James O'Connor was among the players taking advantage of a new adventurous attitude that is dominating the international game
© Getty Images
|
Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Spiro Zavos argues that last weekend's international matches reflected an upsurge in the quality of rugby at the top level.
"The opening week of the southern hemisphere rugby invasion of the north gave us three pulsating and well-played Tests, with the visitors all repulsing last-minute challenges. None of the sides played in exactly the same way. But they all played real rugby, generally creating pressure and breakouts with ball-in-hand play.
Some of the statistics compare what is happening now on the field with the game in the 1980s. The findings provide the evidence that ''rugby football'' has evolved into ''rugby''. The ball is now in play 50 per cent longer. Rucks and mauls are up 400 per cent. Passing is up 400 per cent. Kicks each game are down 50 per cent, with the Wallabies averaging only 15 a match. Scrums are down 50 per cent, to an average of 14 a match. Lineouts are down 58 per cent from 52 to 22.
With the ruck and maul now being refereed to give the runner all the placing rights, teams are retaining the ball for longer periods of play. One consequence of this more handling and more ball-in-play game is that 57 tries were scored in this year's Tri Nations compared with 27 last year. We saw the impact of these changes in the approach of Wales, England and Ireland towards the end of their Tests as they tried desperately to score enough points through tries, not penalties, to snatch unlikely victories."
RSS feed
