Coaching guru Wayne Smith blasts the state of men’s rugby after turning off Super Rugby game

A few weeks ago, Wayne Smith says he did something that he’s never done before – he turned off a game of rugby at halftime and watched a nature documentary instead.

The game in question was the Highlanders v Force Super Rugby Pacific game in Perth, when Australian referee Nic Berry dished out five yellow cards in a grim spectacle.

Smith, dubbed ‘The Professor’ due his love and knowledge of the game, said he had had enough.

“The standard is great in terms of the quality of the players that you see around the world,” Smith said on the All Blacks podcast. “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting frustrated with the game.

“Not the players, I’m frustrated with the game.

“I watched the game that Nic Berry refereed the other day, and his arm is out the whole time. Every single play, there’s an advantage.

“Then, you know, we’re going to go seven, eight phases and if it goes nowhere, we’re going to come back and it’s going to be a penalty.

“Then, 30 seconds to kick the ball and another 40 seconds for the lineout to happen. It’s going to be a drive that’s going to collapse, and It’s going to be an arm coming out.

“It’s going to come back to another penalty. Kick to touch, another drive. Then a yellow card comes out because they do it again.”

Smith’s exasperation will be shared by many fans, with the rolling maul becoming the repetitive weapon of choice for many teams in Super Rugby and in tests.

“I turned off the first time in my life at halftime,” Smith said. “I actually put on program on the Lions in the Serengeti. I watched an animal documentary.

“I was so frustrated with it. I don’t know if it got any better in the second half. It probably did. But I just thought it’s not the sort of game I want to watch at the moment when it’s like that.”

Smith’s criticism should also be a wake-up call for the game’s governing bodies, who have watched on in recent years as hookers have become more prolific try scorers than many wingers due to the prominence of the rolling maul.

“I’ve come out and spoken publicly around the lineout drive and mauls in particular,” Smith said.

“I reckon one thing that would fix that is…if you get a penalty and a kick to touch the other team gets their throw-in.

“That would stop all these incessant kicks down into the corner and driving mauls and mauls falling over and then another one and then another one.

“I don’t know how many people I’m speaking for when I say this about the mauls and the scrums but I bet there’s a lot.”