Has the novelty worn off? It seems that in the National Rugby Championship it definitely may have. Tries are coming from everywhere and scores of 50’s, 60’s and 70’s are becoming the norm with every game, and not just in winning teams either.
The new laws were introduced to change point scoring so that more tries would be chosen over penalty goals and that the game would be more exciting but has it gone too far? With the 3-point conversion and only 2-point penalty goals it seems the whole premise of penalties are now pointless.
The three-try bonus point is a very good idea however. In order to get the bonus point for winning, you need to score 3 more tries than the opponent. This is all they needed to change for the game to be more exciting and maybe just make all goals worth 3 points.
Maybe all of these tries aren’t a bad thing and 60 points every game is good to watch and see all of the boring, running straight through and breaking defense tries. But what has happened to that intense game in the wet where you are down by 4 and need the try to win? Where the entire crowd is on the edge of their seat in anticipation of the win. This is what the game needs, not blowouts by 20 points and just that easy win but the close game where the scores tick over by 3 every 5 minutes or so.
This is what really needed to happen, as the whole aim of the NRC was to showcase some of the nation’s young talent and see what these kids can do. But if they are all scoring tries and putting up 100 points in 8 games then what is the point of one of them standing out. No one can really be seen as very good if everyone is doing the same thing and there isn’t a game that allows it to happen. The close fought and rough games where every ruck matters and to see how these young forwards play under pressure is what we need. Or maybe the games where it all comes down to one back’s play of a switch or a flip or whatever you backs call them.
So maybe the organizers have gone too overboard but you cant really blame them, all they needed was a competition that people would watch and that has been achieved very successfully during the National Rugby Championship.
Bring on the finals.
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