Appointing Bill Sweeney as RFU CEO could be a game-changer
“His experience is going to be essential as he has stepped into his role at a time when uncertainty rules the day”
With the third round of the Six Nations rightly taking the headlines, it would have been easy to miss what could be a real game changing event for rugby in England.
A new dawn for the RFU with the appointment of a CEO, Bill Sweeney who, unlike his predecessors, has actually played the game at a level that should enable him to understand some of the problems currently facing the game.
Although playing at club level is not necessarily a prerequisite in running the Union, it should help to give him a little more inside knowledge of the struggles that both the professional and grass-root clubs face weekly.
From the amateur days, when all clubs shared in the profits of the Union and the players got 20p a mile plus a bit of free kit if they played internationals, to the professional days where the pressure of financial survival haunts all clubs at every levels and is overwhelming.
The golden days of big profits that enabled Twickenham to be transformed into the magnificent edifice we see today are now just a distant memory as the needs of the professional game have increasingly eaten into the revenues produced by the international game in its efforts to survive and grow.
A successful Six Nations would be certain to help the RFU financially and would boost hopes and support for the World Cup, potentially increasing sales of replica kit etc. and helping to increase sponsorship for the individual team members.
This makes it a strange time for anyone to be taking the reins of the Union with so much uncertainty surrounding the game but I assume Sweeney must have a vision of where he would like to take the game.
Sweeney is probably better suited to the role of RFU CEO than any of his recent predecessors because he has a background not just in business like Francis Baron, or business and professional sport like Ian Ritchie, both of whom moved the RFU closer to becoming a business rather than a sport’s governing body.
Sweeney’s time at the BOA would have seen him dealing with the vagaries and reality of sport in all its guises. From pure amateurism through semi-professionalism to the full on professionalism of the multi-Olympic gold medal winners, he was at the head of an organisation that was tasked with making all their dreams come true while raising the finances to make it happen.
His experience is going to be essential as he has stepped into his role at a time when uncertainty rules the day: midway through the Six Nations and a few months before a World Cup, where results on the field could make for a very different environment in the Union’s finances.
The uncertainty that surrounds the game is mainly down to the contract signed by previous RFU boss Ritchie, promising the Premiership, his new employers, the potential of an increasing amount in the second half of their eight-year deal.
Win and the pressure will ease, lose and another round of job cuts and a squeeze on grass-root funding seems on the cards. For the RFU and Sweeney it is a simple equation at the moment, a Championship win looks likely with two home games left to play and neither Italy nor Scotland playing anywhere near the levels England need to fear.
This year’s Six Nations was hailed as a chance for the Northern Hemisphere to show that they had reached and over taken the Southern Hemisphere on the pitch. With Ireland, England and Wales nestled below New Zealand above South Africa and Australia in world rugby rankings it looks as though they have succeeded, but that goes to show the old adage that there are lies, dam lies and statistics is true.
The one thing that has stood out for me so far in this Six Nations is the paucity of the games, with teams doing more to lose them. The only game I consider a true contest was Ireland verses England, the rest have been farces.
England and Wales’ games against France are perfect examples. England and Wales didn’t win those games, France lost them, which told us more about France than it did about either England or Wales.
I know the old saying that you can only play what’s in front of you but if they are as poor as the French were it’s impossible to get a true measure of this England team or, in fact, any of the teams. What that means is this Six Nations is not a pointer for Japan and we will only know if the northern game is better than the SANZA game when we play them in Japan.
It’s a little ironic that English rugby has been captivated by the will-he, won’t-he story surrounding Manu Tuilagi possibly signing for French club Racing 92.
If he signs he will no longer be available for England selection because of the RFU deal with the Premiership and yet it is only because the RFU petitioned the Home Office that he was allowed to stay in England and continue his rugby career after over staying his student visa.
If he goes the RFU would rightly feel a little betrayed and so too Leicester Tigers who have nursed him through his injuries.