In the perennial struggle between domestic sport and international, more exquisitely poised in rugby than anywhere else, this weekend marks the opening of the latest window for the international game to set out its stall. The merchants mean business, too, if the strength of the teams announced, so often depleted at this time of year, is anything to go by.
If international rugby gets its way, every other year we will see yet another tournament of meaning and intensity crank itself up on this first weekend of July, in a desperate bid to hold off the encroaching power and influence of the domestic game. Only every other year, though, because rugby already somehow crams into its quadrennial calendar a Lions tour and a World Cup, beyond the Six Nations, the Rugby Championship and all the myriad domestic duties your average international rugby player has to negotiate.
