Australia v New Zealand today at 12 Noon ET on NBC. The Cats have the day off-check out today's final. The game should be brutally physical with the Wallabies chances riding on the ability of Hooper and Pocock to win enough rucks to allow a few turnover tries. The All Blacks are the odds on favorites. For the uninitiated, watch the All Blacks lay down their challenge with the Haka prior to the kickoff-watch the passion and intensity on their faces during the ritual
The forwards will weigh between 225 -275 pounds but will run continuously for 80 minutes. There will be approximately 400 tackles made during the game. It will be a game of attrition but hopefully there will be enough daring to whet the appetite of new viewers
Doc, I saw about a ten minute stretch. During the time I watched, one team was a man-down, and it seemed like there were about four consecutive scrums. As far as I can tell, scrums are a 30 second engagement where everyone leans a little, and eventually they're done. It seems that a player actually starts the engagement, and not an official, which seems strange.
The scrum after scrum was very boring. Then, the yellow carded player got back on the pitch (I bet they call it the pitch), and it got interesting.
Then I flipped on Illinois-penn state, and I got what I deserved.
Anyway, it seems an interesting sport. I bet that the U.S. could get behind a national team, but probably not the World Cup without a national team in it.
For the sport to grow, the next world cup will need a network to pick up coverage of every match, and promote it like a major event. I would imagine that NBCSN or CBSSN has the inventory available. (I would think Fox Sports wouldn't, due to baseball playoffs.)
I know less about domestic professional leagues than I do about international rugby (I know zero about international rugby, and less about professional leagues.). However, if the best professional leagues are in New Zealand and Australia, that also makes growing the sport in the US tough. Time change hell.
