By Soft Centre
August 9 2005

Its been a few weeks now since the rugby season in the Northern Hemisphere finished. We've had all the cups awarded, the championships decided, and the Lions have come home again, so we've had a few weeks to reflect on just how the game can go forward in the Northern Hemisphere.

I spent a huge amount of time watching Super 12, Heineken Cup, Zurich Premiership on TV, attending all Tykes home matches, a good number of Tykes A Team matches, the Tykes unbelievable and exciting end to the season. I also watched the miserable efforts of the Lions in New Zealand, and in the intervening time between then and now I have asked myself what can or should we do with the game in this country to improve it. Make no mistake, Test Rugby needs to be improved in the Northern Hemisphere.

 

The Super 12 branding and marketing has produced an excellent product. The skill, handling and speed shown in the back-lines is awesome & very entertaining. The Lions backline, even when they managed to string some phases together, seemed incapable of posing any sort of threat. In comparison the NZ backs looked threatening and dangerous from even set piece ball. Whilst some in NZ may argue, with some justification, that the traditional All Black forward play has suffered as a result of  Super 12 over the last few years, I think Graham Henry has addressed this to some extent. It will be interesting to see how the All Black pack goes in the Tri-nations but IMHO, what we saw from them against the Lions was very, very good – a strong dominant pack with skills to burn in the backs. Playing in better weather conditions than over here is not an argument, as the weather in the first test was abysmal but the NZ backs still managed to get the ball wide and threaten (just look at the try they scored in the second half).

 

I very much doubt whether any Northern Hemisphere team would have featured prominently in any of Tri-nations tournaments if they had been allowed to compete over the last 4-5 years, with only the odd win at home been achieved. Something is radically wrong, we have many, many more players than most of the Southern Hemisphere countries, so what are we doing wrong? These are the changes I would implement:

 

1)      Here we go….. yes, scrap relegation. I know how exciting the end to the season was but for the future of the national game we have to invest for the future. As I have said in previous posts I have watched quite a few Super 12 matches whilst in South Africa. These games could be classed as ‘meaningless’ because neither team was positioned to make the play offs but the games were fantastic to watch, very competitive, very skilful and pulled in a crowd of between 15,000 - 25, 000. We have to try and create the Super 12 brand of rugby in the UK. Perhaps the knowledge of no relegation may help teams play in a more attacking vein which will help us produce backs capable of troubling the SH teams at test level. Also we have got to reduce the amount of ball that gets killed by cynical forwards in the UK, it is becoming more and more common over here, but when its tried and fails (a la the Lions against NZ) look what happens. The Lions left in tatters with no game plan whatsoever.

 

2)      Stop offering players from overseas fat contracts in order to ensure the club retains premiership status. One or two may be useful for player development but not for survival. This money should be spent on improving the academy players. Again, with no threat of relegation younger academy players could be offered more opportunities, this could help their development considerably and make them better international players at a younger age. With the ever increasing demands on players in the modern game, we need bigger squads etc to allow in-fill when injuries occur.

 

3)      Increase the premiership to allow entrance to ‘the few’ clubs that are ambitious and capable. I think it is potty to have all this talk about allowing promotion to then see sides like Bristol go out and buy a complete new squad with the exception of one or two players. What’s the point in that?

 

 

4)      A shadow play-off system at the end of the season should be run for first division sides in order to give them their big day out in front of a packed Twickenham as the prelude to the premiership play-off final. This will be the prize they all strive for because promotion will not be an option.

 

 

Its not all doom and gloom, the standard and style some of the French teams are showing in the Heineken Cup is encouraging, Wales played some decent rugby in the Six Nations but with regards to England we need a good shake-up / kick up the backside.

 

If promotion/relegation is to stay, then an amnesty of say 5-7 years without relegation should be approved now in order to give sides a chance to get their houses in order ie: get rid of overseas players on fat contracts, set 5 year plan for improving the academy player conveyor belt etc.

 

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So, do you think Soft Centre's got it right? What would YOU do? Post below!