In weeks such as this promoting rugby union should be the easiest job in the world. An eventful World Cup is still fresh in the memory and the first two rounds of Europe’s flagship club tournament have just been played. As anyone who saw Finn Russell’s fabulous piece of try-scoring skill for Racing 92 at Thomond Park can testify, there are also box-office players out there.
Add in Joe Marler impersonating an Irish horse – a video which has now been seen by almost as many people who are watching James Haskell in the Celebrity jungle – and awareness of rugby amongst the general population is higher than normal. What better time, then, to convert all that casual interest into something more permanent?
There are healthy signs in certain places. The number of young autograph and selfie hunters waiting for a glimpse of Tom Curry after Sale’s win against La Rochelle was certainly a lot bigger than it has ever been. The series of videos released by the Rugby Football Union showcasing those junior club coaches who launched the careers of World Cup squad members were a genuine delight and highlighted everything good about the grassroots game. Try to find a cheap flight to Rome to join the legions booked in for England’s final game of the 2020 Six Nations championship and you will be doing incredibly well.
Unfortunately there is a “but” coming. Just when it really matters – as so often in the professional era – rugby is at risk of missing its cue. Even in conversation with a roomful of poultry experts – the ultimate egg chasers – last week the majority of the questions posed were on the subject of Saracens killing the golden goose via their salary cap mismanagement. Attempts by rival clubs to sue the champions for potential loss of income will be tough to substantiate but the reputational damage the whole affair has done and is still doing is real enough.
There is also the small matter of the quality of Europe itself, with an increasing number of clubs ducking and diving with their team selections. Clearly those players just back from the World Cup need careful managing but were Gloucester really giving themselves the best chance of qualification by changing all but four of their starting XV for the game in Montpellier on Sunday? The net result, either way, is they have now lost their opening two games and already struggling with four pool matches still to play.
The Welsh representatives in the Champions Cup, Ospreys, are similarly in danger of sinking without trace, as are Bath and Lyon, two of the sides who should in theory be adding extra zest to the tournament. Sale, with their big World Cup drawcards back, could attract barely 6,000 spectators to the AJ Bell Stadium. Not all the games have been compelling spectacles. Watching Quins v Bath and Cardiff v Leicester on our family’s newly connected television on Saturday evening was almost enough to prompt a call to the engineer to ask if he could come back and remove the cable again.
At least we could access the live match footage. This a random and unscientific survey but neither of the good-sized rugby clubhouses I have visited on the past two Saturday afternoons have shown BT Sport’s coverage of the opening European rounds. The first had a gardening programme on instead, as if to emphasise the big hole rugby is quietly digging for itself. Whether on cost grounds or simply a lack of burning interest, even committed rugby fans are not seeing the games.
This is even more of a pity given the consistent quality of BT Sport’s coverage, notwithstanding the odd live match on Channel 4. The Welsh language channel S4C does show European highlights but visibility is still nowhere near as widespread as it could be with the World Cup on ITV having whetted so many appetites. Those of us whose introduction to rugby league came via the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy in the 1970s – admittedly there were rather fewer channel options available back then – can still testify to the power of live sport accessible to all.
There again if you had broadcast Cardiff and Leicester to a peak time audience of millions it would not have swayed many non-believers. As the great Jonathan Davies has observed on Twitter, Russell’s twinkle-toed skills for Racing stood out even more from the modern herd because of their relative rarity. “Not many steppers in the game now,” Davies wrote. “Need them to break the boredom of repetitive slow phase play.”
Which brings us back to the recurring question of what rugby wants to look like in two decades’ time? A move towards fewer substitutes being permitted would be a start, potentially encouraging more second-half space, but primarily it is a mindset thing. If Sale want more regular fans, for example, they might find it helps to start thinking less like Sharks and more like the Irlam Globetrotters. Ironically it was the late Peter Deakin at both Sale and Saracens who first showed rugby union how best to put unfamiliar bums on seats 20 years ago: increasingly the trend has been for in-house TV interviews, decreasing access to the big stars and fewer enlightened press officers, particularly around international teams.
On Sunday the 21-year-old Curry was just finishing a short press conference when he was asked how he was handling fame? The question could have been better framed and/or timed but, before he could reply, Sale’s director of rugby Steve Diamond called a halt. “He’s not answering questions about that,” Diamond said crisply, before escorting Curry out of the room. Fair enough, to some extent, but it was another example of rugby’s split personality, trapped between needing to sell itself more widely and not wanting to go all showbiz. Relying simply on a Harlequins prop talking horsey to elevate the game to another level will not be enough.
Safe approach
The crass act of eye-gouging which led to La Rochelle’s hooker Pierre Bourgarit receiving a red card on Sunday was perfectly timed in one respect. In recent days a fresh debate surrounding on-field safety has been reignited by Philippe Chauvin, whose ongoing campaign in memory of his late son Nicolas was featured in the Guardian last month. Monsieur Chauvin wants players to take more responsibility for their personal actions and still does not believe the game is listening. He wants the relevant law on foul play – “Players must not do anything that is reckless or dangerous to others” – to be either printed in every match programme or read out before every match. “This would not cost much but will have the merit of reminding everyone that the sport does not compromise with irresponsible behaviour,” Chauvin told the Guardian. “We will have taken a first concrete step out of the current situation where everyone regrets what has happened but nothing is happening to make change.”
And another thing …
Tom Smith was always the quiet man of the British & Irish Lions front row but there has been a global outpouring of affection for the former Northampton and Scotland prop, who has revealed he has stage‑four cancer. A one-off fundraising dinner is being held at London’s Hurlingham Club on 4 March, with teammates from the victorious 1997 Lions tour of South Africa and the 1999 Scotland side who won the last Five Nations tournament due to be reunited for the cause. Anyone simply wishing to make a donation can do so at www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/tomsmithfund.