Cup encore
All Blacks’ chance to settle the score?
An unofficial Rugby World Cup is being proposed for next year, with reports suggesting it could raise up to $500 million for the financially beleaguered game.
New Zealand and other top nations would square off, just two years after England thwarted the All Blacks’ attempt at a historic three-peat in the semifinal of the 2019 tournament in Japan.
According to the proposal, the matches would be staged in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and force the British and Irish Lions’ eight-match tour of South Africa in early July to be postponed to protect professional club competitions around the world.
The Telegraph reports the idea is the brainchild of Francis Baron, a former chief executive of England’s Rugby Football Union (RFU), and has been put before RFU bosses and World Rugby.
Staged over six weeks in June and July, 16 invited teams would play 31 matches under a plan labelled the “Coronavirus Cup of World Rugby”.
“The key will be winning the support of the Southern Hemisphere unions but with everyone facing horrendous financial challenges, this is a bold and ambitious plan to raise large amounts of new cash from which they will be major beneficiaries,” Baron told The Telegraph.
Baron, who helped England win the hosting rights for the 2015 World Cup, said that tournament generated profits of around $800m.
All profits from the proposed 2021 tournament would be spread around the participating unions, and a support fund started for rugby families who had lost members to Covid-19.
“The RFU should take a leadership position and propose to other major unions and World
Rugby that a special one-off tournament be held,” Baron said.
“Its key selling point is that all the money raised would be for keeping the game of rugby alive around the world.”
England predicts it will lose more than $200m in revenue if the end-of-year internationals are cancelled. World Rugby has already created a $160m rescue package.
New Zealand Rugby, meanwhile, has confirmed it won’t be following World Rugby’s proposal to ban scrum resets, team huddles and upright tackles when the reformatted Super Rugby Aotearoa kicks off next month.
World Rugby announced on Tuesday it was considering the moves to reduce the risk of Covid19 but will ultimately leave any final decision up to national bodies.
World Rugby’s influential medical group proposed team huddles and spitting would also be scrapped while players would be required to change their kit and headgear at halftime.
Scrums were the highest risk event, making up 50 per cent of high exposure time during a match, according to the report.
NZR chief executive Mark Robinson told Radio New Zealand those rules won’t apply to the new New Zealand-based competition which begins on June 13.
“There don’t appear to be any signs of community transmission in New Zealand so our circumstances are quite different and we don’t anticipate the need to adopt the law proposals,” Robinson said.
“We have been open with World Rugby about this and they understand our unique situation. We will continue to manage all health risks with stringent protocols and be lead by our public health authorities.
“The protocols including daily symptom and temperature checks, stringent hygiene and cleaning, contact tracing practices, and asking anyone who feels unwell to stay away, self-isolate and get tested,” Robinson said.
All money raised would be for keeping the game alive. Francis Baron