European rugby misgivings
I have blogged about this before, but the first weekend of the 2016/2017 European Rugby cup competitions has reinforced my impression that Northern Hemisphere rugby union is rapidly going the way of top flight football with bells on – and not necessarily in a good way.
Let me list some of the evidence:
European rugby chiefs have spoken publicly about the fact that, two seasons and counting into the new European cup system, its public profile and prestige suffers in comparison to that of its predecessor – that involving the Heineken and Amlin Cups – despite the fact that essentially the new is nothing more than a slightly rejigged version of the old.
One of the reasons for this has been the ‘removal’ of some of the bias in favour of the PRO12 clubs in Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Italy that had been imposed in the hope of ‘growing even just maintaining’ the quality of rugby development in those countries.
With some justification, the elite clubs in England and France were miffed that PRO12 countries were guaranteed a set amount of annual participation in the Heineken and Amlin competitions, whereas English and French teams needed to finish towards the top of their leagues in the previous season to qualify – thereby, it was argued, adversely affecting the standard of play being offered to the public.
After all – let’s be blunt and compare the elite Italian clubs with English Premiership ones – 95% of the time all twelve of the English Premiership clubs would beat any of their Italian counterparts, so why should (1) the inferior Italian clubs be guaranteed European Cup exposure and the riches that this brings; and (2) why were the European rugby authorities enshrining in their system that the European cup competitions were never tournaments in which the very best teams on the continent competed for honours, as some might argue they should be?
Despite the protests of those hitherto benefiting, the new European set-up of the Rugby Champions and European Challenge Cups was intended to rectify this by reducing the ‘developing nations’ guaranteed club numbers and thereby improving not only access for the top French and English teams but also ensuring that there would be fewer one-sided contests.
It hasn’t worked.
Last week’s first round group matches in both competitions included some cast-iron massacres: – witness in the Champions Cup Wasps’ twelve-try (82-14) defeat of Italian team Zebre, Clermont’s away demolition of Exeter Chiefs 35-8 and even Glasgow’s 42-13 win over Leicester Tigers; plus, in the (junior) Challenge Cup, Ospreys 45-0 thumping of Newcastle Falcons and Edinburgh’s nine-try 59-17 thrashing of the Romanian club Timisoara Saracens.
Scores like this – whether in the group or knock-out stages – plainly devalue the perceived quality of both tournaments.
The talk is now of altering both cup competitions so that all but the quarter-finals are completed before the Six Nations begins, leaving just the semis and finals to be better promoted over a longer period and then played at the end of the season – part of the thinking behind this is apparently that the semi-finals last season were played in half-full stadia.
The other thing that strikes one like a sledgehammer is the ‘cosmopolitan’ nature of the top European club playing squads currently assembled by such rugby fan sugar daddies (with more money than sense, of course) as these days exist all around Europe.
Find me one that isn’t at least half-filled by Southern Hemisphere mercenaries – primarily either Pacific Islanders or Eastern Europeans, combined with a growing smattering of veteran Kiwis, Saffers or Aussies earning one last (pension) pay-day or two – and I’ll give you one of those crisp new, synthetic-based, five pound notes.
Imitating the soccer clubs, no modern elite level European rugby club fan base seems to care a row of beans about from where on Earth their playing squad hails. They seem to regard the opportunity to see some hardened veterans and/or superstars from overseas running out onto the pitch in their club’s colours (and perhaps thereby a greater chance of league and/or cup glory) as a fair exchange for their ever-increasing cost of their season tickets and home ground beer and fast-food offerings.
Fings certainly ain’t what they used to be …
