10 ways to improve rugby

10 ways to improve rugby:

Rattue argues that we should embrace the drop-goal © Getty Images

The New Zealand Herald's Chris Rattue provides 10 ways to improve the game ahead of the new season of Southern Hemisphere rugby.

"The national obsession starts up again this week. Here's a few improvement ideas for rugby.

1. Encourage the TV commentators to be a little kinder on the referees.

Players contest the breakdown, and commentators contest breakdown decisions. Constantly. Continually analysing this highly subjective area of the game is pointless, unfair on referees and affects the legitimacy of the sport. A few of our commentators appear to believe they know the rules better than the whistlers, which I bet they don't. The main point here is that breakdowns can indeed be things of beauty if there is greater acceptance that interpretations of them are largely in the eye of the beholder. Rugby by nature is something of a lottery folks - and the game appears all the better when you accept that. As for coaches who keep demanding greater consistency at the breakdown, they are usually excuse-makers who should put more energy into doing their own jobs better."