World Rugby’s chairman, Bill Beaumont, has conceded that a deal to synchronise the northern and southern hemisphere calendars has proved harder to achieve than he imagined when he took the job this year – with “emotions running high” on all sides. But the former England captain said he was optimistic that an agreement would be reached by early next year after constructive discussions involving World Rugby and English and French clubs. “I came in thinking it was something I could sort our pretty quickly but I found otherwise,” he said. “I’m hopeful that by early next year we’ll reach a solution but there is no easy solution.”
Beaumont has previously suggested that the Six Nations could be moved to April, an idea that has been fiercely opposed by the Rugby Football Union, but speaking on Monday he would not to be drawn on the specifics of any potential deal, but said that his “No1” concern would always be the welfare of players. “We can’t play more than once a week, we have to have certain rest periods,” he added. “We’re not like soccer where a player in the Premier League can fly to Chile and play an international on Tuesday and come back and play for his club on the Saturday.”Beaumont also denied that French clubs have been a roadblock to any deal but agreed they had a passion for their product “and they don’t really have a lot of interest outside that”. He added: “That’s not a criticism, that’s an observation. Look, it is challenging because when you have two very strong entities – English and French clubs – and you are juggling a few balls to preserve the international programme and also allow the club programme to flourish as well. But there is an enormous appetite to get this done.”
Beaumont, who was speaking at the World Rugby Conference and Exhibition in London, also spoke of a “golden period of exceptional growth” for the sport, due to sevens being included in the Olympics for the first time this year. He cited research in five markets – France, Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia and the US – that showed that 16.83m “new fans” had started watching the sport in 2016.
“Our mission is to grow the global rugby family and these statistics demonstrate that we are inspiring new audiences,” Beaumont said. “Sevens is introducing people to the game and there is a huge appetite for it from elite level right down to playing socially in the evenings or on the beach, and I can’t see it doing anything but strengthen the whole game.”
