Err.. Is there a Rugby World Cup on?
Fan article originally published on The Roar's sports opinion website. Submit your own Rugby article to The Roar - http://www.theroar.com.au/category/rugby-union/ - for potential publication on Rugby.com.au/Wallabies
Written by: phil osopher
Is there a Rugby World Cup on? I walked through Auckland airport late August and swore I saw notice of it.
That’ll give me something to look forward to, I thought, it’ll help defeat my depression of having to return to Australia after watching insanely, good looking women dancing salsa in South America for a few months.
I don’t have Fox anymore. I added up how much money I’d spent on TV over a period of years and it shocked me, so I cut it off, ignoring their pleas and discount offers.
I thought, never mind, the rugby will be on 7 with Gordon Bray on the mic, as the hip-hoppers say, which is a quality sound I’ve always liked. No it isn’t.
I scrambled through the channels to find the opening game and was shocked to see good old Channel Nine has invaded and occupied rugby, and didn’t sign Gordon with it. Oh well, never mind.
There was an Australian game pretty soon, and I watched that. Now let’s see some of these other teams. Where’s it gone?
Occupying my screen, Channel Nine gives me nothing but old stupid movies and other television nonsense. Must be on one of those other new channels I never watch. Nope. Nothing. Huh?
I’m not a huge rugby fan, but I do like the Rugby World Cup.
When it was in Australia two tournaments ago, I was in London. My hosting mate, who is very anti-technology to the extreme level of finding a vegetable peeler an absurd luxury, only had an old rabbit eared black and white portable that he found on the street – young people may have to consult a museum to learn what that is – but it was good enough to pick up the free-to-air broadcast of most if not all matches.
I’m no fan of what I call ‘silly’ teams in such competitions to flesh out the numbers, but the Rugby World Cup is a little different I found.
We watched all these obscure teams like Japan, running around, doing crazy things with the ball and long winding runs.
Despite the ancient technology of leaking vacuum tubes and the need to hit the side of the TV to ‘fix’ it, and the need to squint to discern the difference between the two teams, it was all fantastic stuff.
Even for someone like me who only understands the basic concept of rugby, it was simply brilliant entertaining sport.
I missed the last one because I was being too post-modern for my own good, but I was really looking forward to this one and watching Japan and such again.
It’s funny how as technology improves, one would assume the chances of viewing events would improve in an accordingly linear fashion.
Yet here we are, eight years later, I’ve got this insane colour TV hanging flat against the wall, all these new stations and yet I’m back in the programming dark ages and wouldn’t even know the Rugby World Cup is on, save a smattering of games at odd times.
We seem to have regressed instead of progressed. It is like I’ve travelled back in time in regional Australia with only two channels again.
“Yes there are exciting things happening in the world, but sorry you can’t see them, here watch this stupid cowboy and Indian movie, its got John Wayne in it, ever heard of him?”
I suppose its all about money and pay TV bids and that largely locks it up. But despite my observed regressed state, I have faith this will all change via the technology revolution.
In the future, such events will be broadcast live on the internet, vision quality superb, where viewers can pay directly, which will reap greater revenues than pay TV can ever offer, and we’ll all get to see whatever we want.
Children will have to ask their grandparents what pay TV was, and I’ll rave on for hours about how anti-intuitively, it was in fact appalling for the public viewing of sports, then repeating myself, forgetting what I was saying and dribbling all over the place.
Disclaimer - Views expressed within this story are not necessarily the views of the ARU or rugby.com.au
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Brilliant!
