This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with ‘big games’, Super Rugby form and the continued fallout from World Cup qualifying…
Just another big crowd…
So 57,000 people opted to fill the London Stadium for Saracens v Quins on Saturday, while 30,174 headed up the hill in Newcastle to St James’ Park. Rugby’s ability to create a big crowd remains. But the ability of the game to live up to billing is still questionable.
Newcastle’s match against Northampton was actually not too bad, but Saracens and Quins was dreadful. An avalanche of scrum resets, bad jerseys, tired players, little dynamism. Maro Itoje’s ‘sleepy scorer’ celebration could have been a snook cocked to critics who think he’s knackered, but it could as easily have been a reaction to the game he was involved in or to the somewhat muted crowd who, despite their number, failed to generate anything like the noise or passion of, say, the crowd a third of the size who came to Welford Road.
Rugby is desperate to grow. We all know it, and we all, to an extent, want it. In both England and France the club game is rolling from strength to strength in terms of its appeal and quality. Identities have been created, names rise and fall, players achieve national stardom, all the drama and intrigue is there. In the PRO14 countries, while the club/regional game is still uncertain, the national teams have ensured their competitiveness.
But this is becoming the difference between England and France and the rest, it is also becoming the problem. In the PRO14, national team players are frequently – at the request of their parent unions – given a week off to recuperate. It doesn’t always create the big occasion on club/region weekends, but it works for the players. The quality of rugby is often better as a result, especially when the teams need it to be.
This rarely happens in England and France, meaning the growth continues to come often at the expense of common sense. A Twickenham double-header on the opening day of the season is a good idea. Taking a Champions Cup quarter-final to a bigger stadium is a good idea. Trying to create a classic for a club match on the weekend between the Six Nations and the European Cup quarter-finals is less of a good idea, as is dropping in Premiership matches at awkward times in odd towns on the USA East Coast. No wonder both England and France looked knackered during the Six Nations.
It was pretty obvious that not all that many of the 57,000 at London Stadium on Saturday were regular rugby fans, that many were attracted by the sterling marketing efforts of all. What must they have made of the tired fare they were served up? How many will dare to come back?
There are enough tournaments running concurrently now that the opportunities for big matches crop up naturally. It seems to be – like many other aspects about the season currently – somewhat overkill to try create another big occasion for a league game that was relatively meaningless and extremely easy to predict. The value of the diamond is its rarity, we have to be patient to get them.
New Zealand continue to lead
The Super Rugby table may be led by the Rebels currently with the Lions in second, but New Zealand’s dominance still seems to be unabated. With the exception of the Crusaders, the Kiwi teams have played a game per team fewer and yet are still constituting the remainder of the overall table’s top six.
However, it has been noticeable that the skill gap is closing. South African teams, the Stormers and Lions especially, have proven more able to conjure up magical moments during games using basic skills as well as the extraordinary miracle moments, while the Rebels’ decision-making is vastly improved.
Hopefully it bodes well for a more competitive Rugby Championship and August play-off round.
The blurred lines of ancestry
A personal watch of the full version of last week’s controversial victory by Belgium over Spain has done little to remove the cloud of doubt hanging over the head of Romanian referee Vlad Iordachescu.
Little wonder then that he has been withdrawn from this weekend’s Challenge Cup quarter-final involving Pau, who have a couple of Spanish internationals within their ranks.
But while the refereeing was not good, neither were Spain. There was none of the fluidity of their win over Germany the week before, little semblance of control at ruck time, too little structure to their game. So doubts yes, but Spain did not do much to deserve the win they needed.
Anyway, a back door might have opened with consequences even further reaching. Apparently Belgium fielded an ineligible player for their demolition of Germany three weeks prior.
The ramifications are unclear. Evidently Julien Pacquet, a hooker, played on the basis he had a Belgian great-grandmother (you have to have a grandparent to be ancestrally qualified) but was stood down from the Spain game when the lapse was discovered.
It could be that Belgium are disqualified, which would mean that Spain reached their zenith after all and Romania would be into the repechage round, along with Samoa and Portugal. It could also be that the Belgium-Germany result is reversed, meaning Germany would be safe in the Nations 1A for another couple of years and Belgium would be playing off against Portugal to fight against relegation to 1B on April 28.
So don’t just keep eyes on the referee story, there’s a lot more to the World Cup qualifying at the moment.
Loose Pass compiled by former Planet Rugby Editor Danny Stephens
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