Cash needed to halt the exodus from south
Talking ahead of yesterday’s Six Nations encounter with Scotland, Eddie Jones responded to criticism of England’s style of play with the words, ‘Test match rugby is about winning… if you want entertainment watch Super Rugby’. The new Super Rugby season has just kicked off, and it’s a seminal one following the radical surgery undertaken on the format of the competition.
There’s something in the psyche of rugby administrators that makes them tinker with formats that have stood the test of time. We have the madness of the Anglo-Welsh Cup, the PRO12 let a couple of failing South African franchises join, having singularly failed to learn the lessons of bringing in the Italians – but they’re probably trumped by Super Rugby’s ridiculous move to the Super18.
That experiment ended in ignominy, but most of the people who bullishly drove the expansion have kept their jobs! Failure in rugby administration doesn’t seem to have any effect on job tenure!
2018 Super Rugby sees three fewer teams than before, with the Kings and the Cheetahs gone to the PRO14, and the Western Force dumped.
There are now three fiveteam conferences, one for New Zealand, South Africa plus the Argentinian franchise, and the Australian teams plus the Japanese. Each team will play 16 matches, eight home and away against the four other sides in their conference, and eight against other teams – you really couldn’t make this up. After that there will be the now-obligatory play-offs. The big question is whether the new ‘simpler’ format will appeal to the punters, and bring them back in through the gates?
The jewel in Super Rugby’s crown is, of course, New Zealand, but under their Soviet-style administration, their star players will be withdrawn from the competition whenever Steve Hansen and his coaches want access to them. They have instructed the franchises to rest their All Blacks for two rounds of the competition, as well as for four one-day, and two three-day camps, and this was seemingly imposed without any face to face contact with the coaching teams.
One other development in New Zealand rugby that hasn’t attracted much attention in the north, is the latest wheeze to get a grip on Kiwi players heading to Europe, by offering sabbaticals with clubs that meet the NZRU’s exacting standards!
The hope is that foreign clubs will sign prize New Zealand ‘assets’ for one or two seasons, but agree to manage them in a particular way, perhaps restricting their game time to the level the NZRU want. The players top up their pensions, the All Blacks get them back for the RWC, and the Europeans hand over their cash for the privilege of having second or third choice players in their squad. To me it simply shows how out of touch NZRU are.
The days when the allure of the All Black or Wallaby jersey was allimportant have gone. Every player is just one false step away from a career-ending injury, and unless you can become an icon like Dan Carter, Richie McCaw or George Smith, they’d better cash in while they can. If the Southern Hemisphere countries want to keep their players, then the answer is simple: find a way to generate enough cash to pay them the salaries their talents merit.
The Wasps v Exeter game was a lively affair, and a disciplinary hearing has given Gabiriele Lovobalavu a four-week ban for his attempted tackle on the Chiefs’ Sam Hill.
Some Wasps supporters have taken it badly that the citing officer was ex-Gloucester prop Nick Wood but the more you look at the incident, the harder it is to come to any conclusion other than that the ban was justified. Besides, all Wood did was cite the player – it was an independent panel that and came to its decision.
Wasps issued a statement on behalf of Dai Young saying that only the citing officer and the panel saw this as a red card offence, but the fact is that those are the only people who need to see it that way.
Players know they have to tackle lower than in the past, and Lovobalavu clearly went higher than is allowed. It’s fortuitous for Wasps that Wood didn’t also cite Ashley Johnson for the swinging arm that got him yellow carded.