New Rugby 2026

Many may be aware that rugby union has many challenges currently, notably the drop off in audience. The problem as I see it is that the game has become boring, with frequent and unnecessary stoppages in play, and referees becoming too involved in the game. These referees are manipulating the outcome of matches. The spectators and wider audience can see this and turn off.

Here are some ideas to turn things around.

1. Play the game as four quarters of 20 minutes each, with slowdowns and other unnecessary stoppages penalised.

2. Allow unlimited substitutions and players may return so long as they haven't been sent off for foul play. Substitutions could be made during any pause in play.

3. The game is 15 vs 15 at all times. No yellow or red card. Players sent from the field for foul play are immediately excluded for the rest of the game, but may be replaced from the reserves. Teams only drop to fewer than 15 players on the field when they run out of reserves.

4. Scrums have to be set within 90 seconds, and failure to set the scrum results in a free kick (currently, the time frame is 30 seconds from when the referee sets the mark, but the referee may also call time off. My rule has no time off, just 90 seconds, as players can be replaced and return later at any time anyway, meaning time off is not necessary). 

5. Lineouts only occur when the ball goes out in general play and must be performed within 90 seconds. The 50:22 rule is scrapped.

6. Penalty restarts may be via a tap restart, scrum, kick for goal, or the ball is kicked out on the full. If the ball is kicked out on the full, then, as with rugby league, a tap kick restarts the game for the attacking team from where the ball went out (no lineouts off penalty kicks).

7. Phases of play cannot go beyond twelve consecutive rucks or mauls. On the twelfth phase the attacking team must do something with the ball or hand over possession.

8. Scoring; 5 points for a try, 1 point for a conversion, 2 points for a penalty kick or drop goal. The idea being it takes four kicks to better a converted try (currently, only three goals are worth more than a converted try). Conversions and penalty kicks must be taken within 90 seconds of the ball being placed.

9. Kicks from the 22 are replaced with a tap kick from the 22. Goal line drop-outs remain.

10. Kick-offs at the start and at half time are place kicks, not drop kicks (but cannot score points if the ball goes through the goal). Quarter time restarts occur at the place where play ceased, and restart via scrum, lineout, or tap kick.

11. Introduce synthetic turf. Modern synthetic turf is hard wearing and equalises teams, meaning home advantage isn't so pronounced. Modern turf is padded and cushions players from hard landings and friction burns are minimised by lightly spraying with water prior to games (mist rather than solid wetting). All the old criticisms of 'AstroTurf ' no longer apply.

12. Two referees should be used at the elite level, one leading, one trailing. No video referees, touch judges as now, immediate decisions.

13. Bonus point scrapped and 3 for the win, 1 for a draw after 10 minutes of extra time. If any team scores a try during extra time they win the game immediately, no further play. However, if either team kicks only a goal of any kind then play continues, giving the other side a chance to win the game with a try, or to kick for a draw. During extra time, any try trumps all kicks, so even if a team has three goals (6 points), one five point try results in victory. 

14. In knock-out playoffs; if the match remains a draw after extra time, then another 10 minutes is played with the first team to make any score being the victor.

My thinking here is to maximise spectator investment. They pay to see a contest, not see the game ruined by referees sending players off, or teams playing negatively to eke out a win. 

What's Wrong With the All Blacks?

Rugby Union - New Zealand's All Blacks have lost to England at Twickenham, 19-33. This has got to sting as England are starting to rack up wins a little too often. 

What has gone wrong?

New Zealand seem to lack the ability to get themselves out of a slump during games. I put this down to three main factors:

1. Coaching - the team now plays two-dimensionally, they lack innovation. Gone are the 3D chess moves of Steve Hansen and Ian Foster, the current coaches' predecessors.

2. Captaincy - the current leadership on the field is lacking; they live only in the moment and make very poor strategic on-field decisions.

3. Skill - the players commit too many basic errors, such as not being able to secure the ball or retain possession, and they lack in areas of more advanced play, such as their body position when close to the line. 

During the latest effort against England, there was a long period of time when the All Blacks failed to score, letting England get a feeling they were in the game. Previous teams were always able to keep the scoreboard ticking along, effectively shutting down the hopes of their opposition.

The only positive is that it is good to find this out now, rather than close to a World Cup. The All Blacks have a lot of work to do.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/sport/579002/grand-slammed-what-went-wrong-for-the-all-blacks-against-england

England Lose - Sour Grapes

England lost to New Zealand in the final of the Women's Rugby World Cup and cannot seem to get over it. After going into the tournament as red-hot favourites, they came up short when it really mattered. 

After a red card offense for reckless play leading to head contact, and the injuring of the other player early in the game, England now want to change the rules. In doing so they may end up endangering players. England coach, Simon Middleton is claiming the red card for England's Lydia Thompson was unfair as it was 'accidental'. What Middleton appears to be calling for is lengthier yellow cards for such head contact.

This endangers players and must be summarily dismissed as a proposal. The effect of it would mean no real penalty for foul play. In the final played over the weekend, England went down to 14 players for the remainder of the match after a collision by Thompson with New Zealand's star player and all-time great, Portia Woodman, which led to the NZ player being put out of the game. If Thompson was to get 20 minutes in the sin bin, she could re-enter the game, England would be back to 15 players, but NZ loses its biggest talent. There is an obvious dividend received by the offending team. They would succeed in eliminating their biggest try-scoring threat.

In this case, Thompson made no attempt to avoid contact. She simply ran into Woodman, there was no tackle, it was simply reckless play. Watching the game I knew it was a red card offense but commented that it'll be a yellow due to the game being a World Cup final. When the referee conducted the mandatory video review and called the play a red card, I was gobsmacked. Finally, a rugby referee called it correctly and against England who think they own the game. Credit to the referee.

But play such as that by England must always result in a sending off. Player safety is paramount.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/nov/13/she-did-not-deserve-this-middleton-urges-rethink-after-thompson-red

Rugby World Cup 2019 - South Africa World Cup Champions

South Africa beat England 32-12. No tries for England who were on the back foot almost the whole game. The Springboks played to their strengths and kept field position, with the English pinned in their own half. Eventually the points came. Very sensible tactics from South Africa; kick for position, defend stoutly, put pressure on set pieces, kick the goals and seal the win with tries toward the end.

For me the decisive and most telling moment was in the first half, the Springboks up 6-3. England were hard on attack, threatening to score a try. Time and again they mounted attacks only for South Africa to push them back. South Africa eventually gave away a penalty, the score then stood at 6-6 when it could have been 6-10. England looked dejected, from that point on they never looked like scoring a try. South Africa were prepared to put their bodies on the line, several players suffered game ending injuries as a result of that defensive effort, but the team didn't buckle.

As a footnote, thought has to turn to whether England peaked too early. They played the perfect game against New Zealand in their semi-final, making it very hard for them to get back up for the final a week later.

Lawrence Dallaglio Deluded

Apparently, the former captain of England's rugby team, Lawrence Dallaglio thinks if England win the 2019 World Cup final against South Africa, that it would be the greatest rugby World Cup victory of all time.

Err, newsflash, the greatest final has already been played and that was in 1995, the game was between South Africa and New Zealand's All Blacks, a game that was won by the Springboks in overtime. It's great because of the political and social significance of the result. It united a fractured country. Nelson Mandela famously wore the Springbok uniform when greeting the players.

Then in second place we have the greatest feat, New Zealand going back-to-back in 2011 and 2015. Truly remarkable. That's similar to Brazil in soccer going back-to-back, 1958 and 1962.

If England do win in 2019 it can at least be said to be a proper win. England previously won a World Cup in 2003, a soft world cup that as they didn't defeat New Zealand on the way through.

However, I don't think England are going to win in 2019. I predict that will be South Africa, for the simple reason they have more to play for. They desperately want to equal NZ's three victories, and put themselves in place to score a back-to-back and in so doing go to the top with four titles. Watching the semi-finals, England will have to get back up again after playing out of their skins, while South Africa played in a very measured and calculating way against Wales. They'll have the reserves of endurance needed to win.

Rugby World Cup 2019 Heating Up

The 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan is proving to be a close tournament. We've had two major upsets, the first was Uruguay beating Fiji, but then Japan beat Ireland the world's second ranked team. Now we have Wales beating Australia. Wales have never won a world cup while Australia has won two. If this continues, New Zealand's All Blacks will cruise to their third straight world cup, as the strong opponents will be weakened, eliminated or find themselves on the wrong side of the draw.

IAAF Diamond League Changes

The Diamond League are scrapping long distance athletic track events:

https://www.sport24.co.za/OtherSport/Athletics/kenya-slams-iaaf-scrapping-of-5-000m-in-diamond-league-20190314

Kenya and other east African countries are rightfully outraged. They've dominated these events for most of the last 50 years.

Lesson: Europe make it up as they're going along and if they find they cannot win, they ban it. Everyone should take note, especially New Zealand's All Blacks who are dominant in Rugby Union and almost never lose. Get that good and the Europeans ban you. Oh yes, the World League at the stroke of a pen wrote out smaller Pacific Island nations, they're seen as feeders only. It's the old colonial mindset. And if you need a further athletics example, Athletics started talking about scrapping the shot put from the Olympics at the same time non-Europeans started becoming dominant.

World Rugby League

The proposed new annual championship in rugby union appears to shaft the small Pacific nations and eastern Europe. It is no surprise it includes Japan and the USA, they're put in for the money, even though their playing strength is not good enough.

The main problem with the format of 12 nations in two groups of six, is that there is no pathway for other countries to emerge. In other words there is no promotion/relegation. Not even relegation play-offs. To illustrate look at the current world rankings:

1.   New Zealand
2.   Ireland
3.   Wales
4.   England
5.   South Africa
6.   Australia
7.   Scotland
8.   France
9.   Fiji
10. Argentina
11. Japan
12. Georgia

But the new championship would play the existing Six Nations against the southern hemisphere Rugby Championship with Japan and USA added to the latter. That means Italy as part of the Six Nations get in permanently from their position of 15, over the top of Georgia (#12).

Meanwhile Fiji (#9) are topped by Japan (#11) and USA (#13). Basically, it's absurd and if implemented, rugby administrators will be made to look like laughing stocks.

Here's an answer: why not have a 10 team league made up of a 5 team northern hemisphere and 5 team southern hemisphere conferences, like this:

Northern

Ireland
Wales
England
Scotland
France

Southern

New Zealand
Australia
South Africa
Fiji
Argentina

Within each conference they play each other once (4 games each), then the top two in each conference play semi-finals against the top two from the other conference, followed by the final. For the finalists that's 6 games. If things go the way of rankings it should end like this:-

Ireland v Australia
Wales v New Zealand

Final: Ireland v New Zealand

What about the bottom 6 teams?  They cross over and play for relegation. If the competition went according to rankings it would mean the bottom team from one conference playing the 3rd place from the other conference, and so on, so (an example):

England v Argentina
Scotland v Fiji
France v South Africa

The two worst teams from each hemisphere (this is not entirely fair but keeps the league balanced) in terms of tries scored and points differential then play a relegation game against the top team from the lower tier in their hemisphere. According to rankings like this:

France play a relegation game against Japan or Georgia
Argentina play a relegation game against Tonga, Samoa or Uruguay.

The team playing off for relegation would have played 6 games, the others 5 in total since the competition season started.

Naturally the lower tier could also have its own format for deciding who challenges.

Israel Folau

Israel Folau. a rugby player who represents Australia, has had something to say about where he sees Gays in relation to God. It turns out he's a Christian and a devout one at that. Good for him you'd expect people to say, but it turns out that inclusiveness and diversity only extends to certain people who espouse views that are acceptable.

Folau has been pilloried and his views totally misrepresented and the worst treatment has been at the hands of the media who don't seem capable of intelligent thought. On top of that he's been called in for a talk by Rugby Australia who seem more motivated by commercial considerations than by respecting the man's religious beliefs.

Read about it here: https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-union/israel-folau-breaks-silence-says-he-would-walk-away-from-australian-rugby-criticises-raelene-castle-20180416-p4z9zh.html


A reader of the SMH story I find myself totally agreeing with so include their whole comment below. 

Now, this is a freedom of speech issue and as much as I hate to use the term, because it's become the last refuge of alt-right nut jobs, the bad side of political correctness.
Sadly, the general level of understanding of what the freedom entails is so wrong it's beyond belief. IF"s comments didn't contravene RA's inclusivity policy, this wasn't RA's fight, and it's handled the whole thing very badly. This is a very good example of trial by media of the wrong person for the wrong reason on the wrong issue of importance.
What RA needed was a philosopher, not a spin doctor. They jumped the wrong shark at the wrong time.
I don't agree with IF, or with christian literalists - they are no different to any other kind of literalist interpretation of a religious book which usually borders on, or wades fully into, fundamentalism. But then, they are also no different from atheists screaming from the sidelines about empirical proof and other straw men.
IF is entitled to speak his "truth" as the saying goes, and present a case for why, whether we agree with him or not. He's not refusing to play against gay people, he's not saying they can't play rugby, he's not telling RA to bad gay people - he's not demanding temporal discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender.
The saddest thing of all, part from the slow tearing apart of a fellow human by the ravening mob, is that "society", or more narrowly "us" in the digital echo chamber through the MSM and social media, has turned on him and "we" are learning nothing about diversity, compassion, forgiveness, acceptance - some of the things the book he defers to was actually written for to teach humans how to evolve - whether we believe in sky faeries, or kindly benign old men in white gowns living in the clouds, or aliens, or the scientific method, or miracles caused or wrought by supernatural being(s), or nothing.... ....or not.

All Blacks 15 Lions 15

I've said it before and this is a timely moment to repeat myself; I predict that in the not too distant future, the All Blacks will be banned for being too good. How it happens will be through the referees blowing the whistle every time an All Blacks player touches the ball. And then a new competition will evolve which excludes the world's top Rugby team altogether.

With the drawn match between the All Blacks and Lions at Eden Park I think we can see the beginning of the trend. Near the end of this game we saw the referee consult and change his mind in making an obvious political decision in not allowing an All Blacks series victory. The referee, Frenchman Romain Poite, to put it bluntly, was 100% right to award the penalty near the end for an offside by the Lions, then 100% wrong to change his mind.

Watch this space as more of this will continue. For decades the northern hemisphere have changed the rules annually in an attempt to nullify All Blacks dominance. The result has seen the All Blacks get ever better. Now a new approach will emerge and that will be to blow the whistle and in so doing, blow the All Blacks off the park.

Result of the Rugby School Sevens

Nelson College finished in 4th place. The tournament consisted of 12 teams split into two groups. Nelson College finished top of Group B with only one loss to the eventual last place finisher in the group, the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. I'm assuming Nelson were resting players in that game.

Through to the Cup round the next day; Nelson lost both games, firstly the semi-final against Hilton College from South Africa, 14-17. Then they lost to Rugby School 19-24 in the playoff for 3rd and 4th.

The tournament was won by Hilton, beating Clifton College from England 22-7. Clifton had come second to Nelson in Group B, while Hilton had come second in Group A.

Not a bad effort then from Nelson who fielded a team converted from the 15-a-side game, they'd worked on sevens over the southern hemisphere summer leading up to travelling to England. In my head I said they had to qualify for the cup round and they did that, phew. My guess is they ran out of steam and that explains the second day losses.

Rugby School 2017 International Sevens Tournament

A plug here for my old school, Nelson College. On Friday March 24 & Saturday March 25 they will be competing in a Rugby Sevens tournament hosted by Rugby School in England. The tournament is part of the celebrations surrounding Rugby School's 450th year.

Check out the draw here: http://www.rugbyschoolinternational7s.co.uk/Competition.asp?TSID=3851

Twelve teams will take part. They're split into two groups, the top two in each group go through to compete for the top prize after the group round robin. Nelson College face Clifton College (England), Llandovery College (Wales), Michaelhouse (South Africa), Royal Belfast Academy (Northern Ireland) and Shawnigan Lake School (Canada).

I have no idea of the respective strengths of each school, though Rugby Union teams from England, Wales and South Africa are usually tough. The South Africans will be big and fast, all their teams are.

The Nelson College team is made up of 1st XV players from the longer version of the game. They play in the Crusader region 1st XV competition. Nelson won this competition once in 2007. The standard of Rugby played in the Crusaders region is pretty high, so Nelson will be able to compete, maybe even win in England, wouldn't that be great.

A very old Rugby competition Nelson College competes in is the annual Quadrangular tournament, played between Wanganui Collegiate, Wellington College, Nelson College and Christ's College (Christchurch). These four are the 'old school' in NZ, Wanganui and Christ's being private, while Wellington and Nelson are state schools and publicly funded.

Nelson College played the first game of Rugby Union in New Zealand, against a team from the town, Nelson Football Club. The game caught on and spread throughout NZ, becoming a passion for many. The man credited with introducing the game to NZ was Charles Monro, a former pupil of Nelson College who learnt the game in England. The story goes that he returned to Nelson to find the Nelson Football Club playing a game more akin to Australian Rules Football. He changed them over to Rugby School rules and organised that first game against his old school up the road.

If you are in England and looking to see some attractive Rugby then head along to the games next week at Rugby School. Tickets are only 5 pounds.

(How to find the school: https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/rugby-Live/assets/File/8132%20Rugby%20how%20to%20find%20us%20flyer%20update%20v1.pdf)

Rugby Quidditch

J.K. Rowling invented the sport of Quidditch in her ripping yarn about Harry Potter and his friends. It's a game that resembles Australian Rules Football, except players ride broomsticks, which I'm sure you'll agree isn't exactly practical in the muggle world.

I have devised rule changes to the game of Rugby Union which incorporates Quidditch. Please refer to the image below for the scoring zones.

Here's how I'd change the game of Rugby to create Rugby Quidditch:-

Scoring:-

As now a try is five points, conversion two, drop kick three and penalty three points.

Then add; four points if scoring in the goal placed between the uprights above the crossbar (shown as yellow in the diagram), scoring is achieved by kicking a goal on the full (a punt) during general play and from beyond the 22 metre line (also a drop kick in certain instances, see note in blue at the foot of this post below). 

Then in the areas shown in pink on the diagram, if a try is scored in that area it counts as a Seek (new scoring term, still five points for the try with the conversion to follow as normal). Further, from beyond the line of the 22, if the ball kicked by the player designated Seeker drops on the full into the area, and lands without being touched in flight by any opposing player, the score is four points and the score also counts as a Seek. 

Three Seeks scored in one game by the same team and the game ends, meaning the Snitch has been caught. If the team that catches the Snitch is ahead on the scoreboard then they win, if behind then they lose.

Note that I've created some new things; a player is designated Seeker (likely the First Five Eighth/Fly Half), and only they can kick to the pink scoring area. If a team is behind on the scoreboard then they wouldn't want to score on the area in pink as it contributes to ending the game (the team would want to catch up). Conversely any team that was ahead would be trying to end the game and score in that area by scoring a try or by their Seeker kicking into it on the full from beyond the 22 metre line. Thus, defence would be paramount.

General rule changes:- 

Penalty kicks to touch could be restarted with a tap kick as in Rugby League, the option would be with the attacking team to choose; tap, lineout or scrum.

Lineouts would have no lifting in them, it would be a contest to jump. 

Scrums would be liberalised and twisting the scrum allowed.

Rucking would return; if a player is on the ground and in the way of the ball, the feet could be used to move them out of the way (as you used to able to do), and the ball moved with the feet, thus speeding up play.

If the ball passes through the yellow goal between the uprights off the kick-off, from a drop kick or penalty kick, this is either worth no points or no extra points (the goal worth four points must be scored off a punt from beyond the 22 metre line during general play).

Have a look at the diagram below, the extra goal and the scoring zones could be adjusted in size:-

Possible variation:-

The introduction of a Bludger; this is complicated so may not work. Bear in mind I've done away with lifting in the lineouts and gone back to rucking to make the game more difficult as I've introduced more ways to score. In effect I've reintroduced elements of the 1970's type of game.

A Bludger would change the game entirely. This would be a round ball that was soft on the outside but very heavy, with a core inside the ball that moved, making it somewhat irregular in flight. The Bludger could be possessed by any team and could only be used to take out a player carrying the oval shaped rugby ball (representing the Quaffle).

The Bludger would be secondary to the rugby ball itself, when play is dead, the Bludger is dead. When play restarts any player may keep the Bludger or challenge for it, the normal rules of offside and no forward pass still applies.

With this variation, I'd think two referees would be needed. If the Bludger goes out the linesman (assistant referee) would throw the Bludger in backwards over his head from where it went out, as in Aussie Rules. If the game is stopped before that can be done, then the Bludger is thrown in after play resumes.

How would it work? Take the Beauden Barrett runaway try for the All Blacks against France last weekend. If the French team possessed the Bludger they could throw it at Barrett to bring him down and prevent him scoring a try. It is most likely the Bludger would be held by the fullback, but it may also have a use with the flankers.

[Update: as a drop kick occurs in general play; then if the kick originates beyond the line of the 22 and passes through the goal marked yellow, then the score counts four points. Also, off a penalty kick or conversion, if the ball hits the goal marked yellow and rebounds into the field, it will count as a score either three or two points, only the uprights and cross bar rebound can prevent a score from a place kick]