Nick Cain: Europe’s finest being sold down the river

Welcome to Northern Hemisphere rugby's endless road. An 11 month season which purports to be all things to all men, but actually gives the Southern Hemisphere most of what it wants, while the North – the cash machine that keeps funding the global pro game – has to contemplate a season that stretches to infinity…and beyond.
's latest blueprint for a global schedule, which is to run from 2020 to 2032, has been hailed by their chairman, Bill Beaumont, as one that, “provides certainty and stability” and represents “an historic milestone”. My worry is that it might be more like a millstone that drags pro rugby in Europe through a season which stretches from the start of September to the end of July, with August the only fallow month.
It also involves the time-frames for great showpieces like the and the Six Nations shrinking despite their phenomenal success.
By contrast, the Southern Hemisphere season will be a nine-month stretch from January through to November, with a coherent block structure. It's little wonder that Steve Tew, the New Zealand Rugby Union's chief executive, thinks all his Christmases have come at once.
While World Rugby's big Northern financial motors, with England and heading a list that also includes , Wales and , face disruption and a never-ending season, Tew and his Aussie counterpart, Bill Pulver, have won the biggest concession. Namely, that with the June international window moved to July, their beleaguered Super Rugby competition will no longer be interrupted by international fixtures.
The two-month difference in the length of the Southern Hemisphere season to the 11 month marathon in Europe is stark. Nevertheless, World Rugby's PR machine has been working overtime to tell us that this is all good.
Mark McCafferty, Premiership Rugby's chief executive, called the new agreement groundbreaking. However, having been among the architects of the deal thrashed out in San Francisco in January, he could hardly be called impartial.
“This is the biggest change to English club rugby since the inception of the Premiership”, McCafferty said. “It gives us the ability now to reduce the overlaps significantly from 2020 onwards to give the clubs more ability to manage their competitions, and grow their competitions alongside the international game, without the two competing quite so much for the services of players.”
He added: “I think it will usher in more advanced processes towards individual management of the international players because we are removing Premiership fixtures from international periods and extending the (club) season to June. It gives us the ability to have a very strong Premiership competition all through the year, and manage the squad rotation along the way.”
We are informed that this will be better for player welfare, but anyone who buys that bit of ‘alternative news' should take a long dip in an ice bath. Journalists are already used to the thousand mile stare from pro players who are rugbyed-out after total immersion from dusk to dawn, including being ‘media-trained' to say nothing — and now the season is being pushed to its outer limits.
We are also told that it will be good for competitions like the Premiership, the European Cup, and great international rugby institutions like the Lions and the Six Nations. Where the European Cup and Premiership are concerned that might depend on who can remember far enough back to keep tabs on tournaments that are in danger of losing their coherence.
For instance, McCafferty has said that the Premiership will retain its starting date of the first week in September, while moving its final to the last week in June – a mere 10 months later.
The English league will be interspersed with the pool rounds of the European Cup and before the start of the Six Nations, which has retained its February and March window.
However, the plan is to cut the Six Nations from seven weeks to six by removing one of the fortnight gaps. It has also been mooted that running alongside the Six Nations there will also be an expanded British and Irish Cup tournament to replace the Anglo-Welsh dogs dinner and ensure club rugby does not go into hibernation.
The Lions will also take a hit, with future tours to be reduced from ten matches to eight, which are likely to be completed in little over a month. Truncated tours will probably diminish team-bonding and the chances of bolters breaking through, with the focus shifting instantly to the test series.
There is an additional issue. With July now the designated month for northern nations to tour the Southern Hemisphere, and the Premiership earmarking the end of June for its final, where is the preparation time that Lions legends like Iain McGeechan have been advocating for the last 20 years going to be found?
As for New Zealand, Australia, and , they will enjoy an almost uninterrupted five-month international schedule. This involves hosting Six Nations sides in July,
competing in the Rugby in August and September, and playing additional fixtures in October (like the Bledisloe Cup between Australia and New Zealand), before decamping to Europe to prepare for the autumn series. For their convenience this has been moved forward a week to the start of November.
Given the length of time they have been allocated by Beaumont and company, there would be something wrong if the All Blacks, Wallabies, and Pumas did not play with the familiarity of club sides.
 

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