Fantasy rugby competitions, where punters can pick their teams to contest matches against other punters, are becoming more and more popular. With a common budget, competitors will "purchase" individual players who will score points for match stats (tackles, line-breaks, etc) and actual match points (tries, goals etc). Naturally high scoring positions like 1^st 5/8^th and the wings, blah blah blah. But in this fantasy world, a non-point-producing player is dropped quicker than burning bag of shit, without a thought given for the player or their welfare.

But this isn't about the ins and outs of the fantasy competitions, this is about Fantasy vs Reality. And reality bites.

In the fantasy world, its all about the pursuit of points, if it dont work, all you lose is kudos with the local sportsnerd-fraternity.

The suits in Super rugby headquarters are beginning to think like this. According to this, they want a return to the super rugby olde school. Players, coaches and referees are being "encouraged" to encourage a weekend-windback to the days big scores, big hits, and big line breaks. Now in a fantasy world this is great. In reality, not so.

To true we, the fans, will applaud the return to "hurricane rugby" i.e. chucking the ball around with reckless abandon, attacking from anywhere, giving no thought for field position, making possession a word confined to horror movies, and measuring pace by how fast you can turn around and chase the guy who just pounced on your turn-over.

But franchise boards will have targets; ticket-buying spectators don't show up to teams that lose, no matter how open and running their rugby is. The coaches and players want to win for bonuses and prestige. And the defensive screens established over a decade of "win-at-all-cost" rugby will not go quietly into the night.

This idea of "open running rugby" will be true for the first round maybe.

Maybe.

But reality bites. Quickly.