Answering the SOS for test rugby

Next week 90 of rugby’s most powerful men will gather in England to try and save test match football. If you’re inclined to believe in miracles, it might be time to start praying for one.

Somehow, some way, this disparate band of spokesman, gathered at the behest of the IRB, have to put self-interest to one side for three pivotal days and try and get on the same page.

No pressure then fellas. But it’s no stretch to say that test match rugby – at least that outside of the World Cup, and to a lesser extent the Six Nations – could be relying on it.

You’ll note I don’t include the Tri-Nations in the list of competitions that are raging successes already. This was a deliberate omission, for the annual southern hemisphere championship remains in need of a makeover of some description.

But principally what’s at stake here is the interaction between north and south, which at the moment is somewhere between hopeless and useless.

The existing test windows in June-July and November are piecemeal, at best, and largely irrelevant, to take a cynical view. The situation has got so dire now, particularly when the northern sides head south, that you wonder why they even bother.

Then on top of this there’s the flow of the whole rugby year. There’s no real impetus to the test match season; rather it seems to operate in fits and starts. And outside of the Six and Tri-Nations, and the odd Grand Slam tour, matches have no particular relevance.

These are the sort of factors that the IRB’s chosen 90 will have to wade their way through as they sit down and debate the intricacies of an ideal sort of test match programme. There’s no specific agenda for change to come out of this forum, but the hope is, given the historic nature of the gathering, that a blueprint can at least be drafted.

The early whisper is that the IRB are pretty keen on establishing a global test window between September and November in which, in essence, all off the test matches outside the likes of the Tri-Nations and Six Nations could take place.

To me it sounds eminently sensible.

I’ve never been a big fan of test matches in June and July in New Zealand and anything that removes showcase rugby from having to be played on freezing midwinter nights would be a step in the right direction.

Also it shapes as in ideal chance to remake our season into something much more sensible. Like this: the Super 14 could start in March and run through till the end of June with an extended playoff format to lift interest; the Tri-Nations would then run July-September; with the global window following right on the tail of that. Around that would fit the national provincial competition which remains a problem fit, but which is a whole different set of issues.

I’m sure there are still some major hurdles to clear before anything like this integrated global season can become a reality. Top of the list would be how you could fit such a major chunk of time in around the existing club competitions in the north. Some monumental compromise would probably be required.

Also getting the northern unions to buy into playing major test matches right at the start of their season would be difficult. It may require some seismic sort of shifts in terms of thinking and scheduling.

But regardless of the exact timing, the principal to me seems worth pursuing.

For starters the matches could suddenly become infinitely more meaningful because they could be placed in the context of some sort of global test championship that could/should culminate in a money-spinning finals format.

Something like soccer’s hugely successful Champions League would be not too far off the mark.

Maybe each year teams are split into four pools, and they play home and away, with the winners of each group going forward into a top four playoff. Perhaps runnerup goes into a second division championship, just to keep matches, and final placings, relevant.

Anyway the IRB are to be congratulated for taking the lead role in trying to come up with a solution to this global conundrum. Rugby needs vibrant, relevant test matches to sit alongside the already successful competitions such as the Super 14, the French and English championships and the Heineken Cup.

The IRB haven’t always been the most proactive organisation in terms of promoting change. But in this case they are going to quite extraordinary lengths to try and find a solution to test rugby’s woes.

It’s the first time a meeting of the minds of of this magnitude has taken place, where the game’s key stakeholders have all been put under one roof for the express purpose of finding solutions.

Let’s hope the endeavour is met with a successful resolution.

So a bouquet for the IRB. But yet another brickbat for the NZRU I reckon for their continued policy of hiding behind employment contracts when it comes to issues of public interest.

It might have passed most people’s notice, but when the NZRU came out and announced this week they had sanctioned Doug Howlett for "serious misconduct" over his drunken car-hopping exploits at the end of the World Cup campaign, they neglected to reveal what his punishment had been.

Howlett committed a very public infraction while still being a member of the All Blacks, an honour for which he is paid handsomely. Why is it that his penalty for this severe contractual breach is kept private?

I like the American sports approach where things like this are not swept under the carpet. These are professional athletes whose wages are paid, in large part, by the public. When they commit serious breaches deserving of disciplinary hearings, you would think the least the game’s fans deserve are to be informed how the infraction was dealt with.

In this case we will never know. We can only presume it was not with sledgehammer like ruthlessness.

 

 

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