Make changes to put the soul back into Rugby Union

I WAS intrigued by the World Rugby response to the belated proposal to reduce the number of substitutes by stating that “the elite and community games are not the same”.

Well whose fault is that? In the knee-jerk stampede to professionalism various rugby bodies took decisions which revolved around money in the misguided belief that entertaining (whatever that is) rugby would swell crowds to professional football club levels and thus make the sport profitable.

In their short sighted vision for the future, they felt they only had Rugby League to look to as a blueprint. So began the relentless pursuit of the perfect entertaining rugby a la league. The lineout, the scrum, the ruck and refereeing all became sacrificial lambs on the altar of entertainment. And what did it achieve?

The complete opposite as embodied by the recent turgid Lions vs Boks borefest. The pandemic has highlighted just how precarious the professional game is and suddenly rugby’s glitterati, ominously quiescent during the last 20 years or so, are clamouring for fundamental change.

The start of a move to give rugby back its soul, its ethos? A move many supporters were advocating long before the so called experts woke up to what was happening to our sport? Sadly I doubt it. But if the removal of wholesale substitutions comes about, I am certain many like me will not hold our breath waiting for the money men to give us back our game.

I don’t want to turn the clock back but I want rugby to become UNION once more in spirit as well as practice.