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August 22, 2009

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Home » Sports » Rugby

Wallabies, Blacks blast kicking game

Source: Agencies | August 22, 2009, Saturday | Print Edition

AUSTRALIA and New Zealand have joined forces in attacking the increasing reliance on kicking in international rugby.

New Zealand coach Graham Henry said the game had become a "poor product" while his Australian counterpart Robbie Deans said kicking had taken over as the single deciding factor in major matches.

"Particularly when you've got a side like South Africa who are so able to play the game that way," Deans said on the eve of today's Tri-Nations match between New Zealand and Australia in Sydney.

"They essentially won the World Cup in 2007 without playing."

Henry said he wants the sport's lawmakers to investigate ways of changing the laws to encourage teams to run the ball instead of always kicking it.

"The product you're looking at needs some attention, quite frankly," Henry said. "I think we need to have some attention on that and the people who make the laws to try and improve the product."

While some exponents prefer a running-based game where the emphasis is on scoring tries, others prefer a kicking-game based on accumulating penalties from opposition errors. Exponents of the riskier running game believe the balance has recently tipped too far in favor of the kicking game after England (2003) then South Africa (2007) won the last two World Cups with their conservative approaches.

But Henry said a formula was needed to ensure both styles of rugby remained effective and running rugby did not have to be replaced by a simpler, safety-first gameplan.

All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw said he believed the current rules favored teams who kicked the ball a lot and he had no problems with teams exploiting those rules. However, he said he also expected New Zealand and Australia to revert to their traditional running game today.

"Usually the Australia-All Blacks fixtures are pretty entertaining," McCaw said.
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