Rugby: A modern-day colonial uprising

The 2003 Rugby World Cup was really quite misleading: with a single kick of the ball, Johnny Wilkinson was able to convince the world that a revolution had begun; for the first time in its history, the tournament had been won by a northern hemisphere side. Five years and one World Cup later, regular service has clearly been restored.

At a time when rugby finds itself in a transitional period following the advent of Experimental Law Variations (ELV), one may have been forgiven for thinking that the new changes might see the affirmed hierarchy shaken up a bit. However, if there is anything that this year’s Autumn tests have shown us, it’s that nations from the Southern hemisphere sides are quite simply better at playing the game.

This notion was summed up over the weekend when last year’s World Cup finalists came head-to-head at Twickenham. South Africa all but annihilated England 42-6 in their own back yard. Add to this the fact that the Tri-Nations sides are looking likely to finish their European tours undefeated, and the results speak for themselves. True, there are exceptions to the rule, as the Pacific Islanders and Argentina have proven, but at least they have remained competitive, both sides having beaten Italy in the last two weeks.

As for the likes of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, encounters with their southern counterparts have produced outcomes which many a player and supporter will be eager to forget. Former England captain, Lawrence Dallaglio, recently revealed that prior to the Autumn tests, the Six Nations sides had played the South African, New Zealand and Australian rugby (SANZAR) teams a total of 76 times since the 2003 World Cup, of which they have won a poultry 13 encounters. Moreover, France have claimed the lion’s share of victories over the southern nations in the last five years, just to make matters worse.

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what makes the southern hemispheres sides outclass their northern opposition in virtually every aspect of modern rugby, but one would assume that coaching and preparations had a lot to do with it. Current Six Nations grand slam winners, Wales, have only beaten a southern hemisphere side on two occasions since professionalism in 1996.

Interestingly, these victories came in 1999 Against South Africa, when current All Blacks head coach, Graham Henry, was at the helm, and against the Wallabies in 2006, when former Australian assistant manager, Scott Johnson, held a senior coaching position.

But is this enough to support the theory that the coaching staff behind the southern rugby power-houses can claim to be the decisive factor separating rugby’s founding fathers from their opposite numbers in the colonies? Coaches from southern nations are clearly in demand, with former Springbok manager, Nick Mallet, now in charge of the Italy set up, while New Zealand’s Warren Gatland enters his second year as head coach of Wales – though it has to be said that neither of these sides looks to be on much of a winning streak at the moment. Moreover, South Africa’s recent run of form has come under manager Peter De Villiers, one of the most controversial and tactically questionable coaches in the world.

Perhaps then, southern hemisphere rugby’s dominance stems from its multi-cultural background. Clearly the SANZAR nations have an advantage that the European rugby nations possess to a far lesser extent. Where the home nations have forged sides out of a collection of hearty public-school patriots, the southern nations have incorporated Zulus, Maoris, and Pacific Islanders into their set-ups; additions which have incorporated new dimensions of speed, power and aggression into the teams of rugby-loving colonialists, compared the likes of Wales, where every second player is an Evans, Jones or Thomas.

But beyond all this lies a far more salient issue that underlines the division between north and south. The truth is that rugby is an evolving sport, and that clear-cut rules are very much still in the making. Actually, that’s quite a flattering way of putting it; essentially, the state of the international game is a bit of a balls-up as far as rules, regulations and referee interpretations are concerned.

The advent of Experimental Law Variations this season has been testimony to the crossroads that the modern game finds itself at, yet the laws were not even implemented at the same time. ELVs were underway in the southern hemisphere a full six months before they were put into practice in the north, and the result saw two entirely different sets of rules between the Super 14 and the Six nations and Heineken Cup.

Moreover, the European nations were at a clear disadvantage going into the Autumn tests, having had not nearly as much time to adapt to the new rules as the southern teams. On the other hand, the sides from the southern hemisphere may well find themselves on the back foot should the new rules not be implemented by the 2011 World Cup, by which time the nature of their game will have changed entirely.

Perhaps once the fiasco of rugby’s shape and regulations has been finally addressed, competition between the northern and southern hemispheres may become a little more fierce. Until then, however, it looks as though we can safely assume that the south will rise again. And again. And again.