Things I hope to see change in Rugby

The regular rugby season has come to an end. The Heineken Champions Cup is safely tucked away in La Rochelle, rugby medals have returned to the Stone X since Sale could not stop a well-oiled Saracens machine and Munster completed an ambush in Cape Town to bring the United Rugby Championship to Thurmond Park.

Off the field, the game has gone through the washing machine. We lost Wasps and Worcester, the Welsh Rugby Union has been on fire with sexism issues and have lost over 220 caps in their national team through retirements just months before a Rugby World Cup (RWC). The Irish Rugby Football Union completely stopped caring about the women’s programme and the leaders at the top were all found wanting for such incopetence. 

In the Southern Hemisphere, New Zealand suffered from avoidable scheduling issues, as the Black Ferns’ RWC semi-final was planned for the same time as a regular All Blacks Test.  

With all this in mind, clearly our game has loads to improve and here is a list of things I hope rugby takes heed of and changes soon:

 Real Growth in Smaller Rugby Nations

Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe have had RWC appearances in the first two world cups but have since drifted into the shadows of the rugby landscape. There have only been 25 different nations at a RWC. I wish to see an aggressive effort to diversify the RWC demographic. Maybe a fast-track approach to get teams to be able to compete as we saw how consistent financial backing from World Rugby improved Namibia Rugby as whole and helped them put up better performances in the competition. A similar approach could benefit countries like Uganda, Brazil, or even Latvia in a RWC.

 One Stop Shop to Watch all Matches

If you are living in the UK, you need a minimum of five different TV subscriptions to watch every single rugby game. ITV and BBC share the Six Nations, BT Sport and Premiership Rugby TV have access to the Gallagher Premiership, Sky Sports have rights to June and July test windows plus the British and Irish Lions and Amazon Prime exclusively show the Autumn Nations. Did I mention Channel 5 for the odd Barbarians game, the BBC  for the Premier 15s and Via Play for the United Rugby Championship. There is just too much to keep anyone fully engaged. I am not sure how it will work business wise. Sooner rather than later a model is needed that houses all the rugby viewing. I consider myself a rugby nerd and I cannot even keep up with all the subscriptions, a simpler method is needed.

Centralised Leadership

When rugby went professional in 1995, the world was split into hemispheres. What that meant was that each region formed its own competition and thus its own leadership. The top Southern Hemisphere countries were (and still are), South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina Rugby (SANZAAR) The Six Nations were already an alliance. 

World Rugby also subdivided themselves into the various regions. Asia Rugby came to life and so did Africa Rugby. This created too many voices at the top of the game and has caused the game to pull in too many different directions and it has slowly lost its identity in the process. 

One voice, one direction and one decision maker, is what is needed. It could be a body or a collection of bodies. Rugby needs to centralise its leadership and make decision processes shorter and smoother.   

The Global Calendar

A RWC is taking place in France and a new women’s WXV competition will be running concurrently in New Zealand. That on its own speaks volumes to the mess of the global calendar. As you read this there is a Junior World Trophy and Junior World Championship taking place in South Africa.

While in two of Europe’s best leagues, the English Premiership and the United Rugby Championship finals were both held on the same day. 

Rugby needs a global calendar, one that synchronises all the competitions, prioritising de-cluttering the calendar should be a major goal with player welfare taking centre stage. In its current form everyone needs a spreadsheet to keep track of all competitions and matches, it is unsustainable and needs addressing.

A Simpler Law Book  

With safety becoming a priority, the changes World Rugby have made to the game has resulted in a safety nightmare for referees. 

Nothing is clear and obvious as they try to convince us. The head contact protocol is not being consistently applied and that has nothing to do with the referees. The Law book is too complicated for the staunchest of fans later alone the novice. 

A simpler, less complicated law book is needed. The current one has 21 laws, 191 pages and three different versions of the game. Make that four from the first of July 2023, with changes to the tackle height coming in for the community game. That alone makes the sport difficult to sell, and comprehend. 

A more compact, less cluttered and complicated law book is needed and then maybe we can sell the game to the younger and more diverse  audiences that the sport desperately needs. Rugby is currently competing with other forms of exciting sporting experiences such Formula 1 and Sail GP and it must evolve and stay relevant.

Rugby finds itself in a weird place. Watching the Red Roses and the Black Ferns break world records has been refreshing, the support given to the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation makes one remember the true values of the game and even the introduction of new voices in the game (Loose Headz, Squidge Rugby and the Good, the Scaz and the Rugby Podcast) have rejuvenated what was becoming a stale rugby discourse environment.

The game needs these changes if it is going to remain relevant in a world where TikTok rules the social media landscape and sports like slap fighting are gaining ascendancy. Most of the changes our game needs all involve either simplifying something already in existence or making the game more accessible. Either way you look at change is needed and soon.