NORTH v SOUTH
A new season starts with an old argument. The global calendar, a concept which has for most of the decade casually been kicked around like a ball in a warm-up, is an issue that is now being taken seriously.
There is no fit-all solution, no prospect of the seasons in the hemispheres being played simultaneously so one has to operate in its summer. It is about trying to find a way of playing club/regional/franchise rugby in a different window to the international game. And trying is the word.
New Zealand have applied electric shock therapy by saying they are not prepared to sign up to a new Test tour schedule to replace the one that runs out after the 2019 World Cup if it means the two hemispheres trudge on tour at the end of their respective long seasons.
The All Blacks would go it alone. If one of the European nations wanted them to visit, it would have to strike a deal, something that would also operate in reverse. Under the current tour agreement, the host nation banks all the profits from a match, paying the visitors’ hotel and transport expenses.
The four home unions and France earn (much) more from a match against the All Blacks than New Zealand do for playing any one of them at home. Market forces: there are millions more chimney pots in Europe than there are in the major southern hemisphere nations; New Zealand’s population is not much more than half of London’s.
The New Zealand Union has done remarkably well to sustain success at international level at a time when French clubs are offering players seven-figure salaries and Japan has become a major importer of talent, but it feels it has maximised its financial potential at home and so has to look elsewhere.
It knows that as it continues to produce players of such quality that even figures such as Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith are barely missed, so it will have to work harder to hold on to them. The All Blacks’ jersey is so alluring that McCaw denied himself the chance of earning substantially more abroad to continue wearing it, even if at the same time he probably extended his playing career.
Australia and South Africa are not so fortunate, two of the game’s superpowers who look in decline, with England now closest to New Zealand in the world rankings – they have been prey to the greater financial muscle of clubs in Europe. If the current tour schedule works in any way for them it is to make French owners ponder the wisdom of signing players who may not be around for much of the first three months of the season, and June; not that it has stopped them so far.
There is little sympathy in Europe for the relative financial weakness of the south and even less enthusiasm to split the proceeds from tour matches evenly, although that stance has not stopped some on the four home unions from arguing the next Lions deal with New Zealand, Australia and South Africa should give them a chunk of the profits from each tour. Yet there would be significant ramifications here should countries which have customarily been in the top five of the world rankings in the professional era, and very often in the leading three, lose their lustre.
One argument why there should be no revenue sharing is that the unions here have all redeveloped their grounds at considerable expense and should be able to enjoy the rewards. New Zealand, Australia and South Africa play Test matches all over their countries rather than in one base, although two of the Tests against the Lions next year will be at Eden Park, and only Sydney competes with Twickenham, Paris and Cardiff in terms of capacity.
Stadium development was funded by loans: earlier this year the Rugby Football Union entered into a £50m revolving credit facility with RBS over five years to finance the east stand redevelopment at Twickenham, which will start after next year’s Six Nations, as well as the laying of artificial pitches at community level, two-thirds of which has already been drawn down.
Loans are granted not least on income projection. Take out autumn home matches against New Zealand, South Africa and Australia and the three Celtic unions are in financial trouble and the RFU’s £152m annual turnover suffers a tumble. The hemispheres are in it together and a danger of failing to agree a tour schedule after 2019, or taking talks down to the wire as seems to be the way now, would be to create a vacuum that would probably be filled by clubs, and not just ones in England and France.
The game has stretched itself in the last 20 years to generate the money to pay players and coaches: even the RFU blew its international playing budget last season through generous bonuses for the Six Nations title and the grand slam. A season that used to run from the beginning of September to the end of April, with a June tour more occasional than routine, now starts with friendlies in August and extends to the end of May – longer in France where the Top 14 will again stretch into June having kicked off two weekends ago.
A global season, in which everything was synchronised, would work only if Test sides were fed by a league made up of sides from the two hemispheres, Super Rugby meets the European Champions Cup. The two windows would be separate, but that would devalue domestic leagues, something the Top 14 and Premiership rugby would not consider, never mind accept.
And so the debate will go on, more questions than answers. The new campaign promises much in England, where if Gloucester and Bath pick up, Harlequins add growl to their bite and Northampton loosen up, the battle for the top four places will be intense. The Pro12 needs the Welsh regions to come out of hibernation, while Conor O’Shea’s move to Italy should galvanise Treviso and Zebre.
The global season issue will run in the background. The hemispheres are in it together and they can only resolve it together.
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