Rugby must adapt like league: O'Neill
By Adrian Warren 17:04 AEST Tue Oct 23 2007Text size
Rugby union should follow rugby league's lead and look to make significant changes to improve the game.
That's the message from Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O'Neill, who said that two "very poor" World Cup semi-finals and a tryless decider demonstrated an urgent need for a rethink on the sport.
"Rugby league went from unlimited tackles to limited tackles, it went from three metres to five metres and reduced the value of a field goal to one," O'Neill said, after arriving back from France.
"When you say `why did it do that', it did for some pretty obvious reasons and we may be confronted with the same reasons.
"Rugby league has been around as a professional game for 100 years, I think there's a lot we can learn from some of their law changes.
"We need to create space, we need to create time, we want to create a philosophy that encourages try scoring, that's what people come to see.
"We had two very poor (World Cup) semi-finals and we had a final in which there were no tries scored, that will not bring the crowds back."
While applauding the efforts of underdogs, Fiji, Tonga and Georgia, O'Neill conceded the final stages of the 20-team World Cup made unattractive viewing.
"It's fair to say the semi-finals and final were disappointing in terms of a spectacle," O'Neill said.
"We had a lot of aimless kicking and the final was a very poor game."
"Heartiest congratulations to (champion) South Africa, but it was not what you would call a showcase of rugby."
As such, O'Neill thought SANZAR would be foolish not to embrace the Stellenbosch laws.
"What I think it has done is convince people that the new laws, the experimental laws, must come in sooner rather than later and we expect that the International Rugby Board will write to SANZAR inviting us to use the experimental laws in the 2008 Super 14.
"I think SANZAR would have rocks in its head if it didn't accept the invitation."
The experimental "Stellenbosch" laws were trialled in the recently concluded inaugural Australian Rugby Championship (ARC) and drew praise for the flowing rugby they produced.
O'Neill said the ARC had been successful from a rugby perspective and as a player development tool, but the ARU couldn't afford to sustain the seven figure loss it incurred this year over coming seasons.
"I think the economic model when it was done was not done robustly enough and we now need to go back and revisit it," said O'Neill.
Another important issue to be addressed by the IRB would be the contentious concept of an integrated global season.
Asked if Australia had a preferred model, O'Neill said the ARU would go into November's IRB workshop on the integrated season with an open mind and urged Northern Hemisphere nations to do the same.
"It's imperative that people don't come in saying the English clubs have a deal and the French clubs have a deal and very soon there's little room to move, then there's not much point having such a meeting," O'Neill said.
