Watched the second half of this game. Not remembering all the rule variations, I found the refereeing a bit off and I don't know whether that was because a different rule was applied, or whether the ref was shit. Some of that was definitely the latter, as high tackles and forward passes were clearly missed.
Western Force won the game 26 to 16, but obviously they've played a full season under these rules, while the World XV squad only came together early this week. If it wasn't for Nick Cummins having a mare, World XV would probably have won (their defence was excellent, except for the last 10 minutes or so, when they'd emptied the tanks). He butchered three try scoring opportunities by knocking the ball on, one of those coming from an awesome break from Spowart that was a "power try" in the making, only for Cummins to drop the ball. Has he always been that bad?
Anyway, one thing is true about "rapid rugby" and that it is indeed fast, really fast. Having rolling subs and the game only lasting 70 minutes was an absolute necessity, esp for many of the retirees in the World XV squad, although I was quite surprised how good Corey Flynn still is. Pleasants-Tate' constant niggles with the opposition were hilarious at times, as was a break he made in the second half; the surprised look on his face when he sliced through the Force' defence was gold. Ellis is still a classy player and Finau and Spowart were good, too.
One impression I got from the game was that there's a strong "AFL feel" to this format, both due to the speed and the frequent (high) kicking. Unfortunately, that also led to a lot of ball handling errors from both teams. They can keep it in Australia; I hope never to see it here, but I'm glad that the Perth crowd seemed to like it. After the Force being pulled from Super Rugby, it's good that they've games to go to that they enjoy.
