Kicking for cash

Strange things are afoot in world rugby. From Auckland’s schools to Europe’s top rugby clubs there are mutterings of dissent, and rumours of breakaway competitions. Dissatisfied with the way the game is currently organised, some of Auckland’s elite private schools have recently been accused of holding clandestine meetings with the aim of creating a new competition excluding weaker teams from lesser schools.

Similarly, The Guardian recently uncovered secret plans made by some Premiership and Top 14 clubs to establish a new tournament which would only involve the best sides from both hemispheres.

This proposed worldwide club competition would be the first of its kind, an innovation given the current segregation of both northern and southern hemisphere club competitions. Yet it is also a reflection of the club's desire to increase their profile and to expand globally.

Hence the recent trend of clubs playing matches abroad. Earlier this year Wasps played Harlequins in Abu Dhabi, the first time two English clubs played a competitive match overseas, but certainly not the last, as London Irish have recently announced plans to play a completive fixture in Boston.

Meanwhile, Southern Hemisphere clubs have their eye on the lucrative east Asian market, especially with Japan due to host the World Cup in 2019. Indeed, earlier this month the Crusaders and the Rebels agreed to play a pre-season friendly in Singapore, a country that has not hosted competitive rugby since the 2006 World Sevens Series. The Brumbies and the Waratahs are also looking into similar opportunities.

National unions as well, have been pushing toward expansion, with Blesdisloe Cup matches between Australia and New Zealand being hosted in Tokyo and Hong Kong in recent years. After years of negotiations, Argentina has finally been allowed to participate in the new Rugby Championship, effectively replacing the Tri-Nations and putting an end to the anomaly in which Argentina were the only IRB tier one nation to not participate in a regular competition.

Of course, the motive behind this drive for expansion is purely financial. According to The Guardian, the impetus behind the proposed Heineken Cup breakaway was the fact that the clubs felt that the competition was not generating enough revenue. When teams look to play overseas it is also in the pursuit of financial gain, with the Rebels’ chief executive crudely declaring that “Asia is an important market. We are all over it like a rash."

At a time where teams are referred to as brands and franchises, there is a concern this may be to the detriment of the best interests of the game. Does it really make sense to promote rugby in Abu Dhabi as opposed to developing, and increasingly competitive, rugby nations such as Georgia? If the Heineken Cup breakaway is successful, where would that leave smaller clubs, abandoned in a competition seen as second-rate when compared to an elite worldwide tournament?

Indeed, the clubs proposing the breakaway are as selfish as their counterparts in Auckland who refuse to compete against weaker teams. The current crisis plaguing the RFU has shown just how much the game suffers when money becomes the primary consideration and is thrown around carelessly, with allegations of players being more concerned with bonuses than actually training or playing. As rugby tries to sell the game to the world, it must be careful not to sell its soul as well.