Letter of the Week
Planet Rugby readers are never short of an opinion and our mail box is seldom empty. This week's letter regards the Test calendar.
Planet Rugby readers are never short of an opinion and our mail box is seldom empty. This week, one of our readers has a few questions regarding the Test calendar.
We've long been beating the drum for reform in the scheduling of global fixtures and it seems plenty of you agree.
While the bigger nations seem to be playing more and more rugby, the smaller teams have been left behind writes Ralph Livesey-Wardle, a Planet Rugby reader from Dreieich in Germany.
Got an opinion? We'd like to hear it, so why not send us an email here.
Time to revisit the international calendar
By Ralph Livesey-Wardle
Bridging the gap between Tier One and Tier Two nations and giving the latter a fairer crack of the whip at the next RWC tournament in 2015 has recently been a hot topic in the light of RWC 2011. So it is good to see the Tier One nations agreeing to midweek games in 4 years' time. But the RWC tournament should, as Marius Tincu or Nigel Melville have commented, remain a single competition.
Nevertheless smaller unions, outside the top 10, such as USA, Canada, Russia, Japan, Namibia, Romania, Tonga etc. will incur considerable expense to play at RWC 2015, and may possibly win one or two games, but that is it.
Instead of returning home completely empty-handed, why doesn't the IRB not institute a Plate or Shield competition as part of RWC 2015 for losing quarter-finalists and teams finishing 3rd, 4th and 5th in their pools, as happens in World Series Sevens tournaments. It would certainly provide some incentive to those lower-ranked teams when participating in RWC.
Now that the Churchill Cup has been consigned to the history books, because it has fulfilled its purpose and Canada and the USA have been integrated into the IRB's incoming tour schedule, what is the next stage in developing rugby in North America? Which countries exactly will be touring North America in the next few years?
Canada and USA desperately need more international fixtures, so why could they not be included in an expanded Pacific Nations Cup featuring Japan, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Canada and USA. This tournament could be held annually and be hosted in each of the countries in rotation.
Possible formats could include 2 groups of 3 playing Churchill Cup format, for example, or Six Nations league table-style with play-offs. Japan should then concentrate on this competition and not participate in the Asian 5 Nations, as they are currently far too good for the other teams in Asia.
The demise of the Churchill Cup also begs the question as to what next for the Six Nations 'A' teams? Apart from now being restricted to the odd fixture, e.g. Saxons v. Irish Wolfhounds, this opportunity of exposing emerging talent to international competition is seemingly not being exploited.
Why can't a Six Nations 'A' team tournament be held, to shadow the main event in February/March? The A teams could also provide opposition for incoming November tours and play European Tier Two teams, such as Romania, Georgia, Portugal and Russia more often.
One idea could be to expand the IRB Nations Cup, featuring Six Nations A teams, Romania, Georgia, Russia, Portugal and Spain and also include Namibia, Zimbabwe and Uruguay (as these teams could do with more international competition).
Obviously money is going to be a major factor, but how else are teams outside the top 15 going to develop?
One final thought – now that a return to traditional touring has been agreed, with England playing 3 tests in South Africa in 2012, for example, why don't the SH 4 Nations reciprocate by undertaking 3-test tours of a single NH country, such as New Zealand touring Ireland for example, during the NH autumn?
There is already no end of cups to play for and such tours would make the November internationals more exciting than just a series of entertaining but ultimately meaningless one-offs. And what's more why should the SH nations alone enjoy home advantage during traditional tours?