Martin Bayfield might just be the funniest man in rugby but on this he is not joking.
“I’m really concerned for the English game,” says the former British and Irish Lions forward turned TV presenter and after-dinner speaker. “Rugby is in a very precarious state. We’re at a crossroads. Doing nothing is not an option.”
Worcester are suspended from all competitions, locked out of their ground. A club in administration, unsure when or if they will play again.
Wasps, past champions of England and Europe but these days drowning in debt, face a winding up order and dark times ahead.
Bayfield has embarked on his Rugby Legends tour around the country, sharing tales of the best of rugby times with some of the greats. The game is in a very different place just now, and he knows it.
“Fewer people are playing, clubs are putting out fewer teams,” he acknowledged. “Rugby is struggling”.
Not only are clubs on their knees post-pandemic, World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and Welsh Rugby Union face a class action from more than 180 former players claiming they did not adequately protect them from brain injury.
“We’ve got fundamentally a Victorian game being played by 21st Century athletes,” Bayfield said. “Something has to change.
“The sport needs restructuring and made fit for purpose. It has to make very real changes that will alter the look of the game and it has to be prepared for what that will look like.
“We can’t just tinker with it any more because, as we can all see, two clubs are in danger of imploding.”
Bayfield’s wish list contains a structured season “where people know who and what they’re watching”, fewer Premiership clubs and a properly supported second tier that doesn’t leave relegated clubs with an overwhelming sense of doom.
“There’s no stability because nothing concrete or workable was ever put in place right at the start of professionalism as no-one knew how to be professional,” he said.
“We have to accept that big salaries and huge back room staff maybe need to be trimmed.
“That’s tough on players, but earn something rather than nothing or the game is going to go bust.”
Bayfield does not claim to have all the answers. But a lifetime in the sport, first as a player then respected broadcaster either side of 10 years on the Harry Potter film set, tells him instinctively the calendar is a big part of the problem.
“Rugby is too congested, too confusing,” he said. “The calendar is insane, a jumble of games and fixtures.
“Do we have our star players, do we not? Strip some of it away. Work out what works, what are your big sellers and simplify it.”
Martin Bayfield’s Rugby Legends is touring the country. For more information go to myticket.co.uk/artists/martin-bayfields-rugby-legends
