Brian Moore's Column in Today's Telegraph.
Having spoken to several Premiership stakeholders, from a variety of organisations, one word was ubiquitous in my conversations… and it was not coronavirus.
Reset; that is the word on the lips of everyone involved in rugby. Reset your thinking; reset your attitude; reset your business. If the pandemic has done anything, it has given rugby the chance for a reset. What you interpret this to be depends on where you sit in the rugby firmament. Suffice to say that rugby could be significantly changed because of this pandemic.
There are several columns to write about the different aspects of the game that could seize this unwanted opportunity but let us look first at the top end of the game and elite club rugby.
The lockdown has been disastrous for the Premiership and made worse by fact that nobody knows how long it will last or what will be allowed even when it is revoked. Had there been a definitive duration, whether short or long, the Premiership could have assessed its options with certainty. As it is, it has to try to make important decisions without knowing the background context.
As usual, there has been plenty of advice for the Premiership, if you count social media’s expert commentary as advice. Some have said the best course of action to achieve certainty is to write off this whole season and start again in September. Like a lot of advice limited to 280 characters, it is superficially cogent but actually facile.
The first thing with a clean break is that the Premiership and its clubs cannot afford to write off the season and will not do so unless compelled. It is no exaggeration to say that had the money from CVC not been received about half of the Premiership clubs would be bankrupted by this catastrophe.
As it is, they cannot afford not to try to recoup at least some money from any remaining games as cash through the gate and from other concessions. The business model is not like Premier League football, where broadcast rights are so lucrative that they do not need anyone to watch live to succeed financially. TV rights themselves are a problem and while BT (below) is not yet insisting on repayments because of cancelled games, it must and will do that if the season is abandoned and not just postponed. I am told that the sums due could push some over the edge.
The Premiership is trying to be in a position to play its remaining games from the first available weekend until June or July. This would bring it into conflict with the Rugby Football Union over the England tour to Japan, which the Premiership insists was put to it as a developmental tour.
If there is to be a winner in that argument it should be the Premiership because the first tour after a World Cup should be about trying out talent that could make 2023, and nothing else. Nobody who was in the last World Cup squad would learn anything from touring Japan again.
If the season can be completed, the Premiership is looking to end it with a huge weekend, rather like rugby league’s Magic Weekend, where all games are played in the same place over two days. This would be as much about symbolism and the reuniting of rugby people as about gaining media interest and large crowds. What it would also do is give English club fans the chance to see what summer rugby might feel like. I have a feeling that once they get the sun on their backs and watch, sipping drinks and wearing T-shirts instead of waterproofs they will warm to the idea (pun intended.)
I am comforted in my advocacy for a fundamental timetable change by knowing that the majority of Premiership clubs are also in favour, though they might not say so in public.
The medium-term proposal being discussed is to start the season after the autumn internationals, which could also be moved forward if agreed. Then there would be a break during the dark and dank months of December and January, with the season stretching into June and July. This aim is probably to change after the 2023 World Cup and as part of realigning the global calendar.
Above all, the Premiership is trying to look to stop overlaps of international and Premiership fixtures. Wholesale absences of star and key players dramatically affect the quality of games on offer and this is reflected in attendances and, by extension, other ground-based revenues.
You read it here first – RESET.
Always a Wasp
Topic: Summer rugby on the horizon as Premiership presses reset button (Read 4067 times)