Why not stage a best of hemisphere’s match?
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By Jason Cave, 9 Feb 2010 The Crowd is a Roar Pro
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Watching the Six Nations games on the weekend got me thinking: what if the best of the Six Nations combined to form a Northern XV to play a Southern XV made of players from the Tri-Nations in a one-off end-of-year match at Twickenham?
Instead of the usual end-of-season match played between the Barbarians and Wallabies, All Blacks or Springboks, when Australia, New Zealand and South Africa go on their spring tours to Europe, have the best from the Northern Hemisphere go up against the combined might of Southern Hemipshere rugby.
What would the two teams lineups look like? And who would win the game?
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rugbyfuture said | February 9th 2010 @ 2:45am | Report comment
The northern hemisphere would never agree, its sucha power in southern hemisphere rugby which would prove the administrative bias that the IRB has for the Northern Hemisphere teams have so the business case is too risky. consider that the southern hemisphere currently has the top three nations in the world, with a most probable fourth in a proffesional argentine team, followed closely by the pacific islands, where the Northern Hemisphere has the, basically bottom five in the top ten.
pothale said | February 9th 2010 @ 3:56am | Report comment
“The northern hemisphere would never agree, its sucha power in southern hemisphere rugby which would prove the administrative bias that the IRB has for the Northern Hemisphere teams have so the business case is too risky.”
This gets my Southern Hemisphere Grammarian of the Month Award.
If the Northern Hemisphere ‘has the, basically, bottom five in the top ten’, who has the top 5?
rugbyfuture said | February 9th 2010 @ 12:27pm | Report comment
geez dude, harshness much. NZ, SA, Aus, Arg, Fiji
pothale said | February 9th 2010 @ 5:44pm | Report comment
That would be Argentina and Fiji currently in 7th and 9th, who you say are in the top 5.
rugbyfuture said | February 9th 2010 @ 9:05pm | Report comment
fully read the comment above.
pothale said | February 10th 2010 @ 6:30am | Report comment
Yes I did. Hence why I made the comment. Fiji were thrashed on their tour this year. Argentina managed to beat Scotland by a single point with a team of players plying their trade professionally in various leagues.
Top 5? Don’t make me laugh.
Lee said | February 9th 2010 @ 4:46am | Report comment
Great idea…
Or even a British and Irish Lions team against a Southern Sharks/Sheep/Wombats team.
Also, I’d really like the idea of the Super 14 winners playing the Heineken cup winners. Not sure the best way to do that logistically wise but would make a good game.
PastHisBest said | February 9th 2010 @ 3:46pm | Report comment
“…Southern Sharks/Sheep/Wombats team.”
The Great White Sheepbats??
Mr cheese said | February 9th 2010 @ 5:52am | Report comment
How about a rugby league team against a rugby union team ??
Each team can play by its rules in the one match. Then we can find out which is best.
M Fromage
Peter said | February 10th 2010 @ 11:06am | Report comment
They did that in England between the Super League champions and the English rugby champions in about 1996. From memory the Union game was a 40 point walkover to the Union team and the League game was a slightly larger walkover to the League side. What did it show – that Union teams are better at Union and League teams are better at League.
Somehow I think I could have deduced that without the games being played.
Perhaps if they developed hybrid rules it would be possible but you would have both sides screaming bias in the rules. All I can think of is to play Union rules on one half of the field (with a phase counting as a play the ball) and League on the other. Would be a nightmare to referee though.
sheek said | February 9th 2010 @ 6:38am | Report comment
Jason,
It’s a great idea, but also this actually happened previously back in 1986 as part of IRB centenary celebrations.
Overseas Unions XV (Australia, NZL, RSA) beat Five Nations XV (Eng, Wal, Sco, Fra, Ire) by 32-13, 6 tries to two (4 point tries). Apparently, & unfortunately, the match was played in atrocious weather.
Neither Argentine nor Italian players were involved. Neither players from Pacific Islands, North America, Asia or other European countries.
There were two games played in 1986. The first involved an official British & Irish XV against The Rest of the World XV, including Frenchmen Blanco & Esteve.
The second involved the game mentioned above, with the frenchman moving across to the 5 Nations XV. I will report on these matches separately & presently.
Brett McKay said | February 9th 2010 @ 8:05am | Report comment
I guess the biggest problem would be timing. Either way, one team would be at the end of their season, the other at the start. But that alone shouldn’t stop it being attempted.
I like either idea, the 6Ns winner v the TNs winner, or likewise the winners of the HC and S14. Play it in Dubai, or Hong Kong, or Boston, wherever…
Rickety Knees said | February 9th 2010 @ 9:34am | Report comment
Brett – I don’t why they don’t play Rugby in the summer months in the NH. They would get much better playing conditions and then the NH might also get a greater appreciation for running rugby being played in conducive conditions. This would allow the game to have a common season and make the scheduling of global matches so much easier.
Dublin Dave said | February 10th 2010 @ 12:23am | Report comment
” I don’t why they don’t play Rugby in the summer months in the NH”
Groaan!!! Yet another Southern Hemisphere do-gooder who wants to stuff up our already miserable winters by removing one of the few uplifiting diversions we have put in place to relieve our gloom.
Rugby (among other things) was invented to alleivate the tedium of a climate where it gets dark at 5pm, doesn’t get light again until 9 am, it pisses rain, it’s cold, the buses don’t run on time and most life forms with any sense just go to sleep for a few months. As humans though, we have been resilient enough to create diversions which keep us sane during these trying times.
That’s why rugby exists.
Next thing you’ll be saying. “Jeez. Why do the poms not move Christmas to the middle of July so they can have a barbie on the beach like we do?”
It’s a mad, mad, mad idea. Doubtless, those marketing types who see sport as just another business to be globalised and streamlined for maximum financial gain will agree with you. But then, once they’ve run the game into the ground, they just “go forward” into the next “exciting opportunity” which could be anything from novelty ring tones to lunar holidays.
But you’ve got to remember what’s important. It’s a cynic who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Wavell Wakefield said | February 10th 2010 @ 5:35am | Report comment
I’ve heard a rumour that it gets pretty hot in the South of France.
Colin N said | February 10th 2010 @ 12:56am | Report comment
But isn’t the ‘height’ of the Southern Hemisphere season played during the winter months?
Brett McKay said | February 9th 2010 @ 10:05am | Report comment
Rickety, the NH think we try to tell them how to play the game already, I’m sure they’d love “our” suggestion that they convert to the northern summer!!
Winston said | February 15th 2010 @ 4:54pm | Report comment
For a start they should do it Barbars style at the World Cup instead of the rediculous battle for third. Players in the final would be excluded though of course.
pothale said | February 9th 2010 @ 10:04am | Report comment
Playing rugby in the summer months, RK? Well given the NH season starts in August and runs until June to include the SH tests – when would you suggest the season should start? Say Dec and finish with SH tests in Sept?
The variety of weather would be interesting as it moved into the summer months though. A soft rain in Munster, through to a warm day in Dublin, shirtsleeves in a clammy London, sweating in a sweltering Paris and collapsing in a boiling hot Rome.
There’s lots of other sports being played during the summer months. In Ireland, hurling and football dominate completely. Plus the Irish soccer league shifted its season to the summer.
I’ve played rugby on baked hard grounds – it isn’t funny. Your knees may be rickety, mine were permanently scorched.
Brett McKay said | February 9th 2010 @ 10:13am | Report comment
See what I mean Rickety?!?!
Rickety Knees said | February 9th 2010 @ 10:38am | Report comment
Pots – I would start domestic comps in February and finish in August. International comps would be Sept/Oct. Nov/Dec/Jan free. All matches played at night to maximise TV exposure and keep away from the heat of the day. Tournament and tour scheduling is far simpler, the crowds are not challenged by the weather, the players are playing on hard dry fast grounds and and the broadcasters are happy.
pothale said | February 9th 2010 @ 11:02am | Report comment
Ok I’ll nibble.
For the sake of the argument, I presume you’re ignoring what other sports would be on, and the demands of TV broadcasters faced with competing sports and time on air.
And that culturally, except for the French who like their rugby late in the day, rugby matches are preferred during the day, particularly for attendance.
I take the point about the weather, except in bloody Ireland where it will still continue to rain from Feb – May, whether it’s at night-time or not!
Assuming that grounds would be hard dry and fast before May would be unlikely, except maybe in Italy, and parts of southern France.
So the season would start with Magners/GP/Top 14 kicking in Feb. The H Cup would kick in around April. Since there’d be no international break, one assumes it keeps going till it’s finished, sometime around June/July. The league season and playoffs would be completed in mid-August. Two week break for int’l preparation, and then 6 Nations begins in Sept for 6 weeks. SANZAR would be told to appear in mid-October for one match only. No more SH trips. This would be done on a rotation basis, thus Italy would only have to play All Blacks in Milan once every six years.
It would make the World Cup more interesting.
Chris said | February 9th 2010 @ 10:24am | Report comment
Here’s five reasons:
a) The calendar is full already.
b) The South would win by an absurd amount.
c) Players would get injured.
d) Politics dictate you would have to include a token Scot and Italian in the Nthn XV regardless of merit.
e)You would never be able to fill two full strength sides as clubs would encourage players to pull out.
Maybe it could work as a quadrennial post World Cup tournament, but I can’t see it happening yearly. I think a few Argentinians/Islanders would resent your assertion that the Southern Hemisphere team would consist purely of 3N players.
Grandpabhaile said | February 9th 2010 @ 10:38am | Report comment
Here’s another five:
The calendar is full already
The North would win by an absurd amount of tackling
SH Players would get injured from these tackles
Politics would dictate that you have to include a token South African and NZ-born player in the Southern XV regardless of merit.
Australia would protest at not being given any places in the team, and field their own one.
Uproar breaks out when the Northern team elects to play the Aussie one instead because it would be more fun according to their respective spokespeople.
After much discussion, an Italian team is dispatched to Rotorua to play a 3 test series with the southern XV whilst the rest get on with the party.
World peace breaks out shortly afterwards and is seen as ‘not a bad thing’.
mattamkII said | February 9th 2010 @ 11:07am | Report comment
Pothole, dont get all grammar nazi and defensive.
NZ, Aust and the Saffers have held the top 3 position for most of recent memory. To deny the balance of playing power and dominance of the top is with the SH is a bit silly.