- Tue Aug 22, 2023 11:22 am
#63034
There are those who will be calling, if they are not already, for a radical rethink of the whole structure of Rugby in England but I cannot see any easy answers.
The top man at the RFU, Sweeney, is £668,000 pa and it is easy to criticise somebody on that amount of money seemingly achieving not a great deal. But the overall picture is far broader and a token scapegoating will solve little.
It is not only the expected under performance at the World Cup, albeit that this has caught the attention of the back pages of the Press, but the overall picture includes the loss of three Premiership clubs, elite players moving to France, little or no representation in the last stages of Euro competitions, little money available for the grassroots, the misjudgement in respect of the tackle laws which so inflamed those grassroots and indeed the many questions surrounding head injuries and potential compensation claims
The overall scenario will not be helped by the success of the Lionesses and the very favourable coverage of Ladies Football. Sponsors may well feel that their money is better spent with the Ladies than with Rugby.
There would have been a presumption that success in France at the World Cup would generate interest in the game in England and that attendances - and income - would increase on the back of that success. That is now unlikely to happen.
So we have a sport wallowing without success on the field, without enough income to support itself and with the potential of damages claims coming through the courts.
That's quite a task, to address all of that.
And, speaking parochially, this is the background against which we are all hopeful that Worcester Warriors Mark Ii will emerge at Sixways. We are likely to be well down the "to do" list at Twickenham.
The top man at the RFU, Sweeney, is £668,000 pa and it is easy to criticise somebody on that amount of money seemingly achieving not a great deal. But the overall picture is far broader and a token scapegoating will solve little.
It is not only the expected under performance at the World Cup, albeit that this has caught the attention of the back pages of the Press, but the overall picture includes the loss of three Premiership clubs, elite players moving to France, little or no representation in the last stages of Euro competitions, little money available for the grassroots, the misjudgement in respect of the tackle laws which so inflamed those grassroots and indeed the many questions surrounding head injuries and potential compensation claims
The overall scenario will not be helped by the success of the Lionesses and the very favourable coverage of Ladies Football. Sponsors may well feel that their money is better spent with the Ladies than with Rugby.
There would have been a presumption that success in France at the World Cup would generate interest in the game in England and that attendances - and income - would increase on the back of that success. That is now unlikely to happen.
So we have a sport wallowing without success on the field, without enough income to support itself and with the potential of damages claims coming through the courts.
That's quite a task, to address all of that.
And, speaking parochially, this is the background against which we are all hopeful that Worcester Warriors Mark Ii will emerge at Sixways. We are likely to be well down the "to do" list at Twickenham.
- By poyntonshark
- By Olyy