Rugby has a problem. It’s now more than a decade since the game went professional and there are growing signs that it isn’t sustainable, writes CHRIS LAIDLAW.
THE ROAR
Everywhere it is played, there is a growing sense of unease about this, and it is becoming more and more obvious that some fairly radical changes are needed.
It is not the first time I have had that feeling.
I last wrote a book about the game in the early 1970s as a thoroughly disgruntled ex-player, when rugby had run into another crisis.
Unlike the present runaway pace of change, what happened back in the 1960s and 70s was a crisis of inactivity.
Rugby had become stuck in the mud.
I wrote “Mud in Your Eye” for the very reason that to do so as an amateur was considered an act of rebellion. Anyone who appeared in print was treated much the same way as a member of Al Qaeda or, equally treasonous, a defector to rugby league.
Any suggestion of commercial gain from amateurism immediately defined you a professional, an outcast, on the wrong side of a very forbidding fence. Ironically, if you’re not on the professional side of the fence today you’re a loser.
Rugby has meant a lot to me. I played it at every level and in several countries. I owe it a huge debt. It took me round the world, opening new horizons and awakening a personal awareness of politics and the meaning of democracy and discrimination.
The friends I made then – among club, provincial and All Black teams, at Oxford and in France or Fiji where I played and coached in the early 1970s – are friends for life.
Many of them are as anxious about the game as I am. Most are realists.
They know that the professional game is here to stay but they wonder what sort of game it will be if the amateur dimension – its heart and its soul – just withers away and dies. They have reservations about letting market forces completely determine every aspect of the game’s future.
Those reservations are justified.
SUFFOCATING MASS OF RED TAPE
With professionalism has come a cloying bureaucracy, a suffocating mass of red tape, the stunting of player lifestyles and a hundred other challenges that threaten to drown rugby in its own politically correct pea soup.
A few years ago, fascinated and at times horrified by the new professional revolution, I found myself getting involved with my old game again.
I started writing about it, talking about it on television, and became a director of the Hurricanes professional franchise. I discovered that it wasn’t just a game anymore. It was a business, too.
A business like many others in an unforgiving world in which costs rise inexorably and income is very uncertain.
Every crisis has its particular motif. For me, the most compelling hint that rugby had a problem was the extraordinarily crass attempt by the New Zealand Rugby Union to persuade its fans to pick up part of the new professional tab in the late 1990s via a television commercial featuring All Black Justin Marshall asking for donations.
This was trickle up economics, the same madness we saw a decade later that brought the world economy to its knees. It was the first ominous hint of unsustainability in the new commercialised game.
That hint has now turned into a loud scream.
July 2nd, 2010 at 8:51 am
Look for most part I think just about every rugby supporter shares his view.
But no-where did I read any type of solution, even small, this guy offers.
Surely having been involved in the amateur and professional era’s he has an idea of what is wrong and how to fix it?
What could have been a potentially very good piece turned out to be 2 pages of drivel.
July 2nd, 2010 at 9:24 am
Ek vertaan nie lekker nie. Se hy die geld raak op?
July 2nd, 2010 at 9:47 am
Rugby is growing here where I am so haha!
July 2nd, 2010 at 10:52 am
I hate to say this but I will
We could have started by
HOLDING RWC 2011 IN JAPAN
Awarding a Sevens tournament to SAMOA instead of Scotland…
Geez…
Or maybe to a country like Germany or Austria or Romania
You know
One of those countries where 7′s is growing…
Instead the old boys close the gaps
clap each other on the back and have little chortles over their snifters of whiskey poured from crystal decanters… decrying the dominance of the France and the Boers in smokey rooms in mens clubs all over the UK and New Zealand
July 2nd, 2010 at 11:00 am
Reply to DavidS @ 10:52 am:
RWC in Japan, Italy, Germany would help SOOOO much for developement but NOOO!
Germany hosted the 7s European championship in Hanover and it was a great success! I think they may be in the “market” for a World series in the near future. Which is a start!
July 2nd, 2010 at 11:02 am
WC 2015 is in Japan, not?
July 2nd, 2010 at 11:03 am
Reply to Boertjie @ 11:02 am:
England, no? And 2019 in Japan?
July 2nd, 2010 at 11:06 am
Reply to Boertjie @ 11:02 am: Reply to JT @ 11:03 am:
2015 – England, 2019 – Japan
July 2nd, 2010 at 11:09 am
Reply to Morné @ 11:06 am:
July 2nd, 2010 at 11:10 am
Reply to Morné @ 11:06 am:
And we wonder why the game is in decline
Marketing to a canned market which is being penetrated by soccer, basketball, baseball, league, yachting, tennis… what have you
GROWTH means getting NON fans to become fans…
Those people are NOT in England and New Zealand and Scotland…
July 2nd, 2010 at 11:12 am
Reply to JT @ 11:09 am:
They’ll share with France and Wales and Scotland and Ireland
All that means is that the final will be at good ole’ Twickers…
These are just ways for the 5N to ensure they collectively host the RWC every 8 years…
July 2nd, 2010 at 11:15 am
Reply to DavidS @ 11:12 am:
democracy is a farce! Same here in good old Austria! We had a vote on where the Austrian final should be held – at the time we were 6 clzbs in the top division and Linz and I voted for the club finishing top should have the right to host the final but the other 4 clubs are in Vienna or close to and they all voted for the Final to always be in Vienna!
Even though we get more spectators to some games than the final gets!
July 2nd, 2010 at 11:17 am
Reply to DavidS @ 11:10 am:
Cannot agree more.
IRB looks after their precious few only.
July 2nd, 2010 at 11:19 am
Reply to Morné @ 11:17 am:
WC should be called the 9 nations cup! NOT the WORLD cup!
July 2nd, 2010 at 11:22 am
Reply to JT @ 11:19 am:
Again – agree.
Read an interesting view from Keo this morning and agree totally:
“One of rugby’s great failings is that only one of five teams can win the World Cup”
July 2nd, 2010 at 11:30 am
Just read a pearler of a post somewhere else on the test to be played at soccer city.
Growing the game in non-rugby areas is the right thing to do. The Bulls need to take some of their games to Ellis Park.
July 2nd, 2010 at 11:30 am
Reply to Morné @ 11:22 am:
SA, AUS, NZ A, NZ B, NZ C?
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Reply to Morné @ 11:30 am: lol
It is after all now a Pirates 50% owned stadium in the middle of a very black area..
Playing at Ellis Park will expose the local Nigerians and Ganians and Cameroonians to rugby… if they can lift their head from syndicate crimes
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Reply to JT @ 11:30 am:
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Reply to DavidS @ 12:03 pm:
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Well that is what happen if something is run under a leftie regime. They only look after their comrades.
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:23 pm
jEEz
just imagine how pi$$ scared the 57 aulde farts@HQ must be of Germany becoming a force in Rugby as weLL!
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Reply to WiLLem @ 12:23 pm:
I don’t think they are worried about that. They first need to learn how to make cars.
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Huh?
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Reply to WiLLem @ 12:23 pm:
Well already they’ve had to deal with Argentina and France being better than the Anglo-Celtic sides
Reply to Deon @ 12:26 pm:
In Hillbrow they just get the Nigerians to steal them!
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:34 pm
Reply to DavidS @ 12:32 pm:
En Ghana gaan hulle opneuk in die final. Hulle beter. Ek was die gelukkige fokker om hulle te trek in die sweep by die werk.
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Reply to Deon @ 12:26 pm:
Eish Deon
name your bad buys with German cars? Opel?
as in oPPosed to what?
Citroen and some uDDer “Confiance” i$$ue- or are we going to discuSS some form over function Fiat joBBie?
Just remember- the yeLLoValiant is as fictional as Knightrider!
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Reply to Deon @ 12:26 pm:
Oh and BTW at long last Mercedes have learnt now to make a F1 engine.
That one I wiLL concede to.
What do you drive there in BriZZie- a Ford or a Hyundai?
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Reply to WiLLem @ 12:46 pm:
Pajero – Must say it is a brilliant car. Was never a fan, but the thing is brilliant.
BTW I see I got a big one
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Reply to Deon @ 12:48 pm:
yip- sometimes its neceSSary to grab the hOOk and recoNNect it to anglers Arse!
Mitsubishi had its problems a while ago – but in general it competes quite weLL in aLL the markets that it goes for. Pajero is a claSSic, in SA Mitsubishi was always disadvantaged by being sold on the flOOrs of anuDDa brand(s) Samcar/ Daimler Chrysler.
Maybe the service in Austrylia is equal to th product.
I believe the whole Brand/range is imported, they had a plant a while ago in Adelaide that build a Ford Falcon claSS car with locally developed 3.8.
anyway whats left in that tackle box of yours?
family doing weLL
not yet lving in the sunshine coast?
July 2nd, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Reply to WiLLem @ 12:55 pm:
Nah not yet. Had an offer to relocate to Townsville 2 weeks ago, but declined.
Mitsubishi quite big here. Offers the best warranty I have ever seen on a car. 10 year on drive train and engine.
I would actually go for the Outlander now if I had to buy again. Not so robust, but still 4×4 and more for normal driving too.
Family is good. Eldest got her red belt last week and the boy is doing very well with his rugby. Baby is just a joy. She is the kind of kid that can just brighten the worse day. Full of laughs and jokes.
July 2nd, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Reply to Deon @ 12:48 pm:
OK, so jy is nou ook ‘n pyn
in die gat vir almal in ‘n
parkeerarea?
July 2nd, 2010 at 1:38 pm
En gaan jy daai bierdrink
smiley opsit of is jy te
“besig”?
July 2nd, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Reply to DavidS @ 10:52 am:
Indeed… sending the game down South again instead of Japan was a huge step stagnant…
July 2nd, 2010 at 1:42 pm
… hundred other challenges that threaten to drown rugby in its own politically correct pea soup.
=====
And he’s not even referring
to the Saffa sports scene.
July 2nd, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Reply to Deon @ 1:12 pm:
gOOde to hear- give my regards
July 2nd, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Reply to Deon @ 12:48 pm:
You do know that Pajero is the Spanish word for ‘w@nker’ (for real) very apt when I see one driving and hogging lanes in the big smoke with a 4WD…
July 2nd, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Reply to bryce_in_oz @ 1:51 pm:
hehehe now aLL of a suDDen he is soMMer much more “ghanaen” than before
BaGhana BaGhana!
July 2nd, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Reply to bryce_in_oz @ 1:51 pm:
I guess that’s why it is a Montero in the Americas
July 2nd, 2010 at 4:30 pm
Reply to JT @ 11:19 am:
That is not so different from soccer. Only 7 different countries have ever won the WC.
July 2nd, 2010 at 5:24 pm
Reply to Deon @ 1:12 pm:
Hyundia and Kia both offers a 10-year or 100000 mile power train warranties.
Mainly because they had quality issues in the past.
July 2nd, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Oh well JT
Sorrie for yoooouuuu
HUP HUP
HOLLLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!