Quote: magic piano "RU has turned itself over the last 30+ years into a sport that is based around goal kicking, purely and simply because of the 3 points for a goal rule. Occassionally an international RU team comes along which tries to run & entertain, usually this team is Fiji or sometimes France but apart from that rarely do you see the emphasis on entertaining outweighing the fear of losing you see in England now.
Interestingly on Radio 5's Fighting Talk a few weeks back the question was asked "What sporting team is in real trouble of collapse at the moment" or something similar. Martin Bayfield (ex England RU forward for younger readers) answered that Australian International RU is under serious threat from RL, Cricket & Aussie Rules - seemingly not all in the RU garden is as rosy as some would make out...'"
I really don't think we are on safe ground basking in the schadenfreuden of potential Australian international RU demise with our international setup in RL. And of course we should remember the Cook Cup event at Twickenham in November last year sported a capacity attendance of 82,000.
Also the introduction of the 5pt try in 1992 seems to sit at odds with your 30+ year comment.
i'm on the t'internet phone
