We should give summer a try
THERE were 49 tries scored last weekend in the Premiership – a record for any round this season – and 43 in the Pro12.
Part of the explanation was a certain demob happiness among the clubs with nothing to play for, but the other inescapable elements were the firm pitches and generally favourable conditions.
As the chief executives of the leading rugby nations met in Dublin yesterday to try to sort out the global calendar, a combined average of almost eight tries per game should have been on the front of their dossiers.
The awful rugby first fortnight of from the the Six WASPS are trying to bring Steffon Armitage back to England next season, which would boost his chances of an England recall.
They want the 30-year-old Toulon flanker to replace Japan-bound George Smith. Nations in February seemed light years away. Last weekend provided a glimpse of what might happen if the sport in Europe took a deep breath, grasped the nettle and moved to summer.
“I’m all for playing in the summer the whole time,” said Leicester captain Mathew Tait. “Dan Cole tells me it’s nice to have the attritional part in the middle of the season because it means your squad has to be able to do both.
“I’d have to disagree with him. If you look at the last few weeks, the spectacle since the weather improved has been better for all concerned. Look at the number of tries scored.” It is not just backs who see the benefits. “Traditionally it’s a winter game but being able to throw the ball around more? I wouldn’t be averse to that,” said Harlequins flanker Jack Clifford.
Wasps fly-half Jimmy Gopperth, who hails from Taranaki but has spent seven seasons in Europe, agrees.
“The weather is a big factor in the skill gap between north and south,” he said. “Here, it can be so cold and windy that there’s no point in doing extras after training because you don’t feel you are progressing.
“When it’s warmer everyone stays out at least 20 minutes to practise skills – at home you do that all the time. I’m 100 per cent a fan of summer rugby and if it happened it’s a global season. Best of both worlds.”
The global rugby season is a dog’s dinner with too many ingredients but turning that into haute cuisine which suits everyone is nobody’s idea of a picnic.
As things stand, not a single Test or tour is inked in beyond the 2019 World Cup as the creaking noise from the tectonic plates of the conflicting northern and southern-hemisphere seasons grows ever louder.
World Rugby will sit on Thursday to try to sort it all out after conferring with the players’ unions.
“There is a lot of support for summer rugby,” said Rugby Players’ Association chief executive Damian Hopley.
“But I don’t think we’re mature enough yet as a sport to say to the broadcasters, ‘We are moving to summer, what are your tenders?’
“We have to respect the sanctity and positioning of the Six Nations – the most successful and profitable rugby tournament in the world. “We could move that by a week or two but I’d say we are looking at a tweak rather than a wholesale switch to summer.” The RPA suggest starting the season at the end of September and play through to June. Another to start with the Six Nations in March and play through to December.
It did not matter how filthy the spectacle was back in the amateur era when rugby union could claim itself as purely a players’ game but that argument has been obsolete for the two decades since the sport went professional.
Pitches have improved – an increasing number are plastic – but summer rugby remains the logical end game.
It would be a bold step but one that would provide a canvas for a more skilful sport with a much broader appeal.