Rugby's version of Storm Eunice was calmed by a statement from Six Nations Rugby yesterday.
After a Daily Mail exclusive claimed the game’s most historic tournament was considering jettisoning Italy for South Africa a hurricane of outraged opinion ripped through social media.
The official response was as swift as an emergency COBRA meeting: “Six Nations Rugby, comprising the six Unions and Federations and CVC, wish to confirm that they are not entertaining any discussion nor developing any plans to add or replace any participating Union,” said the statement.
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A storm in a teacup? Or back peddling after seeing the furore that meddling with the Six Nations might provoke? We’ll never know for now but what is certain is the strength of feeling among fans where rugby’s oldest contest is concerned.
But do supporters really have a voice in a world where money talks loudest? And private equity firm CVC £365m stake in the Six Nations doesn’t just talk, it bellows.
Views on CVC’s grip on sport range from its potential to transform rugby into a money-making machine, delivering NFL and NBA-style global pay-offs, to the perception that this is rugby’s ultimate Faustian pact with the very soul of the game at stake.
Motor racing’s experience is the deal with the devil example used to support the claim that CVC extract more from sport than they put in. They got a return of more than 350 per cent on their investment in F1 but those who invest their hearts in motorsport – the fans – were distraught that viewing figures were said to have fallen 137 million globally in recent years.
And many of those who love the Six Nations were similarly distressed at the prospect of shafting the Azzurri to accommodate the Springboks in the northern hemisphere’s most iconic showpiece. Extracting maximum value in this way is instantly at odds with the game’s values.
But CVC have made no secret of their desire to shake up the Six Nations. When their investment was announced last March they declared their mission was to “enhance the sporting spectacle of all the tournaments, teams and brands; and to build broader commercial capabilities to support these ambitious plans. These steps will ensure continued development for the benefit of fans, and to attract a new, more diverse and global fan base”.
Global is a particularly ironic term here. For if there’s one thing that works against rugby ever breaking out of its positively colonial Tier 1 club it’s sticking South Africa in the Six Nations.
It’s a move that would crush emerging nations, and damage established ones. A Rugby Championship without the Springboks would be a severe blow to New Zealand, Australia and Argentina and losing the Azzurri from the Six Nations would kill Italian rugby, just at the point when their development pathway is showing promise – as a defeated England U20s side will tell you.
Ah but they’ve had more than 20 years to improve and they’re still the whipping boys, some will argue. This 140-year-old tournament allowed France 10 years to win a game and 44 years to win the trophy but recent stats make a modern case that shows how the competition is more nuanced than we might imagine.
Italy are not the only nation to feel a backside sting. The Loosehead rugby podcast tweeted an interesting breakdown of Six Nations results from the past eight years, reminding us that in 2021 England won two games; in 2020 Wales won one game; in 2019 Scotland won one game; in 2018 England won two games; in 2017 Wales won two games; in 2016 France won two games; in 2015 Scotland won no games; in 2014 Scotland won one game and in 2013 Italy finished ahead of both Ireland and France.
As the creator of the podcast said: “People look at Italy and say they don’t win games continuously in the Six Nations and I get that side of it. But it’s the hardest competition in world rugby. Even the best teams in it struggle some years. That’s what makes it such good value.”
And there are other ways to make it good value that would add edge and drama to the tournament and grow the game beyond these six nations. The contest’s heritage rests on European rivalry so could its future if CVC really did want to put its money where its mouth is and attract “a new, more diverse and global fan base” rather than the short-term safe bet of keeping a southern hemisphere superpower happy.
They could invest in the potential of European rugby by supporting the nations whose pathways only ever end in a brick wall with the game’s traditional elite comfortably stagnating on the other side.
I’ll admit to some bias here as my nephew Chris Hitt is coach of Poland’s national men’s team. And as his Welsh coaching team prepared Poland for a fantastic victory against rivals Germany last autumn I was reminded of the importance of the need to support the game’s development in other parts of Europe – including Spain; Belgium, Portugal and Romania.
The creation of a two-tier tournament of promotion and relegation so the likes of Georgia can finally climb that wall would see rugby making some progress towards becoming the global game it has promised to be since its first World Cup more than 30 years ago.
This may be a vain hope in a world where private equity and sport are now forever entwined. But as the storm of protest that was unleashed this week proves, the true rugby fan wants to see values protected as well as value added.
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