Buried somewhere between Bill Sweeney’s insistence this week that he is still the right man to lead the Rugby Football Union, the outlandish assertion that “we are on the cusp of something quite spectacular”, the 38-minute monologue of excuses including those for four professional clubs going to the wall, there was one claim that particularly grated. Here was Sweeney effectively complaining about the suggestion that when teams such as Samoa – England’s World Cup opponents on Saturday in Lille – play at Twickenham, they might be given a bigger match fee for their troubles. Woe is Bill.
Sweeney would do well to remember that the last time Samoa were due to play at Twickenham, against the Barbarians in 2021, the match was cancelled at barely 90 minutes’ notice because of a Covid outbreak among the players and support staff of the invitational side. It had been a considerable ordeal for Samoa to convene a squad given travel restrictions brought on by the pandemic and some of their players were reduced to tears at being denied the opportunity to play at Twickenham.
