I know it, you know it. Something weird has happened to Super Rugby.
It is suddenly worth watching again. And it is not just me saying so. The basic stats speak for themselves: five rounds in, see, and the average attendance across the board is up 34 per cent from last year.
On Stan and Nine, in Australia, TV ratings are up 11 per cent. In Fiji, the ratings are up over 40 per cent – and in New Zealand they’re up by double digits, too.
People are actually talking about the games again, and more than a few actually give a bugger. I give a bugger! For yonks, I’d start watching Super Rugby out of an atavistic urge that wouldn’t quit before inevitably switching over to the NRL for faster-moving football with more interesting results. These days, however, I linger longer and more often than not just scan the league briefly before turning back to the real stuff.
Why is it suddenly so good?
First and foremost, it has to be because something even weirder has happened with the results. Australian teams are winning regularly – with even the odd victory over New Zealand teams thrown in for good measure. You’ll recall that not so long ago, Australian teams – singly and collectively – could go whole years without beating the Kiwis. Obviously, the reduction from five Australian teams to just four has meant those four are all commensurately stronger.
NSW’s Darby Lancaster celebrates a try against the Force.Credit: Corbis via Getty Images
Teams like Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika are not only competitive, but are playing a spectacular kind of rugby that takes your breath clean away with its very athleticism. Early days, but both have a feel about them like the West Indies cricket sides of the 1980s and early 1990s – playing with such exuberance and disregard for the conservative norms that they just might redefine the whole thing.
The rules have been changed to improve the game flow, and the referees have been given instructions to “if in doubt, let ’em pout” – don’t stop the game for anything other than serious injury or close-call tries.
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