Jeff Probyn: There’s hope, despair and the road to redemption

Now the end of the year approaches, we can reflect on the first half of the season and look forward to next year’s rugby. So far it’s been a season of anticipation, despair, redemption and hope.
The anticipation of what might be as the Six Nations saw Wales really deliver on the promise they showed in the World Cup and sweep all before them on the way to Grand Slam glory.
The England team performed better than we’d hoped and Stuart Lancaster was confirmed in the job after showing he could inspire trust and confidence in an England squad that had been sadly lacking in both just a few months before.
Despair has come in many forms from the IRB’s continual failure to sort out the mess at the scrum, simply insisting that referees enforce the laws as they are written.
To abbreviate the laws it’s as simple as this: Call both packs together when the scrum is set and stationary, insist the scrum half-feeds the ball down the centre of the tunnel and that neither side starts pushing until the ball has passed inside the shoulder of the loose head prop.
Despite it being that simple the IRB continue to tinker with an area of the game that is fundamental to its health without any sense of a clear plan.
Despair is the government cutting funding to rugby for not reaching its participation targets over the past four years because that will impact on the area of the game that most needs the money – the grassroots clubs.
As the foundation of the sport, the amateur majority (unlike the professional game) do not have any contracts with the RFU other than an unwritten debt of honour, so they can expect that any shortfall will be taken from the funds earmarked for the community game, despite the fact that it is they that need money to fund participation.
Despair is the English and French clubs calling for changes in Europe without seeing, understanding or caring about the bigger picture.
The clubs have genuine concerns but don’t seem to have noticed that some of the nations needed to make any competition truly European are in desperate trouble.
Wales are talking about the possibility of downgrading one of their regions to development status while Scotland are slowly becoming less competitive at all levels and Italy have yet to build a club game of sufficient strength to underpin their international team.
Scotland who, after finishing at the bottom of the Six Nations Championship, went on to be the only country to have a successful summer tour bringing anticipation that they may have just turned a corner, became despair as their autumn fell apart and left manager Robinson with no choice but to walk away.
Despair is what all the disappointed Wales fans will feel as they come to terms with the dramatic fall from grace of their team.
After the promise of the World Cup and the Grand Slam, a run of seven defeats has been a painful experience, none more so than the home defeats by Argentina and Samoa.
For some Welsh fans it is also the apparent breaking of the ties that had bonded head coach Warren Gatland to his assistant Shaun Edwards with Gatland choosing Andy Farrell for the Lions instead.
Personally, I see that as a chance of redemption for a Welsh side that has woefully under-performed.  By leaving Edwards with Wales as his focus there is a chance he can spark a return to form and lift the gloom that has enveloped the team.
England, on the other hand, did no better and no worse than was expected on their tough summer tour of South Africa which ended with an unexpected draw after two defeats.  They failed to build on that in this autumn’s games until redemption came in the final game with that stunning win over world champions New Zealand.
Redemption is the RFU finally succeeding in closing the door on the leaks and infighting that had reflected so badly on them and eventually led to a reprimand from government as to the governance of the sport.
There has also been growth in spectator support for the game in England, showing a steady increase from the start of the season with bigger gates throughout the Premiership which, despite the appalling English weather, proves the clubs are doing something right and the hope is that it will continue.
Hope is that the England team will continue improving so that the game will not miss the government’s targets and be able to increase funding to grassroots.
Hope is that the French and English clubs will compromise enough to allow those countries struggling with the demands of the professional game time to reorganise and restructure to benefit all.
Hope is also whoever is in charge of television stops all these stupid ideas of putting cameras on referees (players would probably be next if they thought they could get away with it). It adds nothing to the understanding of the game and doesn’t provide any useful help even for post match analysis of referee performance as it doesn’t see what he does fixed to his chest and unable to pan left or right.
Hope is that all the Home Unions will face and beat the various challenges in preparing for what could be the most important Six Nations championship for years.
Its success or failure will define the Lions as they go head to head with our SANZA rivals and lay down a marker for all on the road to 2015.