Nick Cain: A global season must still cater for the British & Irish Lions

A global season is one of the items at the top of World Rugby’s new year agenda, and great institutions like Lions tours could be targeted for the chop unless there is some sunlight in the corridors of committeedom.
Whatever is eventually proposed – and I’m told by sources at World Rugby/IRB that a schedule will probably be announced by the end of 2015 – it will have to be a hell of a lot more inspirational than the name World Rugby/IRB has given   the think tank producing it: The International Matches and Tours Working Group. Even its acronym, IMATWG, is a mouthful.
However, what IMATWG comes up with will be deadly serious because it will have an impact on the future of Rugby Union when it is introduced after the 2019 World Cup. The reason for the four-year delay is because broadcast and sponsorship deals, as well as the international fixtures schedule, are agreed up until then.
The lack of a pressing deadline makes it essential for the credibility of World Rugby that the whole process is conducted in a far more professional and transparent manner than the disastrous ELV initiative in 2008. That non-consultative IRB plan did serious damage to the laws and refereeing of the game, some of which we are still living with.
The sabre-rattling from those with vested interests has begun already. John Feehan, the multi-hatted chief executive of the the Six Nations (he is also chief executive of the Lions and the Pro12), stated this week that the showpiece of European international rugby will not move to a late spring slot to accommodate a global season.
Feehan said: “You mess with it at your peril. It is the jewel in the crown of rugby’s calendar. The tournament has never been more successful than it is today. It generates £1.2 billion of income over a four-year period with 60 matches. The games play out to an average 72,000 crowd, 98.5 per cent of capacity….why would you want to put that at risk? Demonstrably, it works as it is, and where it is.”
I was strongly opposed to the ticket profiteering at the expense of travelling Lions fans on the 2013 tour to Australia that Feehan colluded with, but have no issues with anything he has said in defence of the Six Nations. The only problem is that he may be fighting a battle on a front where he is not about to be attacked.
The old global season debate definitely included the Six Nations being pushed back to April and May, with the club season concluded before it started. However, the new global season structure which is currently on the IMATWG drawing board barely impacts on the Six Nations, or on the Autumn Internationals, which are the cash cows for the RFU and their French, Welsh, Irish, Scottish and Italian counterparts.
The latest blueprint sees the Six Nations tournament shift back a couple of weeks to its old mid-late January starting slot, but otherwise it remains untouched, with an early March finish.
The same applies in the autumn series, although there may be room to increase that window to six or seven weeks with an early October start.
This is feasible because it is envisaged that the new European professional club season will break out of its winter stronghold. Instead of starting in September and finishing in May, it will run from early March and be played through the spring and summer before finishing at the end of September.
The formation of IMATWG a couple of months ago, with representatives from World Rugby, Six Nations, SANZAR, the IRPA (International Players’Association), the Rugby Athletes Commission (playing representatives of all the national club/regional associations), has also led to a groundbreaking initiative.
World Rugby have broken with their traditional mantra of being prepared to engage with only national Unions, allowing IMATWG to engage directly with the main movers and shakers in the European club game. This includes club bodies like the PRL (Premiership Rugby) and the LNR (French Top 14), as well as club owners such as Nigel Wray (Saracens) and Mourad Boudjellal (Toulon).
The sticky issues that this panoply of the great and good will have to resolve include where the Lions fit into the global picture as the only team in the game capable of drawing an army of 30,000 travelling fans.
The romantics among us would suggest the Lions should travel south in the autumn series window, and whichever SANZAR nations they are not playing should mount genuine old-style tours to Europe, including games against leading clubs/ provinces alongside the international matches.
There are other massive questions. Do supporters of Premiership, Pro 12 and Top 14 teams want a change of season that sees Rugby Union clash with summer sports? They should be asked.
There is also the issue of whether the non-professional community game, and even the lower tier of the professional game, such as the Championship in England and France‘s ProD2, remain with the traditional winter season.
You suspect that the grassroots game will stay where it is, but that Greene King Championship clubs, as well as demanding a greater share of funding, will move with the top tier because otherwise promotion-relegation will be logistically impossible.
There is no point in being opposed to change in the pro game when parts of it are losing money hand over fist, but there is also no question that IMATWG, under the chairmanship of the former Scotland and Lions flanker John Jeffrey, needs to come up with some inspirational ideas.