Rugby’s worrying money gap

There was a time when rugby matches between New Zealand and South Africa were “close” contests, said Charlie Morgan in The Sunday Telegraph. Those days are over. On Saturday, the All Blacks beat the Springboks 57-0 – a record margin of victory over them. They were “utterly dominant, comprehensively outmanoeuvring their opponents”. Remarkably, it was the second successive match in which they registered 57 points against South Africa: such is the “chasm between these nations”.

It was a joy to watch, said Stuart Barnes in The Times. But it was also “deeply worrying” for the international game. The Springboks were very far from fielding the best team they could. And that’s because several of their players were missing, as they were playing club rugby in other countries – the outstanding full-back Willie le Roux, for example, was competing for Wasps in England’s Premiership. Today, a choice confronts many players about whether to play for club or country – and they often opt for the former, electing to play for wealthy clubs in England and France. In the case of Argentina, players who move to European clubs can’t be called up for international duty, so the national team has to do without Facundo Isa, hailed as “the future of Argentine forward play”, because he has been lured to Toulon. It’s the clubs that have most of the cash, so unless the “money gap” is closed, the national teams face “a bleak future”.