YOU CANNOT GO ON LIKE THIS
Wallaby legend Lynagh says Prem rugby is ‘unsustainable’ as players are paid more than the business can afford
STATE OF PLAY IN RUGBY’S TWO HEMISPHERES NORTHERN SOUTHERN
Players furloughed or handed pay With New Zealand and Australia cuts throughout the Six Nations. having come through the worst And with summer tours of the pandemic, new-look postponed and autumn Tests in domestic competitions will danger of cancellation, even the shortly resume in those
Rugby Football Union, governing countries. But money’s too tight body of the world’s richest rugby to mention, with Rugby Australia nation, is braced for revenue having this week cut 40 per cent losses of up to £50million. Across of its workforce and the NZRU the Atlantic, USA Rugby has filed facing a 70 per cent decline in for bankruptcy. revenue for 2020.
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AS top-flight English rugby takes its first tentative step towards a return to play, Michael Lynagh has warned the Premiership is not a sustainable business model.
The World Cup winner concedes rugby globally is “on a very delicate edge” after bosses in his native Australia cut 40 per cent of staff within the national governing body in a bid to stave off insolvency.
Despite English Premiership clubs getting the green light yesterday to resume non-contact, sociallydistanced training, there is still no timeframe for the cash-strapped sport to restart the business of playing.
Lynagh (top right, in playing days), one of rugby’s most distinguished figures, says the sport cannot afford to waste the opportunity afforded by the hiatus to change as “it’s not working at the moment”.
He said: “You’ve got to think this difficult time will provide the impetus for people to say, ‘We need to put ourselves in a position where we’re almost crisisproof going forward. We’ve got to get a business model that works.’
“Rugby is on a very delicate edge. “There were issues going into this pandemic but this crisis has exacerbated everything and really focused people’s minds. The knock-on effect is concerning, with people losing jobs as we’ve seen in Australia. The Premiership is one of the few businesses where the employers pay the employees more than the business can afford.
“It’s not a sustainable model and I think clubs have suddenly thought this is the time to reset salaries and wages.”
Lynagh also feels a rethink is necessary for the southern hemisphere’s flagship Super Rugby club competition as it is “obvious” it is not working “in terms of numbers watching the games”.
World Rugby is debating proposals for an all-new global calendar which aligns the hemispheres.
This has long been rugby’s holy grail but Lynagh said: “It would work better turning it more vertically and aligning Africa with Europe; New Zealand and Australia with the Pacific Islands and Asia; South America with USA and Canada, with everybody playing similar things at a similar time of year.
“I can kind of understand why the Six Nations go, ‘Why do we have to help the southern hemisphere, why would we want to help our competitors? We’ve got our own business up here and we’re running that well’.
“But if you don’t have a New Zealand or an Australia, a Samoa or a Fiji, rugby is worse off. So people have to give a little. If they don’t, the same old problems will persist.”
FORMULA ONE: PLENTY OF ACTION IN STORE NOW