The crucial European Nations Cup match to be played between Russia and Romania in Krasnodar on Saturday was to be televised on TV in Europe and worldwide by satellite and internet.
However, the Russian Rugby Union pulled the plug on it because they, the RRU, were not the producers.
Then Sportsbox picked up the game for Europe but that was cancelled. It was then to be shown on the Russian sports channel and that too was cancelled.
Once again, rugby shoots itself in the foot when a wide exposure of the game was offered.
It seems whether it is IRB or RRU, politics is the real name of the game.
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Hammer said | March 20th 2008 @ 8:35am | Report comment
Could not agree more! Rugby Unions complete inability to promote itself in all forms of media is astounding. There few if any Rugby administrators that has the vision to look outside their immediate area of interest. Just like players and rugby tragic’s who have an amazing love of rugby “kit” the rugby administrator has a love of the blazer and their own self interest. I have been in this sport for 30 years as a player, coach and administrator and the self interest, nepotism, politics and inwardly focused admin roles were the most painful.
So painful at every level I am surprised any decisions get made for the greater good of rugby.
E.G Fox charge a fortune for their service and fill it with advertising about how good their rugby coverage is. The knuckleheads on the rugby show used to rabbit on about the six nations and Heineken Cup until I pointed out that it was on no interest to fox viewers because they were too lousy to show it in A/NZ and they own the rights in the UK and Europe.
Who in rugby has the general promotion of the game at heart? Why did Rugby almost give the rights away? Why did Rugby change the laws for the owners of rugby (FOX)?
Why do we continually change the laws for people not “IN” the game? What was wrong with Rugby just before it turned professional? Wasn’t it a wonderful game before we made all these changes? Isn’t that why the pay TV conglomerates purchased the rights in the first place?
Rugby has lost control of its own destiny, O’Neill thinks that the only way he can look good is to continue to sell it (internationally) now.
Like you Harry, I am disappointed at the complete lack of character in our administration from club to IRB. I would love to see these contests in emerging nations but it seems no matter how much I pump into my foxtel account the y will still force me to watch commercial TV and pay for it as well as not delivering international from other countries.
So I give up I will cancel my subscription after this S14 and re-discover my love of fly fishing.