Loose Pass: World Rugby showdown and a bad Lions idea

David Skippers
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This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with World Rugby’s future direction and the British & Irish Lions result that never was…

On the trail with Ficha and Bill

The clamour for rugby to reset, or re-align, or re-invent itself, is beginning to grow louder. When World Rugby’s suited luminaries head to the virtual pooling stations on April 26, a huge step in that direction may, or may not, be taken.

On the one side of the halfway line is Sir William Beaumont, a peerless older head of rugby’s boardrooms. He’s been a key figure in rugby politics for decades, having served on the World Rugby Council, Executive Committee, Rugby World Cup board and various rugby committee bodies. He’s also been RFU Chairman, represented England since 1999 on the IRB and was vice-chairman to Bernard Lapasset before taking on the main job himself. He is rarely not elected unanimously to whichever role he puts himself forward for.

With Bernard Laporte as his nominated 2IC, Beaumont’s stature is reinforced. The pair’s record through the years makes for admirable reading. But the game is not entirely flourishing under his stewardship. There’s been little movement to change and adapt the global calendar to ease the pressure on players, despite the many noises suggesting efforts are being made. Unions are losing money, a situation which has become even more exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis. There’s a staleness around the game, a pervasive atmosphere of continued inequality, a sense of the old order being too inflexible to change and the leaders being too politically reliant upon each other to be able to push through meaningful change. In short, Beaumont appears to represent the status quo.

Squaring up to them is Agustin Pichot. If Pichot’s long record in administration is less globally-reaching, his record in pushing through innovative growth is significantly better. Argentina would not be where they are without his ability to push change through both domestically and internationally. We would also still be grappling with the idiocy of the three-year residency rule for international players rather than the current five-year term, a change from which the effects are beginning to be felt at all tiers of the international game.

That rule change is a huge one on Pichot’s administrative CV, pushed through as it was in the face of significant opposition on World Rugby’s executive committee (although not, it should be noted, from Beaumont himself). It should be something all bear in mind when considering Pichot for the top job, as it will have done the game immeasurable good.

Perhaps also worth bearing in mind though, is that Pichot’s was the brain behind the proposed World Nations Championship, which ended up collapsing in acrimony last year, but which Pichot has been vehemently insisting is still a possibility. Ideas and big thoughts emanate from Pichot aplenty, but there’s a perceived tendency for Pichot to be a little unpredictable and spontaneous – doing things such as deciding to start an election campaign founded on revolutionary semantics, such as democratizing, modernising, restoring trust, and shaking up the old boys’ club, two weeks before a vote and four months later than his opponent.

“It is a critical time and a critical election,” Pichot said to the Mail on Sunday. “I have a different vision of the game to Bill. I’m not saying mine is better than his and I don’t have a bad word to say against him, but we think differently.” They work differently too. Despite the fact that they seem to get along well, the two are quite polar opposites.

This column believes that Pichot’s time is now though – as long as he backs himself up with pragmatists and polished politicians of Beaumont’s ilk. While rugby may be pushed over a brink by the Covid-19 crisis, there’s little doubt it was already on the brink of serious problems had the crisis not come along. The game’s inflexibility at its most senior administrative level and its inflexibility on bigger picture issues such as tier two accessions to tournaments have both held it back, made it stale, and seen it operate remarkably inefficiently in terms of adapting.

World Rugby needs ideas from the very top, as many of them as possible – even if it needs a couple of steadier heads to act as filters. Senior members of England’s World Cup-winning squad have often talked about how many ideas from Sir Clive Woodward they needed to throw out, yet the few they kept and worked with undoubtedly gave them their edge. A couple of the senior All Blacks coaches from Graham Henry’s time have said the same – and Henry’s task was not just to transform the team, but to transform the culture. Were he to win the vote, Pichot would have a similar task. In this regard, it’s significant that Woodward has thrown enthusiastic backing behind Pichot’s bid.

If Pichot can stand having his creativity kept in check by a couple of good lieutenants, his creativity and intent to disrupt ought to be the driving force behind post-Covid-19 rugby. Unimaginable change has been forced upon the game, Pichot’s creativity is required to adapt it to a better rugby world.

The horse has bolted, pursued by Lions

Intriguing though the idea of a decider between the All Blacks and British & Irish Lions is, it’s too late. The only way that series could ever have been rightfully decided would have been extra time – the sort of easy innovation for future Lions tours that could easily be introduced as a consequence of 2017’s anti-climax.

Some of the most iconic pictures of that final match involve the grins displayed by Sam Warburton and Kieran Read as they both held the silverware aloft in Auckland. Neither still plays internationally – nearly half of that All Black team has now moved on, as has the coach. Moreover, there’d likely be a good few players involved in domestic club finals, due to be played the same weekend as the proposed date for this match.

It would be a decider in name, but the game would be far too different – and we’ve not even touched on the fact that it would be on the other side of the world from that third Test. A money-spinner for sure, but how many more meaningless matches are we going to play for the sake of spinning money? That’s not the way rugby needs to go right now.

Loose Pass compiled by Lawrence Nolan

 

Argentina