We`ve definitely got something to sell.

[The Rocket]

Article in today`s Sydney Morning Herald.

State of Origin 2022 Paul Cully: Rugby is kidding itself if it is still looking down at the NRL (smh.com.au)

"But the game has bigger problems. World Rugby would probably point to the July Tests, and the proximity of the top eight test sides, as proof that the game is in rude health.

After watching Origin this week, they shouldn’t be kidding themselves.

[Dunbar]

Now that it has been decided that players openly punching get 10 minutes and no ban and high tackles in Origin don't get any subsequent punishment, it seems pretty clear to me that a decision has been made to let the more brutal version of Origin re-emerge.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next couple of years.

[Dallas Mead]

I’m guessing RL hating Fitzy hasn’t written this one?

[GUBRATS]

5 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

Now that it has been decided that players openly punching get 10 minutes and no ban and high tackles in Origin don't get any subsequent punishment, it seems pretty clear to me that a decision has been made to let the more brutal version of Origin re-emerge.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next couple of years.

I watched the first 20 minutes , what a load of ###### , just trying to smash each others heads in 

[Dunbar]

13 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

I watched the first 20 minutes , what a load of ###### , just trying to smash each others heads in 

Three 'grade 1' HIA's in the first 5 minutes with the players unable to return.  But all 3 were tacklers and not ball carriers as they flew into the tackles with little regard for technique.

To be honest, I enjoyed the intensity (although not the sight of the prone players).

[GUBRATS]

1 minute ago, Dunbar said:

Three 'grade 1' HIA's in the first 5 minutes with the players unable to return.  But all 3 were tacklers and not ball carriers as they flew into the tackles with little regard for technique.

To be honest, I enjoyed the intensity (although not the sight of the prone players).

That's the point ,they weren't trying to tackle , they were trying to ' hit ' , so who's told them to hit instead of tackle ?

[rlno1]

34 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

Now that it has been decided that players openly punching get 10 minutes and no ban and high tackles in Origin don't get any subsequent punishment, it seems pretty clear to me that a decision has been made to let the more brutal version of Origin re-emerge.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next couple of years.

True, in any other game Gagai probably gets sent off. However in an absorbing contest with TV execs and media ready to pounce the poor old ref was placed in a position to send them to the bin so as not to ruin the spectacle. He would have been crucified by all if he had sent one off and that turned the game. He and the game were in a no win situation.

[Dunbar]

21 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

That's the point ,they weren't trying to tackle , they were trying to ' hit ' , so who's told them to hit instead of tackle ?

I thought we were universally agreed on this forum that the wrestle was a poor spectacle and going back to collision tackles would make the game better.

Now we have some we don't like that either.  I thought the big hits in that game were great.

[GUBRATS]

1 minute ago, Dunbar said:

I thought we were universally agreed on this forum that the wrestle was a poor spectacle and going back to collision tackles would make the game better.

Now we have some we don't like that either.  I thought the big hits in that game were great.

With the head ? 

You can tackle without wrestle or a dangerous technique 

[Dunbar]

3 minutes ago, GUBRATS said:

With the head ? 

You can tackle without wrestle or a dangerous technique 

Two of the three tackles that forced players to leave field were due 'friendly fire'.  Neither player led with the head.

Even the Cam Murray one was a head collision in an upright tackle.  None of it was foul play.

Edited July 15, 2022 by Dunbar

[The Rocket]

3 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

I thought we were universally agreed on this forum that the wrestle was a poor spectacle and going back to collision tackles would make the game better.

Now we have some we don't like that either.  I thought the big hits in that game were great.

Yes the sight of the three blokes on the ground was disturbing and probably just as disturbing how quickly it was forgotten but overall the general reaction across the wider public over here for that game has been stunned admiration. 

Something that I was thought was captured perfectly by the writer of the article in the OP.

[GUBRATS]

1 minute ago, Dunbar said:

Two of the three tackles that forced players to leave field were due 'friendly fire'.  Neither player led with the head.

Even the Cam Murray one was a head collision in an upright tackle.  None of it was foul play.

They were reckless in their application IMO 

[Dunbar]

1 minute ago, GUBRATS said:

They were reckless in their application IMO 

I agree, at least a couple of them probably were.

But I am not going to find fault in everything.  Rugby League has been a collision sport for as long as I have played/watched it.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[JM2010]

Best game I've watched in a long time. Lots of aggression, fast paced, skillful and high intensity. What's not to like?

 

Edited July 15, 2022 by JM2010

[GUBRATS]

58 minutes ago, JM2010 said:

Best game I've watched in a long time. Lots of aggression, fast paced, skillful and high intensity. What's not to like?

 

Who won ?

[Pulga]

It seems SOO3 has sent union into crisis mode. Forums are lighting up about how bad the RU product is and what should be borrowed from RL.

People within the game are saying the same.

[unapologetic pedant]

Is there anybody on this forum who sees Rugby League as more than a physical confrontation? In which the role of officials is to adjudicate whether each bash-and-smash is legal and analysis consists in deciding whether those judgements are, or should be, valid. Where the ball is incidental, there merely to afford opportunities for people to shout "Forward" every time a player passes it.

The argument made in this article that an advantage for League over Union is that the players rather than the officials determine the course of the game is sadly not as tenable as it used to be. In 2022 RL, possession is governed by the laws of the game, the laws of physics, and all too often by random calls from officials for concocted knock-ons/forward passes/obstructions. These have become League`s equivalent of the Union ref`s interpretations of their ruck.

In my view, the main reason this year`s Origin series was so enthralling wasn`t due to collisions or because a fight was allowed to happen without red cards. Rather it was because Ashley Klein (unusually for him) and his Touch Judges weren`t constantly looking for things to call.

It`s imperative that this "if in doubt, play-on" policy is repeated at all levels. Officials should be instructed to ignore the media, ignore the crowds, curb their paranoid instinct to call knock-ons/forward passes/obstructions, and let the game flow.

[gingerjon]

1 hour ago, Pulga said:

It seems SOO3 has sent union into crisis mode. Forums are lighting up about how bad the RU product is and what should be borrowed from RL.

People within the game are saying the same.

The problem for them is that, as it's an internal Australian conversation, no one else really cares.

Nobody is going to ride to Oz RU's rescue because of a State of Origin game that none of them saw.

[Dallas Mead]

1 hour ago, Pulga said:

It seems SOO3 has sent union into crisis mode. Forums are lighting up about how bad the RU product is and what should be borrowed from RL.

People within the game are saying the same.

Simple solution for them.  Drop 2 players.  Get rid of lineouts.  Replace said lineouts with a play the ball.  Sorted.

[JM2010]

1 hour ago, GUBRATS said:

Who won ?

Queensland 

[DavidM]

7 hours ago, GUBRATS said:

I watched the first 20 minutes , what a load of ###### , just trying to smash each others heads in 

You’re in a minority of one on the entire planet 

[Man of Kent]

https://twitter.com/rugbyfixation/status/1547371266445029376?s=21&t=309Nr9tEq2Gf6kvw8OqhLw

[Man of Kent]

It’s the metres stats that really brings home for me - if proof were needed - how unarguably superior is league in terms of running rugby.

Union has different rules, of course, so it’s not quite comparing apples & apples but if you believe rugby is about running with an oval ball, there is no comparison.

[gingerjon]

5 minutes ago, Man of Kent said:

It’s the metres stats that really brings home for me - if proof were needed - how unarguably superior is league in terms of running rugby.

Union has different rules, of course, so it’s not quite comparing apples & apples but if you believe rugby is about running with an oval ball, there is no comparison.

For me, it's the minutes in play.

Union has a game clock and it still barely scrapes past thirty minutes ball in play - and that 30 minutes will include so much time when it's effectively hidden under some forward whilst some blokes have a wrestle around him.

[Man of Kent]

1 minute ago, gingerjon said:

For me, it's the minutes in play.

Union has a game clock and it still barely scrapes past thirty minutes ball in play - and that 30 minutes will include so much time when it's effectively hidden under some forward whilst some blokes have a wrestle around him.

Indeed. Can’t say I watch it much but it’s become awfully stop-start like gridiron to the point that spontaneity almost seems to have been legislated, officiated and coached out of the game.

I love my sport and I don’t have the proverbial chip on my shoulder but union commits the ultimate crime - it’s boring.