Rugby Legends Tackle Tough FAN Questions! 🏉 Continental Tyres Q&A Live! 

15:03 - Great point from Shane. I re-watched the 2010 Cook Cup recently, and was amazed to see the TMO used once only to check the grounding of a ball. Everything else was play on; a far quicker, more exciting game. Rugby, in the contemporaneous sense, is completely different from what it was fifteen years ago.

Some brilliant questions But the answers by the panel are first class and very well reasoned and intelligent

Absolutely spot on Tinds, rugby needs to embrace it's physicality

What a fantastic discussion. Well played fellas👏🏻

Not sure the Netflix doco will really grow the game. The thing with DTS is that although it has brought a lot of new F1 fans onboard, the nature of F1 is that the level of participation is irrelevant, because F1 is a closed, elite sport (not to mention that motorsport is expensive anyway). I dont really see how the documentary will address getting more people playing the grassroots game. The way i see it in England, and I imagine this is perhaps the case in some other countries, is that rugby is seen as a more middle class sport (which in most of England it certainly is, you only need to look at the background of most England players). The game needs to be expanded in schools, get more coaches and quality coaches, and then we may perhaps change the demographics of who is involved and interested in Rugby. There is a lot of untapped potential in England, particularly in the north where rugby union is played less.

What a great show..a bit fatigued after the RWC, and apart from the Breakdown I was starting to wish Mot GP would hurry up...this was excellent, thanks all involved...some great questions/answers...fm sunny Capetown

League and gridiron can be very physical. What makes rugby special is\it’s a more complex game than the others - more things can happen - it’s less predictable so more interesting to watch

I honestly think the issue with British Rugby is marketing. Rugby is not selling itself - and there is so much to sell. The skill, the power, the community - the stars. Not sure about the USP being physicality. But where else can you see a small (relatively) winger or scrum half taking on a human monolith, so maybe this is correct. I do remember when Rugby went through a ‘hulks smashing into each other phase' which is just boring inmho.

Flipping England Rugby around from "the National team comes first and Club second" sounds like a generational work in progress ! Unless some radical grabs it by the scruff of the neck - and what will that even look like.....Ideas scribbled on the back of an envelope please :)

So agree on the video replay comment.

TMO intervention killed the game. Bring it back to one ref (on the pitch) and his/her whistle which is the first and final say. Everything else can be sorted out post game. I don't even watch Rugby anymore due to the endless scrutiny over every tiny infraction. Sometimes I barely make it through highlights the day after on catch up. Shane Horgan and Tinds are absolutely right - we play the game because it is physical, we need to embrace that...not shy away from it.

Guy in the baseball cap looks like David Brent at a motivational speech.

Agree with it all tbf, well done everyone. Would be such a better game if we let explayers such as people on the panel govern the game. Has anyone ever thought about getting into one of these gentlemens clubs and stirring the pot?

Sarries must be doing well now …the stadium was packed full at stonex v Chiefs a week ago ?

Rugby is a niche sport. Growing the game is talked about all the time. In NZ we always rabbit on about when it takes off in America etc, it won't. Kids in Africa aren't going to abandon football for a sport where you get pounded into the ground and stomped on. Same for South America and Asia. Just know your place and enjoy where you are.

Get the game free to air in North America and as many other areas. If not all then certainly more marquee games than current.

There needs to be more humility in the culture of the sport. Casual fans hardly know any of the rules and are unaware of historical rivalries and why it matters. There should be a focus on David vs Goliath storylines and the broadcasters need to make the matchups more cinematic and epic, and focus on the historical significance of certain games, especially in the Premiership. (i.e Leicester as the Goliath historically, Saracens being the dominant force last decade or so etc) There also needs to be an explanation of the rules in documentaries so people know why a 50-22 matters and why certain positions matter (Lock for height in lineouts, Props for power in scrums etc) This, along with certain tweaks to rules, would make rugby skyrocket in viewers

impact subs v starting shirt, rolling subs, discuss.

I refrer you to Conor O' Shea.

Great first comment! 😂

Why can these blokes not run the game!!!!

Rugby in France is booming, it is advertised/sold as a physical game, no toxic masculinity, it is a physical game after all, controlled violence at the end of the day

The Wallabies were top innovators and world champions until the Boks demolished them in 95 RWC at Newlands. They were never the same again.

I think there's too much of a knee jerk reaction to the clubs that went bust. It was a unique circumstance around the following. 1. Clubs breaking the salary cap without any consequences for over a decade and inflating wages, meaning that every club had to pay more than they could afford for players just to avoid relegation as they couldn't afford relegation either. 2. A club relocating away from their fans and into the middle of the catchment areas of two other Premiership clubs and the same city as an existing Championship club, thus putting pressure on all of those sides. Said club also mortagaging themselves via short term bonds which they had a very tight deadline to pay back e.g. not enough time to make the move work financially if it even was going to.' 3. Matches being moved for TV at short notice meaning fewer fans could commit to season tickets. 4. Covid being the tipping point. Yes we need better management of the game, but we don't need to do anything drastic. Just enforce the salary cap properly, make sure clubs can't turn themselves into franchises that move around and finally make sure supporters who want to commit to attending matches are respected and not taken for granted. The only thing that I would change financially is more of that massive pile of cash that the RFU get for England matches should go to the players in order to incentivise them to stay in the Premiership. However there should be no central contracts, it should be paid per week you are in the England camp.

They also need to do better explaining the penalties. I really like watching rugby, but theres a lot of the penalties (or whatever they are called) that I dont get and they rarely get talked about by the announcers

Re: 11:45 as a Yank what I don't understand with UK sporting culture is it's one or the other. You are either a football fan or a rugby fan but not both. In America, people support their NFL team in the winter, and their baseball team in the summer. The sports don't have conflicting schedules in their regular season, so people participate and spend their money in both. Perhaps club rugby should have a spring to autumn schedule and stop trying to compete with football.

That's because it was amateur for so long. French rugby has always been pro even when it was meant to be amateur so in the South it has incumbent advantage over football. England cannot replicate that.

....and yet we penalise players constantly now for that physicality

I really think Tindall should be the top guy at the RFU.

Tindel showing his ridiculous bias against Bok rugby on this episode. How one eyed can he be? Has he even been following the URC numbers at all?

I'm 74. I played rugby for 19 years in the late 60's through 1980's. Two plus seasons was in Yorkshire UK. I later coached both men and women and refereed about 100 matches. I disagree with the idea of "physicality" as the selling point or rather should be. I would NOT recommend what was once a "beautiful game" be played by any child, woman or man or child, given the decline of the skills in the game. Part of this the Laws change or their interpretation. Bulk is "king". The 8 subs per match encourages bulk over speed, agility, and skill. The fact that a tackled player can lie to shield the ball and the defense cannot play it except from his back is foolish. The so called jackal is in a highly defenseless situation and can be shoulder charged...which would be a foul were he carrying the ball and saw the tackler coming. Mauls at the lineout are a fact or 7 players in an offside position, ie in front of the ball on their side, obstructing the opposition and in fact pushing them. Feeding the scrum? Foolish. This an other such limits the games appeal , and declining numbers in UK and Australia suggest the same, as where speed and skill once found a place on any side in any country, the legendary heroes of the game, Barry John say, or "Mighty Mouse" Scottish prop in 1971 wouldn't be given a trial on the home team because they'd be too small. Fitness looses out. Willy John McBride would need to try out as a center. This is not an accident and it is fostered by absurd Law changes and their equally narrow interpretation. The NFL now mentions in its own self-defense, that there are fewer concussions in American football (where every play is designed that every player makes contact with at least one other) than in rugby. That disgusts me. My mates in UK to a person say "I'm glad that I played when I did" and have no sons or daughters or grandchildren who participate in the no longer "beautiful sport".

Rugbys failings is the unions & fans. Unions only in it for themselves & not the game. I went to my first game after 5 years saints v sale. Fan zone totally awesome, entertainment, great atmosphere but the under lying pretentious attitude of fans was sad. Then I had a running commentary by 2 old gentleman complaining about every decision & that was different in our day. To add first half was really poor game until both teams throw the ball around.

We should protect the players but the current rules are to virtue signal protection while really doing nothing positive to protect them. Whilst also making a mockery of the game, red cards ruining games for things every rugby fan knows were hardly even justifiably a penalty let alone a red card.

The English Premier League revenues are almost as much as the whole of world rugby - A single football league. Rugby needs to be realistic about where it sits in the context of other pro sports. Shane is correct regarding Schmidt. Prescriptive, but clever rugby that was ultimately awful to watch.

Rugby is not on a downward spiral viewers or spectators ..Fake claim.

Nobody goes to SA games?!? Wtf is Tindel smoking? SA involvement is URC has led directly to viewership records falling, both bums on seats at stadiums as well as tv viewership. Is he ever getting past his biased distaste for Bok rugby?

The issue with England is the RFU. When will all the so-called experts stop dancing around the real problem we have and be honest with us. The RFU has only succeeded in making Twickenham financially very successful. (Not hard with one of the most wealthy global catmint areas on their doorstep) They have also done a great job of promoting the women’s game. Otherwise they have insured. The game is financially unstable, that the gap between club and country remains as does the conflict. That our players are only allowed to gain experience in England if they want to play for England. Thus ensuring that we do not learn from the rest of the world as the rest of the world has done. They have done a terrible job of supporting and succession planning of the head coach. This has been consistent from Clive Woodward days even before then. In short, they’ve continued over the last 20 years to ensure the English rugby is pulled further and further down. When will all of you so-called experts, be honest and call them out?

You wouldnt have to go back X amount of plays if the damn referees would just do their f'ing jobs. Put the blame where it needs to be there pls. We dont want games being decided by referee errors, lets be real here. World Rugby need to clean up the game as far as farcical referee'ing goes. If a TMO is having to step in regularly that tells you the on field in ATROCIOUS, end of story, stop protecting the ref, stop sugar coating it. Call a spade a spade

The Netflix doc was a big disappointment. Just never got under the skin and was predictable and dull.

I hate Drive to Survive tbh. The amount of manufactured/fabricated drama is ridiculous. So much fakeness, absolute nonsense.