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I guess it has to do with what you actually expect them to do. Their authorities do show up to the WC final and proceed according to protocol. Should we give them credit for that?
Wanna make a couple of points.
1) Let me use this as an example: well, it'd pay everyone in the room a round if i could hear you say that out loud in front of the RU presidents of Chile, Uruguay or Spain. They'd laugh their arses off. At best, WR is doing their job and if you look at the results, there aint much they can brag about. You talk about development, Let's have a look at that. 8 and only 8 countries have reached semis or more in a WC.
People talk about Japan. They had one good generation and they build it by poaching players and simply putting more money than the rest. That's it.
You could argue 'what the **** did you expect?'. Well, the comparison to footie comes to mind. There are quite a few world champoins, but there are quite a lot of teams that have reached semis or more: poland, sweden, bulgaria, belgium, morocco, turkey, chile, portugal, hungary, croatia... two games away from becoming world champions. All of them.
Number 1 in the rankings plays number 15 and number 15 atually has a shot. Now try that in rugby. THAT's development.
Having refs from every single continent and from ****-poor countries? THAT's development. 3 spanish speaking countries in the world cup. How many spanish speaking refs? ZERO. How many refs from spanish speaking nations? ZERO. You mentioned America's rugby Championship, right? How many refs are there from the America's? ZERO. That is NOT development.
It's an old boys' club. I understand tradition is important, but this is just getting ridiculous. They just want 8-10 teams to play each other and call it a world cup, so they just invite others as easy sparring partners. We can sugar coat it the way you want, but that's what it is.
Is italy a success case? I really dont think so.
Is Japan? One off, but let's use this WC as a proxy. Happy to stand corrected.
Is Argentina? Allowing us to play a competition is something we should be giving WR credit for? Jesus christ.
2) And the rules... dont even get me started. I'm at a pub. Several regulars in a table with a few friends, some of these new to the game. Something happens (doesnt matter what, give me some rope), those who are new ask the rest 'what was that call about?'. The rest of us look at each other and have absolutely no idea, whatsoever, what the call was about. None. Doesnt happen every week, but trust me, it does happen quite often. We have no interest in becoming refs or part of the expert panel, but most of us have +20 years playing, another decade or two watching, read the laws countless times and reffed our share of jr games back in the day. It is very, very, very difficult for us to rationalize some calls. That DESTROYS the incentives for new comers. People are turned off by what they cannot understand.
3) WR's branding, image, whatever you wanna call it. This is just one of the latest ones but the list is endless. I'll make a quick timeline of the events
1-Owen farrel's incident
2-Nigel Owens comes out in WR's channel to address the last week's issues, controversies, or whatever you wanna call em.
3-He says nothing about Owen Farrell's incident.
4- Understandably, half of soc media points out to him how silly and click baitey his video was and that he did not address the issue
5- He basically says, politely, everyone is a moron for not getting that he wouldn't comment on an ongoing case
6- THE NEXT DAY, case still ongoing, he gives his opinion and extensive analysis on wales online.
What the **** were they thinking? It doesn't take a neurosurgeon or a nasa engineer to understand why that might provoke most of your viewers.
Or look at how the red cards are reviewed, assessed and appealed after the game. They are making a mockery of what should be a pretty straightforward procedure. Either they dont give a flying turd or they have no idea, whatsoever, what they're doing.
Wanna make a couple of points.
1) Let me use this as an example: well, it'd pay everyone in the room a round if i could hear you say that out loud in front of the RU presidents of Chile, Uruguay or Spain. They'd laugh their arses off. At best, WR is doing their job and if you look at the results, there aint much they can brag about. You talk about development, Let's have a look at that. 8 and only 8 countries have reached semis or more in a WC.
People talk about Japan. They had one good generation and they build it by poaching players and simply putting more money than the rest. That's it.
You could argue 'what the **** did you expect?'. Well, the comparison to footie comes to mind. There are quite a few world champoins, but there are quite a lot of teams that have reached semis or more: poland, sweden, bulgaria, belgium, morocco, turkey, chile, portugal, hungary, croatia... two games away from becoming world champions. All of them.
Number 1 in the rankings plays number 15 and number 15 atually has a shot. Now try that in rugby. THAT's development.
Having refs from every single continent and from ****-poor countries? THAT's development. 3 spanish speaking countries in the world cup. How many spanish speaking refs? ZERO. How many refs from spanish speaking nations? ZERO. You mentioned America's rugby Championship, right? How many refs are there from the America's? ZERO. That is NOT development.
It's an old boys' club. I understand tradition is important, but this is just getting ridiculous. They just want 8-10 teams to play each other and call it a world cup, so they just invite others as easy sparring partners. We can sugar coat it the way you want, but that's what it is.
Is italy a success case? I really dont think so.
Is Japan? One off, but let's use this WC as a proxy. Happy to stand corrected.
Is Argentina? Allowing us to play a competition is something we should be giving WR credit for? Jesus christ.
2) And the rules... dont even get me started. I'm at a pub. Several regulars in a table with a few friends, some of these new to the game. Something happens (doesnt matter what, give me some rope), those who are new ask the rest 'what was that call about?'. The rest of us look at each other and have absolutely no idea, whatsoever, what the call was about. None. Doesnt happen every week, but trust me, it does happen quite often. We have no interest in becoming refs or part of the expert panel, but most of us have +20 years playing, another decade or two watching, read the laws countless times and reffed our share of jr games back in the day. It is very, very, very difficult for us to rationalize some calls. That DESTROYS the incentives for new comers. People are turned off by what they cannot understand.
3) WR's branding, image, whatever you wanna call it. This is just one of the latest ones but the list is endless. I'll make a quick timeline of the events
1-Owen farrel's incident
2-Nigel Owens comes out in WR's channel to address the last week's issues, controversies, or whatever you wanna call em.
3-He says nothing about Owen Farrell's incident.
4- Understandably, half of soc media points out to him how silly and click baitey his video was and that he did not address the issue
5- He basically says, politely, everyone is a moron for not getting that he wouldn't comment on an ongoing case
6- THE NEXT DAY, case still ongoing, he gives his opinion and extensive analysis on wales online.
What the **** were they thinking? It doesn't take a neurosurgeon or a nasa engineer to understand why that might provoke most of your viewers.
Or look at how the red cards are reviewed, assessed and appealed after the game. They are making a mockery of what should be a pretty straightforward procedure. Either they dont give a flying turd or they have no idea, whatsoever, what they're doing.
This i can agree with. The sevens circuit is imo phenomenal and doesn't get the credit it deserves. I dont think it has been marketed properly enough. It's exciting, fun to watch, atmosphere is amazing. i'd recommend anyone who has the chance to attend a day to do so without hesitation.
