Change is not always a bad thing
Varsity Cup columnist Vata Ngobeni admits that he was against the change that has been introduced into this year's Varsity Cup of altering the scoring system which has seemingly worked perfectly well for many years.
It has always been a kind gesture from the powers that be to reward a team that scores a try with the possibility of two additional points to the five that come with the try if they get the conversion over.
There has never been a problem with the three points that come with a penalty as it has proven over the years to add another dimension to how teams play.
But it is exactly that, the dependence on the penalty, which has probably forced certain men in suits to look closely at how they can bring the game of rugby up to speed with the rest of the sporting codes around the world that are providing entertainment as well these days.
As that old saying in rugby goes, "Tries put bums on seats but defence wins you trophies", I guess modern-day man cares less about trophies and would rather see a high paced game with many tries just like many All Black fans prior to last year's World Cup victory.
I must conceded that kind of rugby is attractive and if there is a team in world rugby that I would watch over and over again besides the Springboks it would certainly be the All Blacks for their entertainment value.
So in order to give us this adrenalin rush and need for high paced action with lots of tries, I guess the reward for the team that scores tries needs to be greater and therefore the need to adjust scoring system.
It would probably be madness to increase a try from five points to six or seven as we would see scores soar beyond 50 points but in this case teams will have to work that much more harder for points than waiting for other teams to blunder and pounce on the three points at hand.
There is sanity to this madness called the Varsity Cup and I hear that the International Rugby Board will sit and consider this new point scoring system that has been introduced by this competition.
If we are to see this system come into place around the globe then Varsity Cup will have truly revolutionalised the game of rugby and what may have started as a crazy idea for the sake of entertainment could be beneficial for the game in the long run.
All I needed to do was not get emotional about this matter and consider the possibilities, something I hope that IRB will do and the rest of the rugby world.
* Vata Ngobeni is the chief rugby writer for the Pretoria News.
Click HERE for the Xhosa version of this column.
| Add a comment |
