World cup America

Rugby union is a great game, a game I love it is the ultimate team game that brings out all sorts of exceptional qualities in the people of all shapes and sizes that play it. It is a game in a healthy state in the six nations countries witness the European cup semi-finals and the emergence of Italy as a six nations side. There are challenges for the game worldwide and the administrators are not always correct in their decisions.

The reason for this blog is that England today announced that they would be bidding for the 2015 rugby world cup. I personally hope they don't get it. An emerging nation or group of nations should get it. As much as I want to see the best rugby players in the world the growth of the game is more important.

Football is leading the way in this respect with tournaments in the USA and Japan this has led over time to the establishing of successful leagues with the j league and  major league soccer. Rugby union could go for the safe option as it has by staging the next world cup in New Zealand or it could expand the game further afield. Why should it do this? Because rugby union has taken root itself all over the world but the administrators have forgotten this. Contrast this with the experience of rugby league. It is a game that has its heartland in Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire and Cumbria in England. In Australia it is mainly played in New South Wales and Queensland. A little bit is played in New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. It has been desperately trying to spread its boarders but really failed.The reaso is that they are trying to spread to epople who have never played it. Rugby Union does not have this problem it has taken root all over the world. The evidence for this is the IRB world seven championship which sells out all over the world including San Diego on the West Coast of America.

Rugby Union has done the opposite to rugby league and neglected parts of the world. There are three outstanding cases where the administrators of the game have got it wrong. The first are the pacific island states of Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. There can be no doubt that the two big players in that region are Australia and New Zealand. These countries farm the talent from the pacific island countries and the IRB does nothing. There was the opportunity to fix this by allowing these countries individually or combined into the tri-nations but did not. The tri-nations then did not help by expanding their super fourteen competition with an Australian and South African teams when they could have got a Pacific Island team or team the expansion teams in super 14 have added nothing other than being cannon fodder for the more established sides. 

European administrators are not blameless because they have made their mistakes the most obvious one is Romania. In the eighties Romanian rugby was better than Italian rugby. After the fall of communism Romanian rugby died. The powers of Europe neglected Romania to the detriment of the game in central Europe. An active financing package for rugby in Romania would have saved the game. Instead the European administrators kept the money themselves.

The final example is Canada where the game is played by enthusiasts and the best players go to Europe if possible to earn a living. Canada have got worse since professionalism and often struggles for funding. Yet along with America has tremendous potential as it has a huge population used to physical sports. The IRB does not seem to realise the enthusiasm for the game and the excitement a world cup could generate if it was in North America. It has been up to England with its Saxons tours to keep international rugby going.

 

So world cup America is where the game should be, I want to see England versus New Zealand at the Toronto skydome. Or France versus Ireland in Giants stadium.