Rape and pillage

Where would rugby be without the Pacific Islanders?

This thought occurred to me while watching, on TV, the recent Sevens tournaments in Dubai and George and the Heineken Cup in the UK and Europe – although with the latter only briefly because you can hardly call it rugby.

You click onto rugby in the northern hemisphere and it’s like watching a different game – a form of mud wrestling. Everyone off their feet, everyone off-sides and they tell us the game is being played to the same set of rules!

But one thing that did strike me is how many islanders are turning out in top sides – England even had a Fijian in their Sevens side!

I just hope they are being well looked after but somehow I doubt it. People are very poor on the islands and the players, most of them born to play rugby, are forced to leave their homes to eke out a living and I’m sure many of them are paid peanuts compared with what is shelled out to Springboks, All Blacks and Wallabies.

But here’s a challenge. Take out the islanders and how good would some countries be then? – Australia included.

What I’d like to see ahead of the 2011 World Cup is a real effort by the IRB to level the playing the fields and give each country a fair crack at it.

Apart from a system in which the home countries, the like of Tonga, Fiji and Samoa, should be compensated for their players there should be a rule, sponsored by the IRB if necessary, that every country should play the same amount of warm-up matches with their full squads.

The islands seldom have their best teams available because their players are tied up by contracts but let them prepare properly and have an extended time together and I can guarantee you’ll see some shake-ups in the World Cup.

It goes without saying that, at the end of another year, I’m feeling quite pessimistic about the state of the game.

It makes me see red when I see officials interviewed, like now at the Sevens tournaments, and they drone on about how wonderful the game is when in fact it’s crap.

Sevens used to be full of guile and skill but now it’s played according to XVs rules with teams kicking for touch and taking the ball into contact.

I can already see the blogs, “there he goes again, whingeing Aussie,” but once again let me emphasise that I feel the way I do because I love this game, am passionate about it and care about it.

I want the game to be the way it should be played and I don’t see the twits in charge even acknowledging that there’s something wrong; never mind doing anything about it.

There’s a massive issue with referees and the inconsistency with which the laws are applied, it’s too easy and safe to kick the ball so there’s too much of it; the breakdown is a mess; and overall the game is just too boring to compete with other codes.

I notice that Richie McCaw and Lawrence Dallaglio, among others, have supported my call for a return to rucking but you can be damned sure that it won’t be heard in Dublin; drowned out by the sound of the IRB worthies slapping each other on their backs, congratulating themselves on how great it all is and how wonderful they are while more and more water seeps into the hull of the good ship Rugby!

And that’s my final word for 2009 – at least on this forum! Have a happy Christmas and a rucking good New Year!

Sincerely, David.