Where is professional rugby going?
Where is professional rugby going?
Monday 17th March 2008 Where is professional rugby going? - Rugby News, Results, Fixtures and Features from Planet-Rugby.com
As the Six Nations draws to a close (and as Scotland return to the highlands to lick their wounds) We had a chinwag with former Scotland great Gavin Hastings, who has quite a lot to say on the current state of the game.
Hastings, among other things, is currently organising and ambassadoring the Golden Oldies World Rugby Festival in Edinburgh, scheduled for September 1-8, 2008.
Some 4,500+ visitors are anticipated for a tournament which all those of us who have played at coarse level would look forward to: a week of rugby, drinking, singing and inimitably good clean family rugby fun.
Teams from all over the world, from the Bahamas to the Cook Islands, are rocking up for the gala, but it is a sad and true fact that as the game grows ever more money and results oriented at the higher levels, the traditions in the levels below are being steadily eroded away. The lure of the lucre seeps downwards, contaminating the club game.
"Effectively the club scene in Scotland is now non-existent," said Hastings, in response to a question about the tangible lack of depth and development of international players.
"It is desperately sad, and I am hearing the same about Wales.
"How to rectify that is a big big challenge. I don't have a solution as to how or why, but somehow we have to get that back.
"However, the problem has to be addressed for a solution to be found. I think one big problem is that there is no clear line between professionalism and amateurism. It means some players leave, while others train that much harder... it can cause a division in clubs, and create an unpleasant atmosphere."
Hastings alluded to Scotland and Wales where, with the advent of the Magners League and regional rugby, the old clubs such as Hawick, Gala, and Boroughmuir in Scotland, and Llanelli, Swansea, and Cardiff in Wales, have been forced to play in semi-professional leagues.
But semi-professional is hardly a regulated terrain, and clubs are too eager to dream about the big-time, rather than remember the happiness of the days when money and success were not the principal drivers, as Hastings explained.
"Nowadays it is all so serious," he said.
"At the end of the day, the club game is not about engaging in the culture any more. The culture of the game changes as a result.
"There is no more singing, no more beers together after the game. This may not impact at the highest level, but the young players would be all the better for tasting that as they come through.
"The semi-professional aspect takes all the fun away. The strongest bastions of rugby culture left in the world are now in ex-pat teams in minor rugby-playing cultures - only there is the culture truly retained."
But how to solve this? Aside from the ex-pat sides referred to here, there is still one major rugby-plying country that is getting the balance better than most, according to Hastings.
"I think you could look at France for a good example of how to keep the game burgeoning," he said, with little hesitation.
"The culture in the regions is so geared to the game, with support from councils, from the regions (départements); it makes it a people's game. There is no exclusion to anyone.
"I saw when Edinburgh went to Toulouse: the Toulouse players still go out into town, they don't lose their roots or culture. They engage with the locals. It is maybe an area where we in the UK might not have got it right, where we have lost the spirit. Maybe it doesn't suit our 'professional' culture."
Which is where the Golden Oldies will come in...
"This is the spirit our tournament is trying to promote, " continued Hastings.
"We are anticipating some 4,500 people from some 20/30 nations, all here to play rugby and have fun. It's how it should be."
Gavin Hastings is Ambassador for the Golden Oldies World Rugby Festival (1-8 September, 2008), happening in Edinburgh, still seeking team entries for the world's premier over-35 social rugby event, please visit http://www.goldenoldiessports.com or phone Michael Scallon (Platinum One) on (+44) (0)131 623 1500 for further information.
Gavin Hastings was talking to Danny Stephens
