When will the powers that be start behaving as if the future of rugby is important to them?
Lemmings have a greater appetite for self-preservation than some of the people running European rugby, judging by the events of the last 48 hours.

With France's leading clubs having been joined by England's representatives in boycotting next season's Heineken Cup, a domino effect has been precipitated which could spark the collapse of the professional game in Scotland, as well as adversely affecting the entire sport's reputation in the northern hemisphere. It's almost as if some of those involved in the administrative side are still raging against the dying of the light, their spirit of confrontation undimmed, even if the flesh is weaker than it was 10 or 20 years ago.

The French clubs who orchestrated this latest debacle have genuine grievances with their federation, but nobody should pretend that fixture congestion isn't a central issue in this escalating row.

The likes of Stade Francais and Biarritz are entitled to demand a more logical structure than the current one, which insists that they hand most of their best personnel to the FFR from the middle of August for two months of preparation and participation in the World Cup.

Is it really sensible for the governing bodies to dictate that these same clubs also cram in the European Cup, as the prelude to the Six Nations Championship, where once again, their crown jewels will be snatched away from them for another six weeks? Of course it isn't, which surely begs the question of why the international authorities, who have procrastinated on the subject of summer rugby for so long, haven't bitten the bullet and realised that the most sensible option would have been to stage the battle for the Webb Ellis Trophy between, let us say, mid-June and the start of August?

Of course, there would have been objections. There always are, and yet that decision would have avoided the present morass which threatens to destroy the Heineken Cup - a truly great competition in the making - and provoke a fresh orgy of internecine warfare and negative headlines which will repulse sponsors and broadcasters alike.

Consider this: the summer ahead has no major football tournaments, no Olympics or Commonwealth Games, in which light the media will be crying out for major events to cover, with a glittering showcase of rugby offering as promising a scenario as most. Almost unbelievably in the circumstances, the World Cup doesn't kick off until September 7 and, 48 matches later, concludes on October 20, by which stage most of the stars in the French and English firmament may have reasoned that their bodies and minds are due a quick rest, before knuckling down to domestic chores. Oh, and the SPL, the Premiership and Champions League will be in full swing once more, which guarantees a diminution of interest.

Ideally, rugby wouldn't have to worry about other pursuits, but nobody outwith New Zealand and South Africa can afford to ignore the influence of the round-ball activity.

In this climate, would it have been so difficult to devise a rugby schedule which offered the World Cup in the summer, before the best players received a break, and the various national club tournaments began in October, with the Heineken Cup commencing in place of the usual slew of autumn internationals? Granted, it isn't perfect, but this would have meant the southern hemisphere nations arriving in France in the midst of their seasons and teams such as the All Blacks, Fiji and Samoa, who thrive on dry pitches, being allowed to unleash their exciting talents, to the delight of neutrals, rather than risk being enveloped in the thundery rain which strikes France from September onwards.

Sadly, though, what we have instead is another battle of the blazers, a new series of meetings in airport lounges throughout the Continent, and a weary sigh from many players and fans to the effect: "Any chance of some action on the pitch?"

Gavin Hastings called for summer rugby a decade ago, and many backed his proposal. Ten years on, and nothing has changed. As a microcosm of the game's propensity for lurching into kamikaze-style flirtations with disaster, it could hardly be bettered.

12:01am today



By NEIL DRYSDALE

This article was originally posted on 9-Apr-2007, 07:20 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 9-Apr-2007, 07:36.