The vote for world rugby's new leader hangs in the balance.
COMMENT
The imminent appointment of World Rugby's chairman has highlighted, in the current climate, the very real opportunities for appraisal and change in the global game.
A pivotal moment in many respects. I really hope the coming weeks and months will see all involved in World Rugby build consensus around meaningful, progressive change. What follows is an accumulation of my thoughts over the last few weeks.
It's amazing how you start to look at things differently once the carousel stops. By no means am I saying they must be enacted. Or that they are all the right solutions. But these are the sorts of ideas I would love to see being put on the table and discussed in an open collective way. And yes involve the clubs. One thing is certain: World Rugby must not be afraid to act and to lead.
Players are the lifeblood of the game. If money is king, all you will ever get is people chasing it. Player welfare must be central to the new vision. Creating financial opportunities from well thought-out and creative competitions could mean less is more.
2. Create a nine-month season with three "breaks"
I think rather than a non-stop season followed by a long summer break, it would be better to throw in three four-week rest windows through the year.
The players would train through them anyway, just as they do in the summer now. But mentally as much as physically it's important to rest regularly. A nine-month season, with three proper breaks spaced through the year, would allow for a 40-game season (10 internationals in two blocks of five, and a 30-game club season covering domestic/Europe.) and still give players adequate time off. Players could work on a maximum 35-game involvement.
3. Align the global rugby calendar
It would be good to get a nine-month season, with clearly delineated club windows and international windows. Two international windows is fine. One in the spring when you can get the Six Nations and the Rugby Championship (with Japan added to it) played. And another in the autumn, when you can mix and match and get tier one playing tier two.
With no club games getting in the way, why not also have tier one A teams/B teams/regional teams playing against tier two and tier three nations in that second window? Clearly World Cups and Lions tours will require slight tweaks to the calendar every other year. But it's not insurmountable.
Sir Bill Beaumont and Agustin Pichot are vying for the role as World Rugby chairman. Photo / Photosport
4. Hold a tier two World Cup at same time as World Cup
Why not hold a 'tier two World Cup Challenge competition for the next 10 best ranked teams (outside the RWC group of 20) to run concurrently with the main one? That would allow developing nations the chance to play on rest days in the tournament, and give them training/development opportunities against tier one teams.
5. Standardise 14-club leagues
If you're creating a truly synchronised game, it makes sense to run the big four leagues on the same dates at the same times. The Top 14 in France and the Pro14 already are 14-club leagues. Super Rugby (currently 15) and the Premiership (12) could follow suit. You could then have two conferences of seven, with playoffs at the end of the season.
6. World Club Challenge and streamlined European tournament
With three proper rest periods, and fewer games, something has to give. Fewer European games in a streamlined tournament would keep clubs on their toes for qualification. It would likely get some pushback from clubs. But you could create a World Club Challenge at the end of each season, with the four winners of the four big domestic leagues all playing each other in a super cup? That would create a huge amount of money (for the game as a whole, not just those involved). And from far fewer games.
7. Get tier one playing against tier two nations on a regular basis
It should never be the case that a country like Uruguay qualifies for a World Cup, as they did last year, and their first game against a tier one country comes at the World Cup itself. An international programme has to be created whereby they are regularly tested against tier one nations.
I'm actually not as bothered by the argument over promotion and relegation to the Six Nations or the Rugby Championship. That would only benefit one country at a time. I'm talking about a wholesale change. More on this below.
8. Give tier two countries the chance to field their best players
I'm fully behind Bill Beaumont's idea of allowing players who have gone off and qualified for a tier one nation, but for whom it has not really worked out, the chance of returning to play for the country of their birth.
What's the point of a player such as Northampton's Fijian wing Taqele Naiyaravoro - who has two international caps for Australia, the last of which came back in 2016 - sitting in the international wilderness? He's still only 28. Naiyaravoro himself says he would relish the responsibility of being a senior player in his own country; to pass on what he has learned from the opportunities he has been given. That in turn would lead to an accelerated learning process for the others.
9. Give tier two nations better support at every level
I don't just mean give them more money (although that is clearly a large part of it). I mean create a proper, well-structured mentoring and development system which would see knowledge-sharing at every level of the game, from school rugby to coaching to administrative and financial advice. We saw with the recent fiasco over Francis Kean in Fiji that the same checks and balances just aren't in place in developing nations.
10. Create a World Rugby financial controller
On a similar theme, it would be good to see World Rugby create a position whose sole responsibility is to oversee the disbursement of funds to tier two and tier three nations and then help to manage the spending of said monies.
