Brendan Gallagher’s feature Time for Rugby World Cup to make another Quantum leap

Far be it from me to heap the pressure on the already overworked organisers but RWC2015 is probably the most important tournament in the game’s history.
It’s a ruthless sporting marketplace out there – for athletes you are trying to attract into the game, supporters, potential owners and investors, sponsors and TV companies considering covering and bankrolling the whole shooting match – and this Autumn the International rugby world has to show it is fit for purpose and capable of securing its position as a truly global sport.
There is a rugby presence in many countries around the world and the introduction of Rugby Sevens to the Olympics next year is a boon but to my mind Rugby isn’t quite a global sport yet – not when you compare it with Football, Basketball, Tennis, Cycling, Swimming and Athletics. In Basketball for example there are probably 25 nations who, on their day, could medal at the World Championships. Even qualifying for such tournament is a major problem for some top European teams.
With Rugby, realistically, that figure is probably six or seven top whack. Historically only five teams have ever reached the World Cup final – New Zealand, Australia South Africa, France and England.
This time around Rugby World Cup needs to raise the bar in every way imaginable. Rugby post RWC2015 has to be a new, improved, energised version of what went before. Twenty years on since the introduction of professionalism now is the  time to forge a new template of the game we want to see in future decades.
To my mind the World Cup’s evolution stalled at RWC2011 and that is not to say that New Zealand didn’t do a splendid job in hosting a wonderfully friendly and enjoyable tournament, especially given the massive disruption of the earthquakes earlier in the year which made it impossible for Christchurch to play the prominent role earmarked for that Rugby heartland.
Objectively though it felt like Rugby failed to kick-on after RWC2007, instead it chose to nudge its way down a familiar side road rather than engaging top gear down a sparkling new highway.
The French World Cup had largely been played out in front of huge crowds at an array of World class user-friendly stadia with playing surfaces to match. The facilities and ease of travel were brilliant, the timezone more convenient across much of the globe and until a rather dull final the rugby was more compelling.
Argentina and Fiji emerged gloriously, Tonga built up a head of steam, Bryan Habana was scoring tries for fun but lost his footrace with Takudzwa Ngwenya; France went bonkers in Cardiff and Georgia nearly beat the Irish in Bordeaux.  By contrast except for a vibrant Wales team little of the rugby at RWC2011 really quickened the pulse. The World Cup in 2011 felt distinctly “in-house” a splendid party for the already converted but an event and occasion unlikely to reach out to the uncommitted.
So RWC2015 needs to be spectacular and innovative. With 2.3million tickets sold and the largest global TV audience in the tournament’s history predicted the World Cup needs to deliver and excite and seduce like never before. We want to experience the wow factor again.  When was the last time we saw something radically different and jaw dropping on the pitch that could take the game forward? Jonah Lomu in 1995 is probably the answer.
There are so many top sporting brains involved in rugby yet the basic skillsets remain stagnant.  The standard of passing is still variable, the spin pass is chronically overused and the emphasis on safety first end over end kicking has seen the demise of the 70 yard screw kick touchfinder. Where are all the inventive short line-out ploys and have coaches completely given up developing a short range tap penalty ploy to outfox massed defensive lines or and American Football style quarterback sneak to outwit those same defensive hordes at a ruck on the line?
A huge amount of money has been poured into elaborate World Cup camps by the wealthier teams but to what effect other than general conditioning? Are we just going to get bettered honed 80 minute version of the same or will all that sweat, perspiration and computer analysis finally spawn a moment of unexpected genius and inspiration? Please let it be the latter.
Meanwhile I’m not sure rugby ever really worked out how to use outstandingly quick sprinters or spring heeled individuals with a 44 inch standing jump at lineouts or restarts. With playing surfaces improving all the time and fewer and fewer clawing muddy pitches there are still a couple of quantum leaps , athletically, that the game could take. If not at a World Cup when?
The action needs to be brilliantly refereed with the law applied consistently at all times. Those laws must spelt out and be free of the grey areas and random interpretations the plague the game. What is and isn’t allowed when two players contest a high ball? Are crooked feeds going to be allowed, please a straightforward yes or no and no phoning a friend?  What exactly constitutes a forward pass these days?  Play-acting – taking a dive – is beginning to rear its ugly head must be stamped out but so must niggling players gesticulating and agitating for yellow or red cards to be flourished as soon as the whistle blows. Buzz off, it’s none of your business. Let the officials get on with it. Stop this subtle on the field undermining of officials at one. This is not Football.
Meanwhile what exactly is the criteria for stopping the clock when the ref decides to have a leisurely ‘chat’ to the front rows because it differs radically from official to official and indeed some individual refs will adopt different approaches within the same game. Seconds are so often crucial in the tight games we now play and every single moment needs to be accounted for. There should be no slack. In some matches the paying customer is deprived of ten minutes or more of play and with punters paying absolute top dollar that is simply not acceptable in a sport that is now measured by fractions of seconds and inches.
The TMO technology must be streamlined and logical, it should add to the contest, not detract from it. Too many games are losing the flow because looking to the TMO has become the default setting. And how far back in a play is a TMO decision going to be permitted in the case of a try being scored?  Again its far too random. Could we have some sort of black and white policy on that now please, before battle commences because last season it changed as frequently as the weather
The World Cup is a veritable Tower of Babel it rejoices in its diversity, but how long is the game going to put up with complicated nuanced decisions being explained only in English or are well paid officials going to make at least a token effort to communicate in say French and Spanish as well.
For way too long non English speaking teams have been left in the dark and rugby has been the loser. You can get away with it in football which is much simpler but with Rugby’s laws – a 212 page document if you download it from Worldrugby.com – there has to be some leeway. Shouting very loud in ridiculous Pidgin English is not the way forward. At least try and meet them halfway and mae this World Cup the occasion that happens.
So there we have it. That’s a lot of questions but that’s how you fine tune and perfect anything in life. All the World Cup contenders will be asking hard questions every hour of every day in their build up and the Rugby World Cup organisers should be no different. The venues and infrastructure are superb and the rugby clans will enjoy the mother of all shindigs but for them ‘victory’ will be to advance the tournament and game another level.
The World Cup is, intrinsically, a cracking sporting occasion and it doesn’t remotely bother me whether it is in fact the third biggest sporting gathering in the World as is sometimes claimed. What is important is that it continues evolve and “sell the game” because it is so overwhelmingly Rugby’s window to the world.  And the world is watching carefully