With rugby players being treated like robots and fans like fools, here’s how to save the sadly broken Champions Cup, writes CHRIS FOY
The Champions Cup is broken. That much is now clear. There are too many hollow fixtures and walkovers. What was once the showpiece of European club rugby is a desperate, cumbersome, almost invisible mess.
How sad that it had to come to this. If those in power, armed with the benefit of hindsight, could rewind a decade or so, they might try harder to work together and maintain the old Heineken Cup, a beloved high-class event.
Instead, petty bickering led to an Anglo-French uprising and set the wheels in motion for the endless unrest that has led to where we are today, with the shattered remains of a lost property.
An innovation is now needed. The current inter-hemisphere format is a logistical nightmare and utter madness. There was no real need for the weakened Sharks and Stormers to have to hide for half a century against Leicester and Harlequins respectively to expose that inescapable truth.
Dan Biggar sounded the alarm with his shrill, scathing voice Mailsport column on Saturday, after he and his Toulon teammates made an arduous journey to and from South Africa to beat the Stormers in Port Elizabeth. For elite players it is decidedly a non-elite system, as John Plumtree at Welford Road made abundantly clear.
“We arrive on Wednesday and play on Saturday,” the Sharks head coach said after his alternate side was mauled by the full-strength Tigers. ‘With the current travel arrangements and everything that comes with it, it is not a top competition.
The Champions Cup is broken and the current format is a logistical nightmare and madness
It’s not the South Africans’ fault, but their presence is more hassle than it’s worth. They are treated like robots and the paying public are treated like fools
“This is the reality for the South African players; they play rugby in the northern hemisphere and rugby in the southern hemisphere and it’s crazy. We have to take care of these athletes. Right now they are being treated like robots.”
They are treated like robots and the paying public like fools, expected to cough up match tickets and TV subscriptions to follow substandard sport. It’s no fault of the South Africans, but their presence is more hassle than it’s worth, despite the Sharks – loaded when it counted – winning the Challenge Cup last season.
Given the makeup of the United Rugby Championship, the South African teams are unlikely to be relegated again and they can offer as much as all their Springboks are on duty, which in turn is likely to fill their stadiums.
As an aside, it’s surprising that the world champion rugby nation doesn’t have the biggest domestic competition, given the unsurpassed talent and boom in oval balls there. That should be the big vision.
The problem is that in the end it is always about commercial markets and not about the actual sport. As a result, rugby is cursed with logistical problems. It is far too spread out, south of the equator.
If only there had been smart expansion from the start of professionalization, this problem would have been solved by now.
There could have been more professional depth in Africa – with support for Namibia, Zimbabwe and Kenya – and more professional depth in South America, if the potential in Uruguay, Chile and Brazil had been nurtured earlier. That could have allowed for more logical continental groupings.
Instead, the entire structure of the game consists of putting together disparate elements. But here’s the stark reality: IT DOESN’T WORK!
Organizers must create danger and tension. A straight knockout format is the only answer
Few clubs would do this if they had to earn prized matches
Fewer matches with more activities would certainly be more attractive for broadcasters
Back to what the ‘European Cup’ should be. Organizers must create danger, excitement and motivation. A straight knockout format is the only answer. Draw teams early so that a home-and-away round of 16 can be organized in January.
End the farce on the pool stage. Then there could also be home-and-away quarter-finals, creating a real reward for winning and progressing.
Few clubs would do this if they had to earn prized matches. Any clubs with a lack of involvement in the tournament (especially the French ones who are solely fixated on their own competition) would be eliminated early.
Organize the quarters at the end of March to allow for a blockbuster Easter program. After a break to allow time for marketing and ticket sales, semi-finals based on home country advantage, but again with teams paired by a random draw.
This avoids a cozy route to the final based on dubious placements. In any case, broadcast revenues are so modest that the reduction in program offerings as a result of a streamlined event could actually generate more interest and investment. Quality over quantity please. Full grounds, more sponsors, for competitions where the intensity of all competitions is high.
Certainly, fewer matches with more options would appeal more to broadcasters, rather than just filling airtime with an endless stream of mismatches on niche subscription channels for a limited audience.
Viewing figures are currently minuscule. Club rugby needs to be seen and at the moment that is not the case. We also need a blue-riband event that really matters, and at the moment that is lacking.
A once beloved tournament has been broken. Someone please save it.
TIGERS NEED CHEIKA TO STAY
Leicester would have to move heaven and earth to convince Michael Cheika to stay beyond the end of this season. Good luck filling that void if Cheika returns to Sydney as planned. He has had a tremendous impact in a short time and brought passion and clarity. The Tigers have their bite and their mojo back.
This column had major doubts about the decision to appoint Cheika and this column was completely wrong.
If he does leave, it would make sense to turn to Graham Rowntree, the cherished front-row veteran of Leicester’s legendary ABC club, who did an excellent job at Munster before being sent packing.
Leicester must try to convince Michael Cheika to stay beyond the end of the season
BORTHWICK’S SELECTION HEADACHE
Steve Borthwick could be forced into a back-three rotation at the start of the Six Nations if George Furbank appears to have broken his arm during Northampton’s epic win over the Bulls in Pretoria.
The 28-year-old was seen as a symbol of England’s tactical liberation earlier this year but was snapped up by Freddie Steward for the autumn clash with South Africa.
Steward would have been a logical choice for the Six Nations opener against Ireland anyway.
Meanwhile, Tommy Freeman showed his finishing class with a brace in Pretoria, while Tom Roebuck is pushing hard for a place after a majestic outing for Sale.
Freeman at 13, with Roebuck and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso on the wings, would be a bold move.
Steve Borthwick could be forced into a back-three rotation at the start of the Six Nations
THE LAST WORD…
It’s an important week for the RFU as the wider English rugby community waits to discover whether the union is capable of truly representative rugby governance.
Amid a backlash over executive bonuses, a key meeting will take place on Wednesday. Council members have been called in to give their views on the perpetually absconding chairman Tom Ilube and CEO Bill Sweeney, whose £1.1 million pay package has sparked such unrest.
What happens will say a lot about whether there are sufficient checks and balances within the RFU to ensure that leadership is held to account.
The purpose of the council is to act on behalf of the base game. The ‘suits’ who show up cannot be seduced by a nice lunch and more talk from Rob Udwin, the president who thinks the saga is merely ‘media clickbait’.
If the people they are supposed to represent want an uprising, then it is up to the old-fashioned gin and tonic brigade to fulfill that outraged wish.