A Global Sport? You must be having a laugh!

By Nick Powell 

Today rugby union marks 21 years of being a professional sport. In spite of this being decades after rugby league, football and cricket, union has quickly caught up. The professionalism of it amongst the top leagues and teams comfortably matches, if not exceeds those sports. However there are some serious flaws that are continuing to keep the power and success of the game to a select group.

I was thinking about whether the New Zealand rugby side of 2008 to present had been one of the greatest teams in sporting history. They have won two world cups in their sport, lost so few games you could count it on one hand and played the sport in such an impressive and beautiful way that they have ended any fears that rugby was going to turn into a “whose got the most muscle wins” contest.

New Zealand have always been rugby's leading nation, but they've been phenomenal in the last six years

But let’s be honest, there are only 8 decent teams in rugby union, the rugby championship sides, and the top four in the six nations. While Italy, Scotland, Japan and the Pacific Island nations would all have something to say about that, there is just no way you could see them in a World Cup Semi Final. No way.

In the history of the Rugby World Cup, only eight nations have reached a semi-final. Just 5 have made it into the final and all but one of the 8 titles have been shared between the tri-nations. In the last 8 football world cups there have been six different winners, with 16 different teams reaching a semi-final.

People like to think of rugby as a global sport, in fact I was quick to jump to the defence of rugby when having a recent discussion in the pub about this. “Look at cricket, a ten team world cup, it’s laughable when they try and call themselves a global sport, it really cannot be considered more than a commonwealth sport.” But if you read and take in those stats above, in comparison to football, the truly global sport, it is laughable to think rugby are even close to catching up in that department. 

Romania's tight first half against France was entertaining, it would be nice to see more games like this

And yet, it doesn’t have to be this way. Rugby is a sport that has a huge worldwide appeal, there are thousands of players in countries that have never qualified for a world cup. There are countries that are packed full of talent that is there at youth level, but is never fully exploited. There are huge problems however, and some major areas in which change is required. But if these changes are made, rugby could genuinely expand into a sport where you head into a major tournament with 15 contenders, I’m deadly serious.

Stop Player poaching in the Pacific Islands

 New Zealand, we’re looking at you. The All Blacks are the kings of rugby, but they are also the kings of this. They have an obscene amount of foreign-born players, and not just foreign born players, players from countries that really need them. I’m all for failed Australians spending 3 years in Scotland so they can play some international rugby, but world class Pacific Islanders deserting their homeland to play at a country that has dominated the sport for eternity is not right.

Tevita Kuridrani is one of several Pacific Islanders who play for the World Cup Finalists

Australia are getting pretty bad too, some of their best players are Pacific Island born. It’s even becoming a problem in England. Manu Tuilagi and Nathan Hughes may want to play for England, but in reality, we don’t need them and it is just so selfish of us to have them there when we know we can still be a top two team. It is slightly different in the case of the Vunipola brothers, who were both brought up from a very young age in Britain, but can you imagine what it would do for Tongan rugby to have an asset like them!

Sir Clive Woodward sums the situation up perfectly in his 2005 book, Winning!

“Someone at the IRB (now known as World Rugby) has got to make a serious investment in those Pacific Island countries. If they do that, I think a Samoan team capable of winning the World Cup is a definite possibility. Otherwise, their great players are always going to go and qualify for other countries. Certainly New Zealand has taken advantage of that”

England were pushed all the way by Samoa in their thrilling 2003 clash

I couldn’t put it better myself and the worst thing is, that was 11 years ago and it is getting worse every year. We kid ourselves that the gap with the Pacific Islands is closing, if anything it’s widening. Fiji beat Wales in the 2007 World Cup but lost to them by 66 points 4 years later and haven't got near them since. 

So long as World Rugby don’t invest in Samoa, Tonga and Fiji, they will never reach their full potential, having to gift players to New Zealand. Can you imagine if those teams kept all their players, infact, you don’t have to…

Players of direct Samoan, Fijian or Tongan descent* that play for foreign nations:

Samoa:

1.       Allan Alaalatoa (Australia) – Loosehead prop

2.       Uini Antonio (France) – Tighthead prop

3.       Charlie Faumuina (Australia) – Tighthead prop

4.       Jerome Kaino (New Zealand) – Flanker

5.       Christian Lealiifano (Australia) – Fly half (pictured, right)

6.       Liam Sopoaga (New Zealand) – Fly half

7.       Manu Tuilagi (England) – Centre

Tonga:

1.       Pauliasi Manu (New Zealand) – Loosehead prop

2.       Mako Vunipola (England) – Loosehead prop

3.        Sekope Kepu (Australia) – Tighthead prop

4.       Ofa Tu'ungafasi (New Zealand) – Tighthead prop

5.       Patrick Tuipolotu (New Zealand)

6.       Billy Vunipola (England) – Number eight (pictured below)

7.       Taulupe Faletau (Wales) – Number eight

8.       Wycliff Palu (Australia) – Scrum half

9.       Malaki Fekitoa (New Zealand) – Centre

Fiji:

1.       Nathan Hughes (Potentially England) – Number Eight

2.       Tevita Kuridrani (Australia) – Centre

3.      Seta Tamanivalu (New Zealand) – Centre

4.      Taqele Naiyaravoro (Australia) – Wing

5.      Waikese Naholo (New Zealand) – Wing (pictured, below)

6.      Nao Nakataci (France) – Wing  

*Descent in this case is a player whose parents or himself was born in one of these nations

Two tiered tournaments

Both the Six Nations and Rugby Championship need Promotion and Relegation (possibly to be settled by a play-off) to give some fluidity to their competitions. Why do these 10 teams (six in the north and four in the south) have a god given right to play each other? Rugby could revolutionise itself by changing the system to have moment between the tournaments, giving the chance for smaller teams to have a shot against the biggest sides, and struggling giants to have a go against the smaller teams to help them climb back up. Let me just demonstrate below:

(Rankings based on latest tournaments)

Europe:

Division 1: The Six Nations

England

Wales

Ireland

Scotland

France
Italy (Play Georgia in a play off)

Division 2: The European Nations Cup

Georgia (Play Italy in a play off)

Romania

Russia

Spain

Germany

Portugal

The Play Off:  A one off game at a neutral venue to be played at the end of the summer tours, the winner goes into the Six Nations and the loser plays the The European Nations Cup.  

There are divisions below this which include Belgium, Moldova and the Netherlands, and the same applies. The bottom team plays a play-off against the top team of the division below and if the latter wins, they swap. Below is a potential Oceania model, which would be exactly the same.

Division 1: The Rugby Championship

Australia

New Zealand

Argentina

South Africa (Play Fiji in play off)

Division 2: The Pacific Nations Cup

Fiji (Play South Africa in play off) 

Samoa

Tonga

Japan

USA

Canada

Play off after autumn internationals

And again, have more divisions below...

So you would effectively have International Leagues for both Europe and the Rest of the World. For too long Italy have been gifted their tier one status. The threat of being demoted to the second tier of European rugby nations may serve for serious investment in the sport, not just in the Mediterranean but also in the Highlands. Meanwhile the inclusion of Georgia would augment World Rugby’s attempts to spread the sport beyond a handful of nations.

The argument is perhaps weaker for the Rugby Championship but what harm would it do? It would give the best of the Pacific Nations a shot at the worst of the 4 southern hemisphere sides.

The response of the Six Nations Chief Executive John Feehan makes my blood boil:

“What we have here is the greatest annual tournament in the union game – the biggest, the most lucrative, the most looked at, and the best attended. Every seat is sold season on season, except occasionally in Italy, who were the last nation to be included and only recently moved from a 25,000-capacity venue to a stadium holding almost 75,000 spectators. Why would we want to change any of that? …... This is not a subject on our agenda and, frankly, it is not the job of the Six Nations to provide solutions for Georgia, Romania or anyone else.”

It is this kind of attitude that will always hold rugby back, this selfish, elitist attitude that as long as the top teams have got plenty of cash and are enjoying themselves then its fine! Rugby needs to grow not shrink, and it is embarrassing that someone with that much power simplifies it down to the fact that it is a great tournament. So worried that there will be a taint if Georgia came in. Italy need to get better, and by being thumped by 30+ week in week out without any punishment at the end of it, they won’t.

Imagine if the Euros in football only included Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Holland and England. These six teams may have been the best 50 years ago, but they aren’t all there now. That’s because the game has grown. It is a joke that Georgia only get a shot to play the giants of Europe every 4 years (if they’re lucky), having won the last six tournaments of the European Nations Cup, they must be given a chance.

Georgia beat Tonga in the World Cup to secure a place in the 2019 tournament

More Money for the grassroots in smaller nations

World Rugby needs to put more money into funding new rugby clubs and centres around the world in smaller nations, particularly those that have rugby potential. I’ve already talked about funding in the Pacific Islands, which I would put to building academies and creating a new Super Rugby team, but in African countries and parts of Asia where the game could grow if it had more money, I would want to see big investment.

For me, growing the sport needs to be the Number 1 priority for World Rugby. I don’t mean growing it in the countries where it is already massive, I mean the countries where it could be big, but is being held back through a lack of funding, player poaching and a lack of fluidity in international competition. The thing about rugby is, whilst it is a complicated sport, at a street or beach level it can be as simple as football. That’s why the game can start anywhere, and if it can start then it can be supported.

World Rugby is not corrupt, and it has to be recognised that they have done an excellent job to up the stakes and massively increase rugby in the big nations. It has modernised from a game played by small sections of society to being a game that can capture an entire nation. No truer is this than in the Rugby World Cup of 2015, where there were massive turnouts all across England as they hosted a massively successful tournament, but that job is done now, and it’s time to turn the focus to the little guy.

The 2015 was a huge success for the big nations in spite of England's early exit

New Zealand’s Rugby World Cup win was excellent last year, but their group was so easy. Just imagine if they had to go up against a Tonga that included the likes of Fekitoa and Faletau, followed by Georgia, who could have notched a win against a top European side in the Six Nations earlier in the year. Suddenly the route to the quarter finals is a lot less straightforward than just beating Argentina.

Of course I don't want to see England lose to Romania in 20 years time to flop out of a home World Cup (again), but if it means that rugby has finally reached a stage where the best can get beaten by the 20th best, then it will be a sport that can truly hold status as a global one.