Rugby union should learn from rugby league’s willingness to embrace physicality

In 2004, the single Am I Ever Gonna See the Biff Again? was released in Australia lamenting how rugby league had gone soft Down Under. Sample lyric: “What has it come to when a bloke can’t punch his mate?” It was satire, but only just.

Now Biff is back on the menu in the National Rugby League as league’s biggest club competition prepares to take a double header to Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium on Saturday which this month hosted the Super Bowl. To win converts to its cause in the entertainment capital of the world, the NRL has produced an extremely slick, well produced video narrated by Russell Crowe that has attracted more than 1.2 million views on X, formerly Twitter.

Maximus’s primer begins “arguably the fastest, most aggressive ball-in-hand football game that exists” and there follows five minutes of footage that is about 70 per cent violent tackles. Viewing it through a union prism, it can appear jarring to see so many big, potentially concussive hits celebrated. The bunker would go into meltdown.

Unlike league, which unapologetically prides itself on its aggression, union seems to have grown scared of its own core physicality as a concussion lawsuit rumbles through the court system. This, in the eyes of former Harlequins and current Fijian Drua chief executive Mark Evans, is holding union back, particularly with how the sport sells itself. As former chief executive at the Melbourne Storm, Evans has seen first-hand how the NRL has exploded in popularity, and it is not by hiding from its visceral, violent elements.

“I thought the NRL adverts were great, they were terrific,” Evans said. “The NRL are on a roll.”

“Rugby [union] isn’t for everyone. It’s not. In the same way that diving isn’t for everyone. The thought of doing that scares me rigid. But it doesn’t mean it should stop them from doing it. It is another world. Crack on. Rugby is not for everyone. How can a collision sport not emphasise its physicality? It’s a nonsense.

“That’s what people like about it. You can make the game safer and address the concussion issue and not lose the game’s physicality. I refuse to believe those two things are not possible. Also we are talking about adult rugby. We are not talking about kids’ rugby. I don’t see the NFL not emphasising the physicality. Or the NRL. Or MMA. Or WWE. I am not saying you should use it to the exclusion of all the other things you want to emphasise but we shouldn’t hide away or be embarrassed by it. It is a physical game.”

Having worked all across the globe, Evans believes the phenomenon of union denying its own inherent danger and risk is particularly pronounced in the United Kingdom. “It is only Britain that seems to shy away from that fact [celebrating rugby’s physicality],” Evans said. “They don’t do it in France. They don’t do it in Fiji. They don’t do it in Australia. So is this an English-British phenomenon? I don’t know but I have a feeling it is more pronounced there.

“The whole culture has become more risk-adverse. Perhaps we tend to be more comfortable critiquing things than celebrating them. I think there’s a bit of that going on as well. I think maybe we have lost a bit of confidence in the sport in Britain and parts of Ireland, but this idea that it will put people off, I just don’t buy it.”

That message seems to be filtering through to some of the higher-ups with the likes of Mike Tindall calling for it to change. Rob Calder, Premiership Rugby’s head of growth, told the Times: “Rugby has an establishment, conservative feel to it and we don’t see that when we look at the NRL. We need to amp it up.”

That view is far from universally shared. The stories of many of the individual players involved in the concussion court case are horrifying as they are harrowing. At a time when the sport has made so much effort to make itself safe, would it not be a retrograde step to start celebrating big hits that could scare parents off taking their children to minis training?

Evans argues that it is a false dichotomy to choose between making the game safer and celebrating its physicality.

“I don’t think they are mutually exclusive and it is vital that we don’t conflate them,” Evans said. “I would also make a really clear distinction between adult rugby versus mini, tag and touch, which are miles apart. We should not be promoting them as one and the same thing. That is why NFL, the biggest sport in the states which has physicality at its core, are promoting tag football so much. They are not changing the adult core televisual product, bar a few tweaks.

“Let’s be clear about this. The game is far less violent. The game that is currently played is way less violent than when it was kicking, punching and stamping, which was the case when I played. That has just gone. If it does happen it is an isolated incident. A lot of people enjoy watching physical sports. That’s why boxing is popular. Don’t pretend you are not.”