Quarts Into Pint Pots

By Razcal
October 24 2003

In common with many rugby fans I do not like to see so many league games played at the same time as internationals, be they Autumn internationals, 6 Nations games or the World Cup. Why?

I pay my season ticket to see the best players my club has and the best players other clubs have. Already this season I have been unable to watch Martin Johnson, Neil Back, Ben Kay, Dorian West, Julian White, Martin Corry, Lewis Moody , Geordan Murphy, Jonny Wilkinson, Jason Robinson, Brian Redpath and I will be deprived of the opportunity of watching other stars in the next few weeks. Yet my season ticket costs me slightly more than last season. As I have stated in the past I regard my season ticket as entitling me to glimpses of the best rugby players across the 12 clubs and not simply as a glory ride on the coat tails of the tigers.


So, some pundits sneer, you get to watch new players emerge and it makes the competition more exciting. Ben Kay’s emergence last time round is quoted in support of this. ( No points if you quote Lewis Moody and Geordan as some do, I watched their separate first team debuts in 1997). Sorry but Fritz van Heerden was playing on one knee before that world cup and a replacement was already being sought. Whopper really emerged once he played alongside either Jonno or Fritz after the world cup. He would have come to the club anyway . At the risk of being blasphemous I must state that I watched several poor premiership games during the last world cup and this time round is no different. Gloucester panned us recently but were, by their own admission, poor themselves. Last week’s game with the leaders Bath against Saracens was a poor spectacle and that must have been due to the absentees. If these emerging players are really that good would they stay hidden and unobserved or would clubs find ways of giving their potential future assets initial experience in the big time without waiting 4 years for a world cup?


Does the rugby public at large want a fair competition or a handicap league? There is not even equality of misery. The handicap runs from losing no players through to losing 8. It runs from losing your players for 11 games for the world cup and 3 6 Nations games to losing your players up to the end of the world cup pools then having them for the rest of the season. “So what?” some people more enlightened than me say, “ Clubs should plan for this sort of thing and get replacements lined up. Sack the director of rugby if he messes up on this one.” Well, the world cup squads are announced two weeks before the premiership season kicks off. There is no extra salary cap to replace players while they are at the world cup. You could anticipate Graham Rowntree, Austin Healey and Simon Shaw going, get cover in and find you have wasted your money. You could assume that Martin Corry and Mike Catt are not going and make no contingency plans to cover their absence. And with player’s agents tying up good deals for their clients there is no way of unpicking it all. Easy being Dean Richards isn’t it? A donkey leading lions or a Lion not supported by some donkeys? Then there is the money aspect. Being relegated is very expensive. Ask Bristol. Not qualifying for the HC is expensive. Is it fair that these things are determined unfairly?


So how do we get round it? Before we look at what we can change let us look at what is invariable. There are 52 weeks in a year. An important factor is that conditioning experts and experienced coaches are clear that top flight rugby players need a 12 week off season, and that is 12 consecutive weeks. That leaves us 40 weeks to fit in the domestic and international calendar. There are 22 league games, then 6 European pool games and 3 more EC weekends if you keep winning. That takes us to28 or 31 weekends. Lets say 31 rather than 28 otherwise successful teams have to rearrange other games and are penalised. Then there is the cup. Four games if you win, 1 if you don’t. That is 35 weeks or 29. Then we have the play offs and wild card games. 38 or 31 games now. The best players are up to two weeks away from their required 12 week break, even if their bodies could take that hammer. Meanwhile, the internationals will have played 3 Autumn internationals, 5 6 Nation’s games and 2 Summer tour games ( for the full side or the A team.) That is a maximum of 38 club games and 10 internationals and a 12 week rest all within a 52 week year. ( 38+10+12=60). If you add 11 weeks for the world cup you are trying to fit 71 weeks into 52.


What would I do?


I would look at it twice. Once for a normal year and again for a world cup year.


I would start the league season at the end of August and play it straight through uninterrupted by Autumn internationals or HC games. But not 22 league games. Increase the top flight to 16 ( bring in Bristol, Orrell, Worcester and Pertemps Stingy Birmingham things). Have two conferences play two 8 team leagues home and away. 14 weeks. Then have top 4 and bottom 4 play offs to determine an ultimate champion and a relegation candidate. The play offs have a meaning as you are determining which conference is stronger. They choose a real champion. The relegation candidate plays off against the lower league’s challenger.16 games in all. We are now mid December.


Now we play the European games. The best teams, on current form with current players are in the HC. The rest in the second tier competition. This means our HC representatives are not there on a flash in the pan thing from the previous season obtained by some players who have since left.


Now play the HC straight through. 9 weeks. ( We are now up to 23 weeks mid February.).


Now play the 6 Nations. Straight off. 5 weeks. ( 29 now near the end of March.).


Now play 4 cross hemisphere internationals. Why 4? 1 extra from which all television and gate income is disbursed to the clubs to cover cash flow problems. The unions keep the receipts from the other 3 as usual. 33 weeks. Then reciprocate the cross hemisphere games by playing return fixtures. 37 weeks. 15 for the close season. If top players are limited to 32 games at least the clubs can choose the 5 games to rest their players. Only problem. Pursuade the SH countries to adjust their calendar so they do not have to play us in our Winter out of their season. A good salesman could do that. I have ditched the cup as I cannot see its relevance now the HC has taken off.


Why this pattern? What you are looking for in developing players is to set successively harder challenges in front of them. Either they find a bar they can’t get over and know their level or they jump over each bar until they end up coping against New Zealand. What is not helpful in developing players is going up and down in levels week after week. So currently in 4 consecutive weeks a Leicester player could play against New Zealand at Twickenham at the end of November then play against Calvisano , then against Rotherham then against a lower league side in the cup then play away at Gloucester in the league. In my pattern each step is a step up, league then HC then 6 Nations then Australia, New Zealand and Kringe’s mob. Not up and down all the time.


What do you do while the internationals are being played and there is no competitive league/cup action for the clubs?


What did cricket do? It found the one day game when people would not come to the 3 day game. Creating a 7s league /cup conference competition in rugby would be the equivalent. You could develop a Friday evening and Saturday afternoon format to take round the country. From Newcastle to Leeds to Leicester/Northampton to Bath / Gloucester to Sarries and Quins to LI and Wasps. The sharing clubs could have the Friday in one club then the Saturday in another. Televise it and schedule it in conjunction with the international so that the punters spend in the bar watching the internationals during a break in the 7s. Have a league with an ultimate 7s champion. That should keep the cash flow going and give a development opportunity just as Haughton, Monye and Skinner have come to prominence in the international 7s thing.


Oh and what would I do in the world cup year? I would scrap the 8 week cross hemisphere home and away games ( 8 weeks) and use those dates for the world cup. The income from those games in the 3 non world cup years would have to be made to last 4 years. The world cup year would sort out an international pecking order which would make other games meaningless.


Well. At least give me credit for trying. I have reduced the calendar, made it more conducive to developing players, added a new dimension ( 7s) and taken care of cash flow.