WR has made mess of how game is played

JEFF PROBYN

With the season over and the Premiership finally decided, it would be good to look back and see what we have learned from this season and where improvements can be made and, after the season we have had, where do we start?

First, World Rugby‘s constant tweaking of the laws in its efforts to broaden the appeal of the game – and to apparently make it safer – has actually reduced the number of adult male players and made a mess of how the game is now played.

It seems we are about to witness a second divide in our game and for the first time different laws are to be used in the professional game to those in the amateur game.

What this will do to the World Cup where professional teams play against amateur and how the referees will be able to enforce both sets of tackle height laws during those games, is going to be interesting, to say the least.

Then, we had the change in eligibility laws for international selection allowing all who have dual qualification to switch between the two, instead of just the island nations who have in the past been decimated of their quality players by wealthier nations.

As the ultimate head of the sport, World Rugby has failed to maintain what was the definition of rugby for years, ‘a game for all, played by all,’ and have effectively divided the sport.

Then, at a local level we have the RFU who are no longer able to provide the whole game with the direction and financial assistance it was once able to, for a number of reasons.

Having spoken at a few end-of-season dinners for grassroots clubs this season, and also spoken to the volunteers who run the majority of them, it is plain that they no longer view the RFU as helping them to fulfil their playing commitments by assisting in the costs that even the most amateur of clubs incur in their battle to survive.

Arguably, Twickenham was the ‘goose that laid the golden egg’ and it was the RFU council that agreed to fund its expansion and development so it would provide funds for the whole of the game in England. It did provide funds until successive Professional Game Agreements reduced the amount available to the RFU to fund clubs below the Premiership.

Meanwhile, the Premiership has shown that it is not fit for purpose with all clubs reliant on the generosity of their owners to bail them out, even with the millions taken from the RFU for early player release for extra pre international training camps.

Yet, the standard of play seems to be getting worse as the performance in competitions outside the Premiership club games seem to show a demise in the ability of our ‘elite’ players to compete with players from other clubs in Europe.

The Premiership league games displayed a lack of true competition with many ending in cricket like scores of 40 to 60 points scored by either one or both teams, with even the Premiership final ending 35-25. The games in the past (pre professional) were very different with scores much closer.

Some may say that the efforts to make to game more appealing have led to the increased score levels, but for me and many others it is the competition that is most important not the score, with some of the best games I have seen ending with fewer than 10 to 20 points scored in total.

One other problem with games that lack true competition is the difficulty international coaches have in measuring which of the players are worth selecting, which may be why England have had such poor results in the last few Six Nations championships.

The situation is made worse when clubs are over-run with foreign players, many of whom are not classed as foreign even though they are not EQP, who can create the illusion that their team-mates are playing better than they are.

With no real player pathways now, could it be the reason why the England coach needs the extra time with the players that the RFU funds, so as he can attempt to sort the wheat from the chaff ?

With the World Cup a few months away England have just a few warm up games to get it right both physically and mentally if they are to at least make the quarter-finals.