Big guns defy call for rugby in summer

THE English and French clubs are refusing to sacrifice their traditional winter game on the altar of a global season as driven by the southern hemisphere.

While Top 14 president Paul Goze declares such a radical change ‘non-negotiable’, a hefty majority of Premiership clubs are understood to oppose a move to summer.

World Rugby’s powerbrokers favoured a model based around two international windows – one in March-April for the Six Nations and Rugby Championship, the other in October-November for interhemisphere tours. That would mean the club season starting in the New Year and finishing in August.

As talks continue to find a solution before the June 30 deadline, one leading Premiership figure said: “We don’t mind moving the season back a few weeks into July to help everyone out but we do mind closing for business throughout December. When times are tougher than they’ve ever been, why would we make it all the more tougher?’’

The French clubs say they will not be reducing their ‘soap opera’ by shortening their season because they cannot afford to do so.

“There is no reason to make a season that satisfies some but means that others make sacrifices,’’ said Goze, president of Ligue Nationale de Rugby.

“For us starting the season in January is out of the question. I would like to

know what that brings. Nothing, only difficulties and only problems.

“What is important is the length of the season, that it runs from September to June. “For partners, spectators, broadcasters it has to be a soap opera that lasts over ten months, not something reduced to a frenzy over six months.

“There would be a significant financial loss which is not negotiable for us. Our proposal checks all the boxes requested by the southern hemisphere nations and World Rugby while remaining balanced for the northern hemisphere.’’