The autumn arrives and the winds of change again swirl through rugby union. These have been dark, dispiriting months, with the broken boughs of the English game stripped bare by the fall of Wasps and Worcester and the sport’s relationship with brain injuries never far from the headlines.
And so, with less than a year until the 2023 World Cup, an enticing, critical international campaign begins with rugby receiving the back page, top-of-bulletin cut-through it craves – but with very little focus on the sport itself. At a time where the three leading competitions in Europe manage to consistently captivate, the disconnect between the on-field thrill and a sport in a state of dysfunction is the problem over which the powers that be agonise.
