By MATTHEW JONES
THE kicking fiasco that has plagued rugby union’s Tri-Nations is so bad that rule changes need to occur to stop the game from being “deadly dull”, according to former Wallaby and sports journalist Peter FitzSimons.
“The kicking is ridiculous,” FitzSimons said.
“Penalty’s should be taken down to one point. If they did that you would get a game back and you wouldn’t have guys going for penalty goals every single time.
“Kicking may be a way to win a game but it is a way to bore rigid your audience and if I had a dollar for every up-and-under that was kicked, every penalty that was kicked I’d have fifty dollars and that’s not why people go and watch the rugby.”
In the six Tri-Nations matches played so far, there have been 50 penalty goals kicked and only 18 tries scored. NSW Waratahs scrum half Josh Holmes says it has not been an exciting Tri-Nations series.
“The kicking has been taking the try-scoring out of the game which hasn’t been good to watch,” Holmes said.
Holmes admits to being frustrated as a player when he is involved in games that are dominated by both teams kicking, and it seems the players don’t mind how they play, as long as they win; even if it isn’t a great spectacle.
“As a spectator you definitely want to see tries…but the attitude of the players is that they want to win the game and whichever way to win they’ll do it,” Holmes said.
FitzSimons and Holmes both fear for the future of the game and have even confessed that rival code rugby league is more enjoyable to watch.
Holmes said, “At the moment with the league on, you can’t really compare because the league is pretty entertaining and in union they’re winning games by kicking six penalty goals and people don’t want to watch that.”
FitzSimons said, “They can continue to play like that but over time people will not go and watch the rugby. Overtime people will drift away from it and I think that’s starting.”
“You look at that Tigers game that other night where Benji Marshall was supreme playing against Parramatta, everybody’s talking about that game; the way they played, the tries they scored. No-body is saying ‘gee did you see the Wallabies on Saturday night’.
“Overtime Rugby is going to have to sort itself out because you cannot just kick the ball away like that.”
