Loose Pass: A letter, fresh ideas and RIP Super Rugby?

David Skippers

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with politics, Eddie Jones’ latest piece of forward thinking and whether Super Rugby will ever really be again…

Rumbles from the hustings

As predicted – to an extent – in this column last week, what looked to be a march to the World Rugby Chairmanship has become anything but for Sir Bill Beaumont. Not only has the surprise last-minute campaign from Agustin Pichot turned the vote into anything but a foregone conclusion, but now Beaumont has lost a key supporter in some highly-controversial circumstances.

That Francis Kean, formerly commander of the Fijian Navy, currently chairman of Fiji rugby but also convicted of manslaughter in somewhat murky circumstances in 2007, was able to run for executive council membership at all is something of a mystery, but Sunday Times allegations of homophobia and discrimination by Kean put an end to that. Meanwhile an extraordinary letter from Dan Leo, CEO of Pacific Island Players’ Welfare, heaped the pressure on World Rugby and its system of nominations, as well as making a number of deeply worrying claims about Kean’s influence on Fijian rugby.

Unfortunately for Beaumont, Kean was a supporter of Beaumont’s bid, meaning that the latter’s bid for the chairmanship will now be tarnished. Not only does Pichot now stand for progression as opposed to maintenance, he also stands for squeaky-clean as opposed to letting some things slip for political favour. Leo made this pretty clear in his letter: “If the values of World Rugby really are integrity, respect, solidarity, passion and discipline, all of this – and the claim to have been building character since 1823 – will be utterly debased if Kean is elected to the Exco… His time in office has become a byword for intimidation, vindictiveness, corruption and self-dealing nepotism and the threat and realization of violence.” Not someone Beaumont would have wanted in his corner, one would have thought…

Of course, political favour is abundant everywhere. Argentina’s withdrawal from the World Cup 2027 bidding process and subsequent proclamation of support for Australia has good grounding in simple economics, but the timing smacked of a good dollop of political favour thrown in as well – with Australia’s union reasonably vocal in its support for Pichot’s progressive bid.

In fact, all of the southern hemisphere nations are aligned to Pichot, all of them fed up at how the home nations and old school brigade has been defending its turf for so long. The vote, ultimately, may come down to which way the tier two nations swing – and for smaller nations desperate to accede to higher levels, Pichot, with the story of Argentina’s rise parallel to his career both playing and administrating, is the folk hero.

He also is perceived as the man who will come up with the necessary creativity as to how to reinvent the game should this year’s international calendar be scrapped entirely.

“There’s going to be a bill of around $700 million if there are no games played that no one can fix. Whoever tells you that you can fix it with World Rugby that’s impossible,” he said.

“World Rugby has only 120 million pounds ($148 million) of reserves so you cannot fill that gap. Every other industry will be hit. This will be a reset for a lot of people.”

Meanwhile, Beaumont has scored a few points as well. His idea exploring loopholes of eligibility that could allow players to represent two different nations during their career once again has garnered enthusiasm, tempered with scepticism in the Pacific Islands, who would clearly be the most affected.

“When they’re coming to the end of their years they might fancy one last hoorah with those countries,” said Beaumont of the possibility of, for example, Charles Piutau, once an All Black, returning his eligibility to Tonga.

Leo said he gave Beaumont ‘full support’ on this point, but also warned of the perils of being taken in by lip service. “I am reluctant to get too excited about a promised review; I’d be more excited if there was a promise of change,” he said. “This regulation has been reviewed in the past and this is still where we are.”

The vote will be taken three weeks from now, and watching the form will be fascinating.

Pepped up Eddie

Eddie Jones has made no secret of his admiration for Pep Guardiola during his time in England and before, and the England coach’s latest bit of visioning, whereby players become hybrids for different positions rather than specialists in one position only, is straight out of the Guardiola book.

And fair enough – it might reduce the size of the player pool required for a full squad and help flexibility with regard to injuries. Scrum-halves and wings have been interchangeable for a while now in many a team, flankers and centres at lower levels of the game also. And who will forget France’s fluid 9/10 solution at the 2011 World Cup?

But it’s going to be a while before anything like that degree of flexibility is introduced in functionable fashion at the top of the game, while the interchangeability of tightheads and full-backs has not yet become a thing…

RIP Super Rugby?

A chat to a couple of coaches this week revealed that Super franchises are resigned to playing some meaningless domestic tournaments to round off their season this year – as one of them put it: “You’re going to see a lot of missed tackles and tries to keep the TV cameras happy and keep the boys fit.”

But with travel restrictions continuing to buffet the aviation industry, the future of a competition which relies upon travel links which will become increasingly expensive is being looked at with deeper and deeper furrows on the brow.

The Jaguares’ future in Super Rugby is in serious doubt because of the sheer expense and drain on resources of the necessary travel to and from Argentina, while the predicted 30-40% shrinkage of Air New Zealand by its CEO and the financial impact of the current crisis on New Zealand rugby has left many in New Zealand mulling over a return to a more simple domestic provincial calendar.

The NPC and Currie Cup revived? Australia to reinvent itself with a top-class domestic competition (which would include Perth)? Super Rugby – with its over-complicated format, vast tracts of empty seats, resource-draining, player-burdening travel requirement – put out to pasture?

Don’t rule it out yet…

Loose Pass compiled by Lawrence Nolan

 

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