It’s boom time for northern rugby thanks Agustin!
Agustin Pichot, World Rugby’s vice-chairman has issued a warning that the game is in trouble, and that a new plan is needed to secure its future after the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Pichot has been the voice of reason within the game’s ruling body in recent years, but I fear he’s lost the plot on this one.
What he really meant was that international rugby is in some trouble, predominantly in the Southern Hemisphere.
This all revolves round the famous global calendar, something that exists only at the end of the yellow brick road, and in the minds of a few administrators. It’s just a fact of life that the seasons are different in the north and south, and that their countries play rugby at different times of the year. This causes real grief when they want to play each other, as one set of players are fatigued by a long season, while the others are just starting theirs. It means that most cross-hemisphere Test matches outside of the RWC are, by definition, destined to be unsatisfactory contests.
Instead of Pichot’s negative perspective on the why not applaud its successes? The Six Nations sells out every year, and the northern nations manage to fit it into their calendar without too much trouble.
The Premiership and the Top14 are highly successful, and for those, like me, who worry about their financial model, the interest from CVC, and no doubt others who will follow, says that the competition is perceived to have huge financial value. Both leagues are also run by successful entrepreneurs who have chosen to invest in rugby – surely that’s only a good thing?
The PRO14, or however many they’re up to now, is far from my favourite com- petition for all sorts of reasons, but their organisers are talking a good game about its future prospects having incorporated some South African teams, and a new broadcasting deal rumoured to be worth around £30m.
European rugby is incredibly successful with the clubs, provinces, and regions coming together throughout the season for the Champions and Challenge Cups which attract huge and fanatical audiences. In fact, when I look at Northern Hemisphere rugby I see pretty well nothing but success.
It’s when you look south that things get a bit murkier. Super Rugby is a bit of a shambles, and the Rugby Championship isn’t capgame, turing the hearts of the punters, largely down to the insane distances involved and New Zealand’s almost complete domination, notwithstanding yesterday’s defeat by the Boks.
It’s time for World Rugby to get real about the state of the game, and celebrate the Northern Hemisphere’s enterprise and success. On the back of that success I can only see more rugby being played in the north.
I reckon that whoever invests in the Premiership will want to chase even more lucrative broadcasting contracts, and that could involve extending the English season – the French already play from the third week in August through to the middle of June. On the back of that squad sizes will have to rise. This means there will be even less time for Test matches, but is that really such a bad thing?
Maybe the brave new rugby world will be dominated by successful club leagues and knock-out cups, with the Six Nations and Rugby Championship being the international competitions in most years, and the RWC being what brings everyone together on a four-yearly cycle. Would that really be such a bad model?
During the week England Rugby announced they had acquired a new ‘rehydration partner’ in a company called Fuzion 100.
I did a bit of research. It seems that regular H2O – free from any tap near you – just isn’t good enough for the elite athlete any more, and that they need something special. In the case of Fuzion 100 that’s coconut water from Vietnam, which is then transported nearly 9,000 miles to keep the England players going.
In the Rugby Museum at Twickenham you can see a video of Budge Rogers eating half-time oranges, and swigging tap water from a bottle – how the world has moved on!