Just been reading that Taylor is out, and Sam Burgess is in How do you make an NRL All Stars side without having played a game in the NRL ?
Bird has come into the oppressed side too. The game is a farce, the clubs clearly don't want to risk their cattle before the season starts. That pommie clown who shouts about the cricket is excited about it though.
Isaac Luke is in from Souths [/quote] Not according to the press I've seen/heard. Burgess is in for Taylor. Gareth Ellis is also out, as is Alan Tongue. Replaced by Farah and Shillington. The replacements are supposed to be the next highest polling player from the same club, but Burgess wasn't included in the original vote as they weren't sure on his availability. I think they wanted to have a pommie representative after Ellis pulled out, hence Burgess getting the nod.
Super 14 starts next week. [/quote] it will be the best match of footy until April so take it or leave it
Being on the coast I was thinking of going to the All Stars game but have decided to watch it on Fox in air-conditioned conditioned comfort. I think this match will be a better spectacle on telly.
I'd say the match will resemble the touch football on view in the City vs Country game. Reds play Waratahs that night. At least it will be a meaningful contest.
Meaningful to the players, maybe, but certainly not to a viewing audience. Every time a new season of Super 14 or 15 or whatever the hell it is kicks off and the administrators wring their hands and wonder how they can make their game more interesting to watch, I have to laugh because they know the answer as well as I do: drop two players from each side and make it rugby league. That's how to make a superior product. I don't care that union is more popular than league internationally. "Dancing with the Stars" is popular, and I wouldn't watch that if you paid me either.
It's only the Australians wringing their hands wanting to change Union. The rest of the world are quite happy with how it is thanks very much. Probably the Australian aversion to the game comes from its association with the crusty, upper class elite of private schools whereby the politics of envy kick in amongst the unwashed herd.
Incorrect Mata, over here they know that Rugby needs to change a bit to continue to keep people coming through the gates
Union has all sorts of problems.... the quicker it is dead and buried the better. Can't remember the last time I watched a game... If i was to watch a game it wouldn't be that super 14 load of crap... what a snoozefest.
 LOL, what a nonsensical statement, made by someone who has never queued to get a ticket for one of the overnight Six Nations games. League has a lot more to deal with than international Union.
Rugby unfortunately has a total mishmash of laws concerning the ruck that are applied differently. depending on where you come from and which interpretation one wishes to apply. Sadly at the top level it has deteriorated from a slow lumbering from one set piece to the next. The real killer is that which gives 3 points to a penalty goal meaning that with both sides infringeing, the arbitary penalty, sometimes on the 50 metre line gives to much of a reward. It sometimes leads to boring games, little expansive play, no breaks, a kickathon and whoever has the best kicker to win games with no tries 29-27. I am a Rugby ref so I know the problems with the laws. The cheating that goes on with going through the gate, playing on the ground, releasing at the tackle etc means that at most rucks there could be five penalties. Many Aussies, not reared on the game don't understand it. League is much simpler! This has nothing to do with Private school divides or whatever conspiracy theories you want to come up with.
My point CW is the game has long been that way. It was when I started playing as a 10 year old. But in most of the world where rugby is played seriously it is not subservient to another oval ball competitor like it is in Australia. Hence the desire to change the game is much stronger in Australia than anywhere else. And Australia ain't gunna win that battle because most other countries like it the way it is. The biggest problem the game faces in Australia is that the rugby "experts" and correspondents consistently talk the product down and complain about it. They need to accept they have to like it or lump it because the rest of the world ain't with them.Â
