Rugby, you’ve dug yourself into a hole

Rugby, we need to talk – and now it’s urgent.

You’ve just received a free lesson in sport and I hope you learn something from it – fast.

While you want the world to notice a meaningless friendly rugby game between the All Blacks and the only other team to give a damn about the oval code game (Wales), the rest of the world is talking about Iceland.

Yep, Iceland. They just beat England with a team stacked full of Icelanders at UEFA’s Euro 2016.

More about Iceland later. But for now, look, rugby, Wales hasn’t won down here in my lifetime or the lifetime of the Welsh coach, All Black coach or any of the Welsh or All Black players who took the field. They’ve lost 29 straight. It’s rugby Groundhog day and I’ve had enough. The procession is embarrassing, as was the sycophantic beat-up by local rugby scribes about how competitive it supposedly all was.

As Welsh rugby failed Downunder catastrophically, local sports fans in the valleys were probably more interested in their country’s success at Euro 2016, where they qualified for the knock out rounds for the first time, at the feet of global super star, Gareth Bale.

And that should worry you, rugby.

You see, international rugby, I’m not excited about you any more. I actually fear for the game’s future. The All Blacks need not worry, they are in fine shape. The international oval code game however is not. It is impotent, utterly lame and limp.

Rugby, you’re not in a trough any more. You’re in a hole. The international code is a global joke. You urgently need a Euro 2016 or Copa America tournament staged between world cups to provide meaningful competition with results that matter.

Rugby, are you not seeing the warning signs? Did no one notice the empty stands at Ellis Park, Eden Park and Cake Tin in the Super 18? Hamilton’s FMG Stadium even had empty seats for the Chiefs-Wales game.

Have you not noticed how far Australian rugby, island rugby, club rugby and schoolboy rugby has sunk? Has no one noticed the financial problems the code has or the deeply disturbing dispute in the World Rugby (IRB) ranks over residency?

I sure did. So did World Rugby’s new vice-chairman Agustin Pichot. Last year’s World Cup was littered with players representing their country of residence rather than birth and Pichot has called time on rugby’s residency scam.

‘‘Somebody will kill me but we need to change it,’’ Pichot said. ‘‘I think it is wrong. It should be for life, like in football. I think it is very important to keep the identity of our national teams. As a cultural thing, as an inspiration to new kids, I think having on your team (rugby) players who have not lived for long in the country they are representing I think it’s not right.’’

Of course it’s not right. The Japan win over South Africa in 2015 was Graham Henry’s Granny-Gate scandal on steroids. It lines up alongside Lance Armstrong as a sporting fraud done in the plain sight of the parent body.

Still, there are vested financial interests in the membership of World Rugby who will work to keep the illusion of competitive international rugby alive with teams stacked full of rugby mercenaries, at the cost of the growth of the game itself.

Which brings me back to Iceland. Iceland qualified for Euro 2016 keeping World Cup semifinalists (2014) Holland out of the tournament. The Iceland team is made up of Icelanders. It’s not stacked with Brazilians or Germans, or Italians.

Many of the Icelanders play in domestic football leagues outside their country and that is where they hone their skills. They do so without punishment from their parent sporting body, unlike New Zealand rugby players.

No New Zealander should ever be restricted from freely representing his country because he has chosen to gain more rugby playing time overseas.

Euro 2016 is richer today for the freedom of association Iceland’s players enjoy that is denied to New Zealand rugby players.

World Rugby you could be the greatest spectator sport on the planet. But you have to make changes fast or become irrelevant.

You’ve been handed a sporting lesson by Iceland this month. Learn from it.