Twiggy’s Rapid Rugby may be fashionable in Oz
Super Rugby, the Southern Hemisphere’s troubled and unloved competition, have announced their schedule for the 2019 season which starts in February. With a clear eye on player welfare, they’ve announced that there will be 18 uninterrupted rounds of games, although one or more franchise will get a bye in each round! Played across 12 time zones, it makes the PRO14’s decision to include the South Africans almost look sensible.
Now, however, it may be about to get a rather strange-looking rival in Rapid Rugby, the brainchild of Aussie billionaire Andrew Forrest, who goes by the nickname of Twiggy. He made his money in mining and cattle, and when the ARU scrapped the Western Force franchise, he stepped in. Last season he tested the water with seven games, but starting in February he hopes to have eight teams from six countries across Australasia and south-east Asia, run from Hong Kong.
Where it really gets interesting is some of the ‘innovations’ Rapid Rugby hope to introduce. What they see as their differentiators include, ‘We live for entertainment’ and being ‘progressive’, which is qualified by ‘we disrupt and originate’.
So, games will last 70 minutes instead of 80 – apparently the Aussie fan can’t concentrate for much longer – having rolling substitutions, and the concept of a ‘Power Try’ worth nine points if the move originates in the attacking team’s 22.
Scrums will have to be completed in one minute from when they’re awarded, and line-outs in 45 seconds. You will not be in the least bit surprised to know that there will be entertainment laid on at every stadium, and all sorts of razzmatazz. Depending upon your point of view it either sounds like a lot of fun, or your worst nightmare… and to think we used to moan about ‘Stand up for the Saracens’, and the fat lady singing at Allianz Park.
World Rugby have given their preliminary approval to the tournament, and when the prototype was tried last season, the crowds flocked in, with 20,000 watching when the resurrected Western Force played Fiji. Forrest has kicked this off at a time when Rugby Union in Australia are in deep trouble, losing ground to both League and Aussie Rules, and his product, packaged so that it can all be done and dusted in a 90-minute television slot, might just be appealing to the market and the broadcasters.
There is a deep antipathy between Forrest and the ARU after the culling of the Western Force, and a billionaire might just be a tough adversary for the cash-strapped Union. Kerry Packer failed to make his mark in the cricket world, and it might be that Rapid Rugby goes the same way, but Twiggy needs to be closely watched.
It’s all a bit depressing. The England v New Zealand match was the most eagerly awaited of the Autumn internationals, but the talk during the week was all about a contentious refereeing decision. It’s great that the sport is capturing the national headlines, and that people are talking about it in their locals, but wouldn’t it be nice if it was about the rugby?
Last weekend saw the start of the trial designed to curtail the powers of the TMO, and put the referee back into the spotlight, and what did we get? A referee accepting the TMO’s decision without question, and it was a decision, not a recommendation: ‘Jerome, you need to change your on-field decision to a penalty’!
Now it may be that Jerome Garces, usually an excellent ref, had watched the replays and decided Courtney Lawes was offside, but that wasn’t how it came across, and I was uncomfortable with the seemingly meek way he complied with TMO Marius Jonker’s instruction.
Part of the new trial is ‘Try scoring should be an on-field decision with the referee being responsible, but the team of four can all contribute’, but when Jonker said that he was going to put the incident on the big screen, Garces seemed to want to duck the issue.
I dislike the new trial because it is designed to limit the TMO’s involvement when I believe their role should be expanded, but not even an enthusiast like me wants the TMO taking the place of the ref.
YOU’VE got to feel for the owner of the allyou-can-eat Viva Brazil restaurant in Cardiff who took a booking from the Tongan rugby team during the week! If you offer ‘an unlimited supply of 14 authentic Brazilian BBQ meats’, the sight of 24-stone prop Ben Tameifuna and 30 of his mates must strike fear into your heart!