both ideas came from a threeday conference organised by World Rugby to analyse the game and look for ways to make it safer. In all, there were eight proposals which may be trialled after the World Cup.
‘‘Rather than just look at the laws and whether it has a player welfare impact, we have tried to devise laws that have a direct player welfare impact. That’s the first time we’ve looked at it in
But would Japanese rugby juniors be inspired to play for a side so devoid of Japanese faces?
The Sunwolves have not lacked support. They have been drawing crowds of 15,000 at Tokyo’s Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium – more than the champion Crusaders’ average attendance in Christchurch. Holding home games in Singapore, however, has proved a box office disaster, with fewer than 5000 fans rattling the cavernous 55,000 seat National Stadium.
The reality is most floating sports fans in Japan – where Sumo wrestling, baseball and football are people’s passions – would scarcely have heard of the Sunwolves. And those who have would struggle to identify with a hybrid franchise with a token smattering of Japanese players and a burgeoning foreign legion stacked with southern that sense,’’ World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper said.
‘‘Some of the experiments we are seeing here about opening up the game and creating more space, can limit the number of collision events and therefore drive some of the statistics down.’’
World Rugby’s law review group will meet in May to consider all the ideas. The ones which the group approve will be trialled in various competitions around the world from the beginning of 2020.