Varsity Cup ‘points’ ahead

November 19, 2011
Posted by Boertjie

In the 2012 Varsity Cup goals will count eight points, penalties and drop kicks only two in an effort to be more entertaining.

The Varsity Cup Rugby competition will – once again – lend itself to experimentation, with the importance of tries being the major focus ahead of the 2012 tournaments.

Varsity Cup Rugby, which now consists of the FNB Varsity Cup presented by Steinhoff International, the Varsity Shield, the Varsity Young Guns and the Steinhoff Koshuisrugby Championships (four ‘properties’ in all), will be trialing a new points-scoring system in 2012 – an experiment which could revolutionalise rugby union.

Thanks to a special dispensation from the International Rugby Board, the Varsity Cup Rugby organisers have changed around the value of points for the four 2012 Varsity Cup Rugby competitions – conversions will be worth three points and penalties and drop-goals will be worth just two points.

This means that four penalties or four drop-goals will equal one converted try on the scoreboard, putting the emphasis back on tries to win matches… and, ultimately, trophies.

Varsity Cup Managing Director Duitser Bosman explained to varsitycup.co.za:
“Our intention with this trial is to cement a culture of try-scoring in the various Varsity Cup Rugby properties. After all, rugby is about entertainment… and tries are entertaining.

“At the same time, however, the importance of the kicker must always be respected and that’s why we have increased the value of the conversion – giving teams something of a ‘bonus’ to aim towards.”

The Varsity Cup, which first began in 2008, is no stranger to experimentation – both in terms of law changes and off-field fun – and Bosman added:
“The Varsity Cup has added tremendous value to South African and rugby and we’ve always been up for experimenting – as we did with the white cards and the ELVs.

South African Referees Manager André Watson expressed his delight at this latest trial – despite being aware of the hard work that lay ahead for everyone involved.

PLENTY OF HARD WORK
“We have a great relationship with the Varsity Cup when it comes to trialing and experimenting with good ideas,” said Watson, “but, as usual, this trial involves plenty of hard work. We will be keeping dedicated statistics and monitor the results as the tournament goes along.

“There is a possibility that we could pay a price somewhere along the line in a bid to create more tries, but we will be having a briefing with the various Varsity Cup Rugby coaches and referees in late January and we will have to upskill everyone and we aware of the potential pitfalls.

“The key, however, is that you’ll never know something until you try it. One would think this experiment would definitely lead to more tries… but you’d also imagine that a few more penalties will be conceded on purpose… the exciting part is that we’ll soon see for ourselves how this works out.”

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12 Comments

  1. Boertjie Boertjie says:
    November 19th, 2011 at 10:12 pm Reply to this comment

    DRAGONS!

    :lol:

  2. Timeo Timeo says:
    November 20th, 2011 at 4:34 am Reply to this comment

    Why do they need an experiment like this to see if it will lead to an increase in tries.

    They can simply look at historical data. Tries were worth 3 points before 1971, 4 points until 1992 and 5 points since. All this time penalties and drop goals have been stable at 3 points.

    Did the increase in the relative value of tries also result in an increase of the number of tries versus penalties?

    Specifically if it had worked, one should see a step in the data directly after the changes were made.

    The answer is it did not and there was no step in the data.

  3. Timeo Timeo says:
    November 20th, 2011 at 4:37 am Reply to this comment

    And how does these experiments prepare South Africa’s younger players for the different style they’ll encounter when they make the step up to SR and Tests?

  4. Kat Kat says:
    November 20th, 2011 at 11:07 am Reply to this comment

    Big mistake. As the value of penalty kicks reduce so will the increase in infringements increase … the high number of transgressions disrupting the flow of the game and leading to players electing to infringe rather than play fair. This is exactly what rugby doesn’t need.

  5. Morné Morné says:
    November 20th, 2011 at 12:58 pm Reply to this comment

    Reply to Kat @ 11:07 am:

    Interesting point – but my first reaction was liking this idea – let see how it goes.

    I would like to know why not simply increase the value of a try to six?

  6. Jacques(Bunny)Somtimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits Jacques(Bunny) says:
    November 20th, 2011 at 1:17 pm Reply to this comment

    Reply to Kat @ 11:07 am: Agree Kat, we have already too much borderline laws in the game and this is an early present for Richie and ganag too make it an art.

    If they want to try something like this they need to have a more stronger look on how many warnings a player also gets.

    Would like to see how the students will use this next year.

  7. Kat Kat says:
    November 20th, 2011 at 2:52 pm Reply to this comment

    With one goal equal to four successful penalty kicks guess what I will do to prevent tries … infringe … play negative rugby. Because a penalty is one worth two points the attacking team must run the ball so I can keep on infringing untill the attacking team eventually overcomes my infringements to score a try or they go for poles hoping to get a measly two points. The refs will be forced to hand out yellow and red cards to stop to negative play and this will cause other problems.

    This reminds me of the guys messing around with the config files in RTS games on their PC’s to shift the balance of power.

  8. Kat Kat says:
    November 20th, 2011 at 2:55 pm Reply to this comment

    Sorry for all the typos … tablet keyboards sux.

  9. DavidS Champion Supporter DavidS says:
    November 20th, 2011 at 6:55 pm Reply to this comment

    Reply to Kat @ 2:52 pm:

    I’m with you on this.

    This helps borderline serial infringers like Richard McCheat who will gladly give away 8 points via four kicks taking up 10 minutes rather than one 8 point try… ergo… suits the cheaters and spoilers rather than the teams playing.

    It will encourage defensive intentionalism and thus suit the likes of Pocock and poor referees like Bryce Lawrence will be able to lend endless penalties without reverting to the card…

    And even if your team is on a yellow… yawn… two points…

    Suggestion:

    NFL has had minimal law changes and rising viewership. Same for NHL, NBA and baseball. Top watched games in professional sports.

    The problem with rugby is that everyone keeps thinking he has the answer to make the game “more entertaining” when what fans want is consistency.

  10. Kat Kat says:
    November 20th, 2011 at 9:20 pm Reply to this comment

    The refs only weapon is the penalty try … so we’ll see many more of those … and that is precisely where a ref can have an even larger impact on the outcome of a game. I don’t like this one bit.

  11. Boertjie Boertjie says:
    November 20th, 2011 at 10:02 pm Reply to this comment

    Reply to DavidS @ 6:55 pm:

    “suits the cheaters and spoilers rather than the teams playing.”

    Ek sal my stuiwer in hierdie hoed gooi. Hierdie ouens
    gryp na strooihalms – hoekom? Varsity Beker het klaar
    sy merk as ‘n topkompetisie gemaak.

    Moenie heelmaak wat nie stukkend is nie.

  12. bok_in_oz bryce_in_oz says:
    November 21st, 2011 at 2:06 am Reply to this comment

    Reply to Boertjie @ 10:02 pm:

    Agreed… it’s a great tournament and a definite ‘depth-builder’ if one looks at some of the CC players that have come through (Josh Strauss et al)… one certainly doesn’t want it becoming known as ‘the competition for rules/laws experimentation’…

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