Sean Fitzpatrick: European club rugby could be losing its soul

Ma'a Nonu.

The All Blacks will be heading into an interesting foreign environment when they arrive on their northern tour - the stoush over the future of club rugby in Europe.

However, I think the Europeans could heed some warnings from the game in New Zealand.

More and more, I feel Super Rugby is in danger of becoming a feeder competition for the All Blacks; the standoff affecting European club rugby risks heading down that road as well.

I'm talking about what rugby used to be like in New Zealand and what it has become now because of the pressures brought to bear by professional rugby.

Back in the day, New Zealand had, for example, Auckland-Waikato clashes at Queen's Birthday Weekend which played to 40,000 people. As I have said before in this column, in many ways, less was more. But then 1995 came along and the advent of professional rugby; the game had to find sponsors, broadcasters and other ways of forming the financial base of the new structure.

Now, in New Zealand, there is a plethora of games. Super Rugby is a fine product, don't get me wrong, and the big games are popular and well-watched. But the flip side is there are many games of lesser importance which are not watched so well.

In addition, rugby has become more and more about the All Blacks; to a large extent, they are the only show in town.

Take the Ma'a Nonu example. The New Zealand Rugby Union didn't want Nonu to shift overseas but it would likely have happened had Sonny Bill Williams returned to the Chiefs - and the All Blacks.

Suddenly, Williams stayed in league and a home was found for Nonu at the Blues.

Again, don't get me wrong - it's great that Nonu stayed in New Zealand and is available for the All Blacks. But that seems to be the focus of the whole thing, not Super Rugby. Using Nonu as an example again, it is clear the national selectors don't mind that Nonu has problems at franchise level and that his form is often doubtful; they will select him anyway (if Williams is not there) and clearly manage him well enough so he produces that world-class form for the national team.

That is the kind of scenario I am fearful of in Europe - that club rugby becomes just a feeder for the national teams as opposed to the hugely popular and well-attended club scene in England and France, in particular.

The moves being made by top English and French clubs to form a breakaway competition (called the Rugby Champions Cup or RCC) instead of the Heineken Cup is now approaching a compromise.

The clubs have agreed that the Heineken Cup and the Amlin Challenge Cup be contested by 20 teams, with the establishment of a third competition involving teams from emerging European rugby nations.

They also accepted the clubs' demand that money should be distributed equally between the three leagues, replacing the current system where some inequities were perceived.

European rugby basically came about so that the Italys of this world had enhanced opportunities and I think there needs to be European competition for European rugby to benefit.

These European ructions have had a bit of 1995 about them, when rugby players were looking at a breakaway competition - prevented only when the world's national unions came to the party and set up the current structures of professional rugby.

But, whatever the compromise, there is a risk it will go down the same road as New Zealand and for the same reasons - it has to pay its way - and that we end up with too much rugby or, more accurately, too much lesser rugby. Everyone wants to see Munster against Toulouse but Treviso against Aironi, not so much.

There is a danger that clubs will become just feeders into the national sides, losing the unique club rugby environment that Europe enjoys and which is the mainstay of the game here.