Field Theory by Hadyn Green

27 points from penalties during the first match from the two teams who you would think would be running it the most...

I can only imgaine what it would have been like if it had been on the high velt.

Can someone take a look at stoppge time and tell my how much of the game was spent waiting for the kick? It seemed a hell of a lot.

The Air New Zealand Cup has had more wardrobe changes than a Lady Gaga concert

Best analogy I've read in a while.

Still, the Chiefs tried to play an interesting game, despite the heat, the monsoon, the yahoos in the crowd--and deserved to win. I will reserve opinion on this year's Super 14 until I have seen a few more games.

I didn't watch any of the games over the weekend, but I think a fair comment was made on stuff, that the high number of penalties should settle down as the teams adjust to the new rule interpretations, and the referees let their line in the sand loosen a little once it's been made.

I am more or less unenthralled with rugby these days, and certainly didn't bother watching any over the weekend when there was a Wellington Phoenix match on which used up my allocated sports hours for the weekend, but really, flux in competition structures is nothing new.

The NPC has fluctuated in format since it was inaugurated in 1976, not just following professionalism. There have been two regional divisions with various forms of promotion/relegation to the top division, varying numbers in the top division, and of course eventually playoffs from (I think) 1992.

The Cricket ODI world cup has a new format virtually every single time. The annual Aussie ODI triseries went through a number of revisions and has now been completely abandoned.

The Australian Rugby League comp has had a number of guises in my lifetime and probably before too I'd imagine.

The Football world cup is relatively settled at present, but took a long time to get to its current 32 team incarnation.

The English Premier league football comp is I see flirting with the idea of a playoff for teams in positions 4 through 7 to decide the final champs league spot; this after last year's "39th game" proposition (which failed). English's football's other competitions have been subject to minor revisions as to aspects like replays and when the big teams join in.

I could go on. I guess it is about relevance, or perceived relevance. The world changes, and competitions need to change with it. The Ranfurly Shield has barely changed since 1902 (or so) and look at it now - occasionally glorious, mostly mundane.

Certainly though I agree that the changes to (Not very) Super Rugby haven't been great. Mostly though I just miss watching rugger in the daytime. Atmosphere at football is better too, imo.

the high number of penalties should settle down as the teams adjust to the new rule interpretations, and the referees let their line in the sand loosen a little once it's been made.

Let's hope so - it makes it very frustrating to watch the games.

Also, happy birthday to Hadyn!

I am a bit confused, what with all the penalties for the side with possession on the weekend and all.

If I were a coach of England (just saying) and I was handed a set of rule variations that had a bias in penalties towards guaranteed possession then my preferred tactical approach would be to get a gigantic pack, wait for a defensive penalty, kick it out near halfway, have a driving maul from the subsequent line out (which no one can pull down now) and trundle up to somewhere around or over halfway then get my superboot to kick the next inevitable offensive penalty. We can hang onto the ball forever, so I won't need any of those fancy pants Polynesian/Kiwi skill sets, just beefy, barrel chested, ruddy faced men from good public schools.

I would then pick the rest of team around a suffocating umbrella defense to snuff out anysort of adventurous play from the other guys, and hope their more adventurous game means they have a higher error rate... ...Which will allow us to turn over their ball, and begin the penalty scoring process again.

Repeat ad naseum, complete with whinging All Black's fans complaining from the moral high ground that we lost the World Cup because the opposition won't let us beat them by trying to play us at a game we are better at.

Well, that is a bit of a retort to those who think Super 14 is dull rugby--18 tries in the Chiefs vs Lions game this morning, 32 points from Stephen Donald and 137 points overall!

Well, that is a bit of a retort to those who think Super 14 is dull rugby--18 tries in the Chiefs vs Lions game this morning

This assumes you are entertained by watching a team rack up points on your terrible defence