Europe perfect destination to bring Rugby Championship back into spotlight
Yesterday, RugbyPass broke the news that Sanzaar are seriously considering relocating The Rugby Championship to Europe on the back of Covid flare-ups in New Zealand and Australia – and it’s a move that makes perfect sense.
It’s been three years since the Southern Hemisphere’s premier international rugby competition was staged in its full glory.
In 2019, a compressed tournament was played out to accommodate for the World Cup while last year, South Africa withdrew from the competition and all six matches of the Tri-Nations were played in Australia.
Already, the integrity of the 2021 competition is on shaky ground. The Pumas won’t play a match in Argentina, the Springboks’ two home matches will bring in zero stadium-goers while until earlier this week, the rest of the matches were set to take place in under-optimised, under-attended Australian stadiums, bar one game played in front of a half-packed crowd in Auckland.
The latest developments in New Zealand, where the population is currently set to be locked down for seven days, has forced Australia to re-think their one-way travel bubble with NZ, which means the All Blacks won’t travel to Western Australia for their next Bledisloe Cup match, originally scheduled to take place at Optus Stadium on September 28.
Unless the Australia Government were to make an allowance for the All Blacks, that match in Perth wouldn’t have been able to go ahead as planned – and now it’s been indefinitely called off.
One mooted alternative would see the remainder of the Rugby Championship shifted to Queensland – but the NRL has currently commandeered the major stadiums in the Sunshine State, which would force some of the best matches in the rugby union calendar to be played in front of paltry mobs in smaller arenas.
That includes the 100th game between the All Blacks and Springboks – an historic match more than deserving of a sold-out, passionate crowd.
That won’t happen in the doldrums of Australia. But it could in Europe.
Twickenham, Stade de France and the Principality Stadium all loom as perfect venues for the match that could be the most important on the test calendar, the battle that will see the current World Cup holders and successful hosts of the most recent Lions tour clash against the only team that’s had the wood over them in the past decade.
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And then there’s the nine other huge encounters between the Southern Hemisphere’s top sides to add to the agenda – games that would otherwise be forgotten about in the annuals of time, but which could become unforgettable if staged on the other side of the world.
Some have raised concerns that the games will be played at times unsuitable to an Australasian audience but with the bulk of Rugby Australia and New Zealand Rugby’s income for the year expected to come through their broadcast deals, it’s hard to envisage the games won’t be played at Southern Hemisphere-appropriate hours.
And with hundreds of thousands of Antipodeans, South Africans and Argentinians living in the UK and Ireland, there’ll be a massive fanbase interested in getting along to watch their home-sides play – but they may struggle to get tickets with the native populations also clamouring for some high-intensity, high-paced rugby.
While the British and Irish Lions series with the Springboks was a closely fought affair, it wasn’t the enthralling calendar event that many were hoping for – but a Euro-based Rugby Championship would have something for everyone.
It also ensures relative parity going into matches.
By the end of the weekend, Argentina will have played two matches in South Africa – where they’ve won just once before. The Wallabies, meanwhile, have had to play their opening two Bledisloe Cup matches (only one of which was a Rugby Championship game) at Eden Park, a ground where they’ve not tasted success since 1986.
In Europe, however, there’s no home advantage. Everyone is on an equal playing field.
In 2015, the four Rugby Championship sides contested the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup and the world was treated to rugby of the highest order.
It was competitive, it was high-paced and it was a great advertisement for the game of rugby – and a Europe-based Rugby Championship promises similar potential.
There still remains a chance that Queensland or even South Africa could play host to the competition but from most conceivable angles, the UK and France appeal as the location with the greatest upside.
With all four Sanzaar unions poised to take a financial hit this year, packed-out stadiums in Europe will hold endless appeal – as will the promotional aspect of actually showcasing high quality rugby in front of roaring crowds.
It might be a left-field solution to the impact the global pandemic is having on the game, but that’s exactly what rugby needs right now.
Comments on RugbyPass
Bulls by 5. Plus another 50.
3 Go to commentsJohan Goosen avatar. Cute. Surely someone at RP knows how to do a google image search?
3 Go to commentsCan’t these games play a little earlier? Asking for a friend.
3 Go to commentsIt’s impressive that we can see huge stadiums with attendance in the 40 000 to 50 000 region. It shows how popular this competition is becoming. What is even more impressive is the massive growth in broadcast viewership. The URC is one of the two best leagues in the World, the other being the Top14.
7 Go to commentsChristie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
45 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
7 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
45 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
45 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to commentsThis is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?
35 Go to commentsWow, didn’t realise there was such apathy to URC in SA, or by Champions Cup teams. Just read Nick’s article on Crusaders, are Sharks a similar circumstance? I think SA rugby has been far more balanced than NZs, no?
4 Go to comments