Monday, November 16th, 2009...6:11 am

HANSON: ‘Its a kicking game’, change the rules AGAIN!

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Source: Rugby need to entertain again – Toby Robson

Hanson extract…

Assistant coach Steve Hansen wasn’t hiding from the issue upon arriving at the All Blacks’ High St hotel.

Rugby was in need of an entertaining and free-flowing test match.

“Kicking has overtaken most of the game,” he said. “They tried to change all the rules [with the ELVs] and then halfway through the process they decided to play differently up here [in the north].

“They only want to play some of them, so we’ve got a kind of hybrid type of game and it’s ended up with everyone kicking.”

Hansen repeated Graham Henry’s call for the mark to be introduced anywhere on the field before indicating the All Blacks would not let up in their quest to play running rugby.

“They’ve always played differently up here and we have to just accept that,” he said. “I think the game of rugby needs a good game of rugby and not necessarily just a battle up front, but some ball movement and some good tries.”

COMMENTS: Well the best way to defeat a kicking game, is to play a ‘catching’ game. The ABs didnt do this against the BOKs and lost 3-0 in this years Tri Nations. Also the positional play of the back three is also important. So if one team kicks the ball, and the receiving team CATCH IT then thats an excellent chance for counter attack.

Once again Henry and Hanson call for RULE CHANGES when in truth it was there own selections and tactics that let them down.  Dont believe this spin.

ABs have idiots coaches in charge…

The ABs shouldnt worry about the entertainment factor, they should focus on the winning factor, once again Henry is getting sidetracked by issues that dont steer the ABs ship to RWC glory.



1 Comment

  • I heard from a relative of mine in Melbourne that more Ozy rules fans are now finding Union more attractive because of all the kicking. In the Italy game, the ball was kicked 49 times in the 1st half. Here’s my take – dump the ELV’s, get rucking back into the game, reduce the drop goal to 1 point. But that would mean an admitance from the IRB and NZRFU that they were and are all over paid and dumb. The entertanment factor is what pays for Sky subscriptions and bums on seats. To ignore this would show our own stupidity and ultimately continue destroying the game. My prediction is – if this keeps going, in 5 years NZ will be struggling for top class players because the defection numbers to other codes is currently huge, so wake up!!.