Exclusive: ‘Seismic’ rugby transformation on the horizon with US the inspiration
World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin is exploring how the sport could incorporate innovations such as smart-ball and NFL Red Zone-style coverage
By Daniel Schofield, Deputy Rugby Union Correspondent 12 April 2022 • 8:27pm
World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin - Exclusive: Rugby on brink of 'seismic' transformation as World Rugby look to US for inspiration
World Rugby chief executive Alan Gilpin believes that the sport is on the brink of a “seismic” transformation after revealing that President Joe Biden has pledged his backing for the USA’s World Cup bids.
When World Rugby’s Council meets on May 12, it could usher in the biggest set of changes since the game turned professional in 1995. The game's governing body have now received confirmation of the American federal government’s support for the tournament to come to North America in 2031 [men’s] and 2033 [women’s]. “We got a letter from President Biden confirming federal government support for the tournaments, men’s and women’s being hosted there, which is fantastic,” Gilpin told Telegraph Sport. “We understand [Biden] is a rugby fan with some Irish heritage.” Australia are also set to be confirmed as hosts for the 2027 (men’s) and 2029 (women’s) tournaments while England will stage the 2025 women’s World Cup.
The holy grail of men’s global calendar reform also appears tantalisingly close while law trials, including the 20-minute replacement red card, and innovations such as smart ball and creating rugby’s version of the NFL’s Red Zone will be discussed when the sport’s main stakeholders come together in Dublin. The wheels of change tend to turn slowly within rugby but having successfully relaxed the eligibility laws last year Gilpin believes there is now momentum to deliver further advances.
“It feels like we have been in a really important period, ever since the regulation 8 amendment was passed last November,” Gilpin told Telegraph Sport. “Bringing in a World Cup hosting plan for ten years and the way we are resetting sevens is really important to the growth of the game.
“If we can make progress on the men’s calendars and make the right steps towards a more competitive schedule across July and November with pathways for emerging nations that would be seismic. If we get all that signed off in May remains to be seen but we will certainly be discussing all of them and landing as many of them as we can.”
The global calendar discussions are largely centred around the Six Nations, Sanzaar and the professional leagues with World Rugby acting as an facilitator and guardian for the concerns of emerging nations and player welfare. “It really is important that whatever we come out with in terms of competition models does not simply try to create a schedule with more games in it,” Gilpin said. “Part of the discussion around competition models is making sure those travel impacts are appropriately managed and mitigated and teams are not coming up with schedules that will be unfair on the players.”
There are myriad complications in establishing a competition model such as the Nations Championship which would run across the July and November windows. Existing broadcast contracts are one significant stumbling block, but unlike the days of past when north and south - not to mention the European leagues - would engage in furious politicking, now there’s at least a sense of everyone trying to pull in the same direction.
“There are some really positive discussions across the sport whether that is with the Six Nations, Sanzaar and the regional competitions and into the professional leagues whom we have good dialogue with,” Gilpin said. “The competition should not be between us as stakeholders in rugby. It is not just even competition between sports. It is fighting for eyeballs and people’s attention and share of their spend, which can be reinvested into the game.”
'Third parties coming into the game can only be a good thing'
That sense of collaboration extends to working with private equity such as CVC Capital Partners, who own a stake in the Six Nations, and Silverlake, who recently invested into the All Blacks. “I think CVC and others see rugby as a sport that is under commercialised, especially compared to the North American sports leagues,” Gilpin said. “I think third parties coming into the game and driving innovation can only be a good thing.”
Asked to give examples of innovations he would like to see introduced, Gilpin said: “It is great to see a lot of competitions trialling the smart-ball technology. It will be really interesting to see how does that go beyond performance data, which is being used by coaches, into data that can be consumed by fans.
“I think rugby has got a lot to learn from the innovations that are taking place in the NFL, not just in the sport but in the coverage of the sport. NFL Red Zone for example. Is there a rugby version of that? We are looking into that and we are putting the right resources in place to drive that.”
Any prospect of calendar reform and smart balls will be redundant if the sport does not head off the looming concussion crisis. World Rugby has yet to receive a legal claim in the litigation action by former players, including Steve Thompson, who are suffering from dementia, but Gilpin insists they are acting on reducing head impacts regardless of any lawsuit.
“We want to drive a better product that people are going to be interested in,” Gilpin said. “Underpinning all of what we are doing is building a game that is safer and parents want their children to play. That’s why we really believe this head contact and concussion area is so crucial for us. If we are going to have the permission to grow the game the way we want, the sport has to be seen as a safe game for kids to play.”
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