America’s RWC bid is dream for World Rugby
Who said that dreams don’t come true? First we had the Premiership’s dream coming to fruition as they finally convinced the RFU that the need for ring-fencing was overwhelming as a result of the damage caused by the pandemic to their fan base and finances.
Now there is the biggest dream of all as World Rugby must be wetting their collective pants at the news that the USA has bid for both the men’s and the women’s World Cups.
Since 1924 when the USA beat France in Paris to take Olympic gold for the second time after winning in 1920, the game had declined as a major sport over there. This was as a result of rugby being dropped by the Olympics after the departure of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics and also a massive rugby fan.
Now back in the Olympic mix although only in the Sevens variation, it seems the USA have once again found the desire to compete on the world stage of the game.
This sudden rebirth of interest comes on the back of a number of private equity firms investing in the game, with CVC over here and the American company Silver Lake who have invested in the All Blacks.
Although the new professional Major League Rugby in America has been a bit stop-start particularly over the last couple of seasons, like Japan, it’s attracted a number of stars from the game worldwide including our own Ben Foden.
Others have followed Ben, like Matt Giteau, Adam Ashey-Cooper and former England captain Chris Robshaw.
The money men behind the MLR are aware that for the game to break the stranglehold that the major US team sports have on TV and popular support (American football, basketball, baseball and ice hockey) they need a big event. And nothing is bigger in rugby than the World Cup.
It’s not that rugby hasn’t been played in the USA since 1924, in fact there are many clubs (over 2,500) playing the game but the lack of a professional league until recently has held it back on the world stage.
I am sure that World Rugby will do all in its power to capitalise on this opportunity of breaking into the American market, particularly with the amount of revenue that it could generate for the global game.
Add in the growth it might encourage in countries like Russia and China who also have fledgling unions and whose rivalry could also extend to the sports field. Now wouldn’t that be a dream?
Another dream is that the ringfence has encouraged the Premiership to play a more entertaining style of rugby with some rugby pundits who should know better singing the praises of the games we are currently watching.
Week in week out we are seeing games with cricket score results which we all agree would not have happened had the ring-fence not been put in place.
What this shows is either some teams have made a dramatic improvement in their ability to play the game while others have suffered a decline, or that because there are no consequences in losing the result doesn’t matter.
Before the ring-fence, even the teams at the bottom of the league would fight to keep their losing scores low because points differences could mean the difference between survival or relegation.
Meanwhile, those clubs further up the table would also try and keep points within sensible margins, as again points difference could either qualify your team for higher competitions or not as the case maybe.
The strange thing is we have always known roughly where teams would be come the end of the season with the usual crew at the top and the same at the bottom, but so far this season it has been different.
However, these early games lacking in true competition must be of concern to all, particularly to Eddie Jones as he tries to identify his international players, as a game without an even level of contest is not a game at all.
“It might encourage growth in countries like Russia and China who have fledgeling unions”