IT occurred to me, whilst catching a glimpse of last weekend’s NFL match at Wembley, that the advent of professionalism in rugby union featured two aspects (at least), one of which to this day appears to contradict the other and neither of which carry any definitive proof that they have or are working.
The first was the headlong and headless rush, primarily instigated by the southern hemisphere’s then IRB members, to convert rugby union into rugby league. Apart from attempting to save Australia’s demise as a union playing nation in favour of its more popular leagu...