The controversy surrounding the new tackling laws, together with sexism allegations in Welsh rugby and legal issues in France has made for a disastrous six days for the sport
On the tackle question, there are voices who say: “Just leave it alone. We know there is a risk, but we’ll deal with it.” England No.8 Billy Vunipola has a podcast with ex-pro Jim Hamilton out today and sums up many an elite player’s view, paraphrased as: “Let me earn my living, and I’ll deal with the consequences.
Some deride the WRU and RFU for outdated models, and want the “professional” and “grassroots” entirely separate. But does that risk two games instead of one? The RFU’s Council – mostly the county constituent bodies – are supposed to represent the 1900 clubs and everyone in them. The on-the-ground professional staff radiating out from Twickenham have dwindled, as has communication to and fro, including with the press. Some feel treated like mushrooms: kept in the dark and fed on fertiliser.
The shift of the tackle height from shoulders to armpit to sternum to waist or wherever could be outweighed in practical effect by cutting the number of matches and the contact in training – a review of the latter is due soon. So Day’s words are intriguing: “I think this is going to be a rebirth of rugby because, sooner or later, someone somewhere is going to say the players are going to play less.”– The WRU’s new chairman Ieuan Evans is going to set up an external task force.
Police had questioned Laporte on Tuesday about allegations of additional financial wrongdoing, which he denied. The 58-year-old had stood down from the FFR provisionally in December after being convicted of influence peddling and illegally acquiring assets, also resigning as vice-chairman of World Rugby with whom his alliance with current chair Bill Beaumont had marginalised Argentina’s Agustin Pichot.
Last October, Claude Atcher, the chief executive officer of the 2023 World Cup company in France, was sacked after he was found to have oversee an “extremely degraded social environment”. A bad smell still lingers from France getting the World Cup ahead of the recommend nation, South Africa.
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