Here are the latest rugby headlines on Tuesday, September 20.
URC/English Premiership double-headers mooted
Double-headers involving United Rugby Championship and English Premiership teams at the same stadium could become a thing of the future in a bid to create a "festival of rugby", according to URC boss Martin Anayi.
The chief executive mooted the proposal to stage a game from each league back to back in a call for greater collaboration between the two competitions, who now share an office in London.
While there are no long-term merger plans, Anayi said both leagues could benefit from greater synergy.
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"I like the idea of creating big events and maybe we could do a double-header together in one stadium to create a festival of rugby, maybe in our territory," Anayi told The Telegraph.
"If the English teams want to play in one of the fantastic stadiums in one of our territories, for example the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, or vice-versa, there has got to be a way we can talk to one another and our audiences and be more collaborative. It just happens that there's two different leagues operating but it's still the same game with a similar fan base. The question is can you make it even bigger by doing it together?"
The outlet reports that Anayi is also working on setting up a new cup involving URC clubs, and is exploring the possibility of whether the leading English clubs may be interested as a successor to the current Premiership Cup. "I have to convince Simon [Massie-Taylor, Premiership chief executive] but I would love to see it,” Anayi added.
It comes as the URC boss officially backed proposals for a Club World Cup, saying: "Everybody's largely agreed in principle, and we just need to figure out dates."
World Rugby told to act over controversial call
World Rugby have been told to act and determine what type of game they want in the wake of referee Mathieu Raynal's controversial decision to penalise Aussie fly-half Bernard Foley for time-wasting, a decision which cost his side possession and led to a New Zealand win by two points.
Former All Blacks wing John Kirwan has come to the defence of Foley, while also admitting the referee had every right to dish out the sanction. In Kirwan's view, the issue of wasting time which has crept into the modern elite game needs to be addressed by administrators across the board so as to avoid leaving it to interpretation.
Speaking on Sky Sport NZ’s The Breakdown, he said: "It’s actually not Foley’s fault, it’s not Raynal’s fault. Everyone is time wasting around the world in Test match rugby. Either props are going down or the game’s being slowed up, encroaching [the gap] at the lineout.
"I’ve just never seen it enforced before. So was the referee right? Yes. Was the decision wrong? If you are a New Zealander, no, if you are Australian, yes.
"The trouble is we can’t leave stuff like time wasting up to interpretation. The ref was right but no one has seen that rule for a 150 million years.
"I’ve seen it once in my career and it was for a shot at goal. But we’ve got to start thinking about time wasting as a whole and how do we change that?”
Claiming the ref's call "wasn't appropriate" in the circumstances as it had a major influence on the game's outcome, Kirwan said: "It may have been the wrong time to make this call. I think this is the opportunity, and we haven’t heard from World Rugby, surprise, surprise, they look at what they want their game to be in 12 months' time, at the Rugby World Cup.
“What do they want at the international level? Manipulating the amount of time of ball of play based on what the score is, whether you are down to 14 men, being a bit fatigued so you sit a prop down, all areas that clearly frustrate fans. That’s up to World Rugby to decide, the type of rugby they want international rugby to be."
Josh Adams backs Wales cohesion for World Cup
Wales winger Josh Adams believes Wayne Pivac's side aren't too far away from clicking as they head into a World Cup year.
The 2023 Rugby World Cup is being staged in France next autumn, with Welsh players bidding to stake their claim for a spot in the squad as they kick on early in the new season.
While Pivac's rein as Warren Gatland's successor yielded a 2021 Six Nations title, just minutes from becoming a Grand Slam, they finished fifth in 2022 and suffered a historic defeat to Italy to mark a real low for the side's fortunes.
But Adams, who was part of the Cardiff side to beat Munster 20-13 at the weekend in their league opener, is confident things will settle into place, aided by the historic win on South African soil in July despite a 2-1 series defeat to the world champions.
"I think the template we put out there in South Africa really gave us some momentum," he said. "It fed us with some confidence, and we were competitive for large periods of the Test series.
“As a team I thought it was really positive. I think we made a lot of strides forward from the Six Nations, creating a little bit of history winning out there for the first time.
"We were really unlucky to lose that first Test as well. I think it is great, but it counts for nothing unless we take it forward moving on to the next campaign, and into the big year with the World Cup at the end of it.
"I think that’s the sort of way we want to go about things. Certain aspects will probably change, bits and bobs here will change but we aren’t too far away from clicking."
Adams, who scored the match-winning try to cement Wales' famous victory in Bloemfontein, revealed he wasn't at his best in the Rainbow Nation, adding: "Personally, I went in carrying a few niggles. It was a long old year but that’s not an excuse from my end. There were aspects of the game I wasn’t too pleased with how I did, and I could have done things a lot better, but I’ve had time to reflect on that. That’s certainly something I’ve put a lot of effort into putting right this season."
But Cardiff is his sole focus for now. "The play-offs certainly should be a target, and with the quality of the squad we’ve got there’s no reason why we can’t achieve that but when you start a new season you always look to better your last," he added.
Dwayne Peel frustrated
A frustrated Dwayne Peel admitted three big moments in the Scarlets' dying minutes of their opening United Rugby Championship bout with the Ospreys cost them, having led 23-16 going into the final stages of the drama-filled match.
But the Ospreys managed to touch down for a stoppage time converted try to tie the result at 23-23 in Llanelli on Friday night.
"We were poor in the first half; for that first 30 minutes we were rusty, off the pace and our line-out and set-piece didn’t function," the Scarlets head coach said. "We managed to keep them out for that final 10 minutes of the half which was important because we could have been 20 points down at half-time.
"In the second half I thought we were pretty dominant, when we upped the pace and tempo we looked good; the disappointing part was that, when we were 23-16 up, we were camped in their 22 but didn’t come away with anything.
"Big games are about moments and we had three moments in those final minutes that cost us. It was tough to take, having fought back well and showing real character. We played exactly how we wanted to, at speed, but in those big moments we were not accurate enough."
Full-back Johnny McNicholl failed to return to the field after taking a knock to his head just before half-time and he will go through the return-to-play protocols this week, while back-rower Tomas Lezana will also be assessed after he picked up a calf injury early in the first half. The Scarlets face Peel's former side Ulster on Saturday (1pm kick-off).
Catch up on all the controversies from the action-packed Welsh rugby derby right here.
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