The State of the Game
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@rapido said in The State of the Game:
The game is stuffed, I've given up on it. Dont see this a temporary blip in rules or styles. Not much resemblance anymore to what made me love it as a kid.
Haven't watched a match for over a year.
There is no enjoyment in it for me anymore.
I've started down that pathway. Love seeing some live rugby, but the TMO and refereeing lottery just does my nut. I'm not as far down as you, but I never used to miss an AB game, and now I'm turning them off in frustration.
Partly lockdown I suspect, but I don't get the joy I used to from it.
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@bones said in The State of the Game:
We had Ireland players being allowed to knock the ball out of the halfbacks hands at the ruck
this is something I have noticed creep into the game in the last year or so.
Now I am against protecting the gobshites, and the way it was ruled previously was the guy wearing 9 is safe, but anyone else is fair game for slapping the ball from thier hands or being tackled behind a ruck.
As to the TMO, I think they need to revert to the prior directive where they only get involved when asked to by the ref.
Only time they should be able to intervene is filth...let them note the time of dangerous play and send it to the citing commissioner, but only time they speak is when spoken to by the ref or a grub act.
I havent watched the ABs live on this tour so far.
I even flagged 2 Northland games this year, although this is more through us being poorly coached and playing like fluffybunnies.
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@donsteppa said in The State of the Game:
@Rapido @nzzp I can relate. I've started to go from rugby being my favourite sport in winter and cricket my favourite sport in summer... to rugby being what I'll watch if I can't find any cricket on, regardless of the time of year.
This is me 100%
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@rapido said in The State of the Game:
The game is stuffed, I've given up on it. Dont see this a temporary blip in rules or styles. Not much resemblance anymore to what made me love it as a kid.
Haven't watched a match for over a year.
There is no enjoyment in it for me anymore.
Alot of that might be down to your priorites changing as your life does. It certainly is the case for me. When I was flatting we’d never miss a game of Super Rugby, we’d always watch the NZ game, the Aussie game right after and more often than not get up at 3am to watch the Saffa teams play. Talking shit with mates all through these games and having a laugh was obviously a big part of it though.
I did get sky this year but fuck watching a game at 3am, sleep is of much bigger importance to me these days, a replay if I have time and inclination ( and don’t spoil it by reading the fern ) is fine.
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@bones said in The State of the Game:
We had Ireland players being allowed to knock the ball out of the halfbacks hands at the ruck and not even get called for offside,
With the former: they were taking the arm of the halfback, which is a different thing.
But yes, the offside officiating right next to the ruck wasn't very sharp. At one point Aki grabs Perenara's arm as he's passing it off the deck, which is fine - the fact he's a good half a metre offside is not.
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i can get on board with the "its all fucked", i started losing interest when any responsibility for a players safety was taken away from the actual player or their own teammates,
land poorly from a lineout? even though your lifter has let go and left you hanging...the opposition player brushed you while competing for the ball so penalty and maybe a card
you launched yourself into the air above other players, completely unbalanced yourself...but a player who didn't see you touched you...penalty and a card
head contact in a tackle, even though you lead with your head...penalty and a card
plain old out muscled in a scrum, completely out of your control?..we'll penalise you and card you for the next 60 minutes
you know what has kept me interested....every other level other than international, the further you get from international rugby the more i recognise it as the game i love
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@mn5 said in The State of the Game:
@rapido said in The State of the Game:
The game is stuffed, I've given up on it. Dont see this a temporary blip in rules or styles. Not much resemblance anymore to what made me love it as a kid.
Haven't watched a match for over a year.
There is no enjoyment in it for me anymore.
Alot of that might be down to your priorites changing as your life does. It certainly is the case for me. When I was flatting we’d never miss a game of Super Rugby, we’d always watch the NZ game, the Aussie game right after and more often than not get up at 3am to watch the Saffa teams play. Talking shit with mates all through these games and having a laugh was obviously a big part of it though.
I did get sky this year but fuck watching a game at 3am, sleep is of much bigger importance to me these days, a replay if I have time and inclination ( and don’t spoil it by reading the fern ) is fine.
It might be.
But it hasn't affected my following of cricket. Well, test cricket.
And soccer has slightly risen to fill part that void by filling a 1 hour a week sporting void.
These sports still resemble what the sport looked like when I first started watching them, rugby just doesn't. And it has fallen into a cycle of in-game commentary and after game pundit and fans super-cycles of negativity.
(I confess, actually I did keep watching Grassroots rugby show and/or the half hour college rugby show.
Maybe there is hope, maybe if less over-exposure, less whinging commentary and replays, naive or positive players, teams in traditional kits, playing on grounds suited to their crowd sizes .... then there is an event I see worth watching that won't have me angry. Although even with these I'll still end up rolling my eyes on occasions at outrageous shepherds or passing the ball off the ground, which is probably just my curmudgeoness creeping through as it was better rules in my day etc etc. But I could live with a few annoyances if the whole entire thing wasn't a burning dumpster fire).Where as test cricket. Despite some of the flaws (2 match serieses, no warm-up match) I think has gotten even better than when I was a kid. Big bats I think improves test cricket (but worsens white ball cricket), DRS is a success, umpiring is waaaaaaay batter than back in the day, and now the WTC context just puts the cherry on top. I do not underestimate the ICC's level of incompetencies meaning it could regress again. E.g. WTC could get canned if it interferes too much with Big 3 making even more money. I probably wouldn't hold this opinion though if I was a West Indian.
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@rapido i'll add to my post above, its probably gone unnoticed but i stay off the fern as much as i can during the games and actually just watch, realised i was only noticing and caring about some stuff because someone would bring it up
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@donsteppa said in The State of the Game:
@Rapido @nzzp I can relate. I've started to go from rugby being my favourite sport in winter and cricket my favourite sport in summer... to rugby being what I'll watch if I can't find any cricket on, regardless of the time of year.
I gave up on cricket about 4 years ago. There was just so much of it and a lot started to bore me to tears.
Still watch rugby but less and less. I'll always tune in for the ABs but for other games I might just have it on in the background. There's just too much of the stuff and little of it is special - and that's before the stoppages and general crappiness and ill-thought thru law changes.
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@rapido said in The State of the Game:
I confess, actually I did keep watching Grassroots rugby show and/or the half hour college rugby show.
I've always watched club footy, but I got out and watched club footy and a bit of 1st 15 stuff every weekend this year (when WBHS played up here) really enjoyed it, the guys stepping into Prem rugby is getting younger though.
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Well this thread can go and fuck itself.
This is the fucking Fern. We whine and complain and make grandiose predictions and statements. We claim higher morals, better understanding, and we reserve the right to see our teams go undefeated forever.
But we don't stop watching the fucking game.
Anyone on here talking about giving up on watching the AB's play can give themselves a massive uppercut and should be forced to rewatch the opening 25mins of the Italy game on repeat for 48hrs, Clockwork Orange style.
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@voodoo said in The State of the Game:
Well this thread can go and fuck itself.
This is the fucking Fern. We whine and complain and make grandiose predictions and statements. We claim higher morals, better understanding, and we reserve the right to see our teams go undefeated forever.
i must be reading a different part of the fern
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@voodoo said in The State of the Game:
This is the fucking Fern. We whine and complain and make grandiose predictions and statements. We claim higher morals, better understanding, and we reserve the right to see our teams go undefeated forever.
But we don't stop watching the fucking game.It's called The Fern Circular Logic.
Anyone on here talking about giving up on watching the AB's play can give themselves a massive uppercut and should be forced to rewatch the opening 25mins of the Italy game on repeat for 48hrs, Clockwork Orange style
As long as it has that hot nurse with the eyedrops, I'm up for it.
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Not being a call centre operator, Uber driver or second hand BMW owner I would never substitute rugby for cricket.
I simply watch less rugby as it's becoming homogenous and ruined by constant shit laws trials.
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@voodoo said in The State of the Game:
Anyone on here talking about giving up on watching the AB's play can give themselves a massive uppercut and should be forced to rewatch the opening 25mins of the Italy game on repeat for 48hrs, Clockwork Orange style.
That's the thing, though, I used to enjoy watching and dissecting it.
Now, it's just a bit joyless. I'd love to care more, but I'm finding I just don't. Like I said, it may be lockdown, broken seasons and Foster, but I'm just caring less.
I (and a number here) are die hard fans. So my fear is if I'm starting to switch off, how's the casual fan going?
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@nzzp said in The State of the Game:
@voodoo said in The State of the Game:
Anyone on here talking about giving up on watching the AB's play can give themselves a massive uppercut and should be forced to rewatch the opening 25mins of the Italy game on repeat for 48hrs, Clockwork Orange style.
That's the thing, though, I used to enjoy watching and dissecting it.
Now, it's just a bit joyless. I'd love to care more, but I'm finding I just don't. Like I said, it may be lockdown, broken seasons and Foster, but I'm just caring less.
I (and a number here) are die hard fans. So my fear is if I'm starting to switch off, how's the casual fan going?
this...i mean i am a member of more than one rugby forum...thats pretty damning as far as "are you a rugby tragic?"
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@mariner4life The game would be a better spectacle if we could accept a reasonable margin of error but fans inevitably blow up whenever a marginal call goes against their team.
Personally, I'd have the TMO team there to review dangerous play and grounding. Nothing else.
If the Ref/TMO misses dangerous play live then the player gets referred for sanction after the game and that play has no further bearing on the game. Similar, i guess, to the NRL.
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@rapido said in The State of the Game:
Not much resemblance anymore to what made me love it as a kid
there was an Irish player just killing the ball on the deck knowing a penalty was coming anyway and i said to my kids "when i was your age that guy would have been rucked within an inch of his life"
"what even is that dad"
"oh, it's where you basically just use the sprigs on your boots to basically tear his skin off"
They laughed, but more sort of at me like i was crazy (plus they don't know what sprigs are)
Games fucked aye
