It was in the second half of 1995 that rugby as it had been played for a century first started to undergo profound change as the sport’s administrators began plotting the sport’s future in the professional era.
The end of the amateur era was announced at a press conference at Ellis Park the day before the World Cup final at that venue contested by the Springboks and the All Blacks, the two teams who were to become the hottest property for those wanting a piece of the pie.
The two nations were the traditional powerhouses of the world game and had a history between them that at that point dated back 74 years to the first series in New Zealand in 1921. They’d always played each other in series up to that point, three and four game rubbers, with that World Cup final being the first one-off in the storied history of their rivalry.
At the time rugby shook off the shackles of professionalism in that Johannesburg IRB (now World Rugby) press conference, they were already slated to play each other again the following year, with the All Blacks visiting SA for a three game series that saw them claim their first ever away series win against the Boks.
The sequence of series between the teams will be resumed in August, but that was the last official series until now, with the inception of the Tri-Nations which later became the Rugby Championship effectively replacing the old tours and series.
CHANGE DRIVEN BY TELEVISION DEMAND
The change was brought about by what was viewed as necessary to sell the sport to sponsors and television companies, and it was the guarantee of regular annual competition between the then big three in world rugby - SA, New Zealand and Australia - that attracted the money that Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp spent on the Tri-Nations and the SANZAR regional competition, the Super 12.
It is ironic that it comes at a time when rugby administrators have recognised the value of the old tour and series, hence the inception of the Greatest Rivalry concept which is effectively the sport’s answer to cricket’s Ashes series between England and Australia, but rugby is set this week to make the inevitable next step.
When the Nations Championship kicks off this weekend it will effectively end the era, which lasted nearly 150 years, where international rugby outside of the Rugby World Cup, which was first played in 1987, the Six Nations and the Tri-Nations/Rugby Championship (from 1996), was played as bi-lateral series or one-off games without log points or a significant trophy at stake.
What were initially known as the June internationals and then became the July Incoming Tours in South Africa will no longer be effectively the friendlies that they were, sometimes a chance to warm up for the Tri-Nations/Rugby Championship that followed. All games will now be played for log points, and will be in competition. Ditto the November internationals played in Europe later in the year.
The southern hemisphere and northern hemisphere will be divided into two groups, and the winners of those two groups will face off at Twickenham on Finals Day at the end of the year. Does rugby really need this when they have a World Cup? It’s a good question, but it is effectively the same issue being addressed now as was the case in 1996 with the inception of the Tri-Nations - the perception is that it is what makes it more attractive to the television bosses.
EDDIE JONES’ SUPPORT IS ALSO QUALIFIED SUPPORT
There are pros and there are cons. The most experienced and well travelled active international coach, Japan’s Eddie Jones, was the leader when it came to outlining the pros - Jones says that the competition will give new significance to test matches, give them meaning and all matches will now have context. A big follower of cricket, Jones referenced the World Test Championship in that sport, as an example of an innovation that rugby is following by introducing their own Championship.
He also sees it as a springboard for smaller nations, like his Japan team, who now have a regular tie into competition against the bigger nations and that can only raise Japan’s level of play. Jones also sees the competition as a means to attract declining broadcasting money back into rugby, thereby highlighting the similarity between now and what happened in 1996.
QUESTIONS ABOUT INTEGRITY
But there are cons, many of them, and Jones’ Japan is a perfect example of the difficulty the competition will have in achieving what is vital for any sporting competition - a perception of integrity. The bigger nations are definitely favoured by a format that sees Japan having to play their home game against Ireland in Newcastle, Australia, while Fiji are having to go to Liverpool for their home game against England.
Japan and Fiji are not Tier 1 nations and are effectively in the Nations Championship top tier to make up the 12 teams, but that cues one of the biggest drawbacks, one that is completely counterintuitive to World Rugby’s stated drive to grow the game in nations that don’t make up the top tier.
While the next World Cup has been expanded to 24 teams, the developing rugby nations will no longer get a chance to test themselves against the best, like Portugal did when they visited Bloemfontein two seasons ago, because introduction of a league system has effectively ring-fenced the established, traditional rugby nations.
There is no longer space in the calendar for the teams lower than Japan, who will participate in a second division version of the Rugby Championship, to experience the level of rugby they need to taste if they are to improve their competitiveness at the World Cup.
A MIND-BOGGLING TRAVEL SCHEDULE
At a time when one of the big objections to those who oppose the participation of South African teams in European club competitions is the carbon footprint, there’s another factor to list to the downside of the inception of the new competition - the amount of travel that it entails.
While it is mainly Japan and Fiji who suffer by effectively not having home games or having home exposure limited, they are not the only nations that will have to put in an inordinate amount of travel in order to meet the scheduling demands. England are in South Africa this week, next week they have to be in Liverpool, and the week after that they are in Argentina. That amount of travel surely has to impact on the quality of the games.
The travel factor neatly introduces the next big question mark, which is that around player welfare and play load. Having every game being part of a competition where log points are being played for makes it harder for coaches to rest players, which is sometimes necessary at this time of year, and which France did on last year’s trip to New Zealand, where they played two tests, but are not doing to the same extent this year.
WILL ALL TEAMS TAKE IT SERIOUSLY?
Yes, that is a plus for the Championship, it means we are more likely to see full strength teams. But that is also not a guarantee, if we do what Jones did by using crickets Test Championship as a yardstick. Some of the cricketing nations take it seriously, and it certainly did wonders for the standing of the test format in this country when Temba Bavuma and Aiden Markram inspired the Proteas’ triumph at Lord’s last year, but others, such as England, don’t seem to care.
Australia were no doubt disappointed to lose to SA in the WTC, but the big emphasis for them remains the Ashes, as it does for England. For the Springboks and the All Blacks, the big emphasis this year is their Greatest Rivalry Series, and it would not surprise me, with the next World Cup year coming into view, to see Rassie Erasmus send an understrength squad to the away leg of the Nations Championship in November.
He’s already spoken about England as a stand alone test match that needs to be won rather than a game that requires the accumulation of log points, and he will change up his team considerably and go into experimentation mode for the remaining home Nations Championship games against Scotland and Wales.
THREE TEST SERIES WERE A DRAW
What would have kept the Boks more engaged and over a longer period would have been if, like in 2012 and 2018, they were playing a three test series against England. Which is perhaps one of the biggest World Rugby contradictions or changes of tack of all of them - a few years ago it was recognised that fans were missing the series concept, which is what has spawned the Greatest Rivalry series.
Ireland’s series against New Zealand in 2022 was a spellbinding contest from start to finish and Ireland winning on Kiwi soil for the first time in their history was a massive moment for the sport, just as was the deciding game of their three game series against the Boks in 2016.
A bi-lateral series played over three games would entail far less travel as it would not mean the criss-crossing of hemispheres that for instance England are going to have to do and it would still leave a gap for a game against a developing nation.
History will be made at the weekend but it does feel like World Rugby has a shiny new toy they want to play with in the form of the Nations Championship trophy but they haven’t given enough thought to what they really want to do with it and what they want to achieve with it. The new trend to have a trophy on the line to satisfy the economic imperative doesn’t always align with what some would view as the soul of the sport they support, and this year the new shiny toy of 1996, the Tri-Nations/Rugby Championship, has been suspended to make way for a four match series between two nations.
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