- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
England are always a worry at home – any team will get a lift from loud support from home fans. So I don’t understand why the NZRFU are stacking the odds against the All Blacks on such a regular basis by going to England virtually every year.
The All Blacks have played England at home five of the last six years – England go to New Zealand once or occasionally twice every 10 years.
I understand the money angle. The ABs get a good appearance fee and the NZRFU need the money.
Most All Blacks earn less than club players in Europe. The only reason they stay in New Zealand is because the NZRFU will only pick All Blacks from New Zealand resident players.
So the NZRFU needs to maximize its income to pass the money on to the players and also to grow the game at the grass roots level.
So at first glance, a fee of $3,000,000 per game for the ABs to play at Twickenham looks very good.
(I do not have a ‘pound’ symbol easily available so I used a 2:1 exchange rate and the figures did vary a little from source to source so I used the figures in the web articles given below.)
Look at Samoa as an extreme case. There are few if any of their best players reside in Samoa. As a consequence, how often do they get to pick their best players?
And how often do the northern hemisphere clubs find excuses not to release the players, no matter what the IRB does to try and stop this?
The players wind up being the meat in the sandwich and usually end up bowing down to the clubs, because the players (and their families) need the money.
The only way around it is to swap allegiances and play for a northern hemisphere country. This is great news for Samoan rugby (not).
So to fill the coffers, the NZRFU plays almost every year in England to claim a big fee from the RFU.
But is this fee big enough? And why England all the time? Why continually give England home advantage?
I’m sure the other northern hemisphere teams would be happy to host New Zealand more often for a fee.
Why help to develop the game in a country New Zealand hates to lose to? The country of arguably the worst winners in world rugby (ask anyone who has lost there).
And what would the All Blacks ‘brand’ be worth if England had won even half of these home games? Not to mention the world rankings.
As one of the senior executives of AIG (an American) revealed, they consider the ABs to be the most successful team in sporting history and their huge sponsorship of the ABs is directly related to this record.
I would be happier if in return, the English came to New Zealand a bit more often, reflecting the ABs going there every year (except Rugby World Cup years) and bring their best team.
But they don’t.
Including Saturday’s game, of the last 10 Tests, eight have been played in England and of the total of 36 Tests played against, England 12 have been played in New Zealand – that is one in three.
Make no mistake, home advantage is a huge factor. By my reckoning, in 18 years of Super rugby, the final has only been won once by the visiting team.
And how many times have England sent their second or third XV to NZ? I make it three of the last four visits.
It was announced this week the 2014 tour will be a below par team due to home commitments. I say they are protecting their top players from the possibility of long-term psychological impact of being trounced in NZ.
I am sure this will definitely be on their minds when considering the 2014 touring squad, since England will be hosting the Rugby World Cup one year later.
For well over 15 years now, the English team (and interestingly the British press) have continued Sir Clive Woodward’s policy of never calling the New Zealand team ‘the All Blacks’ due to the historical ‘fear factor’.
Then there’s the money on offer for England.
The RFU announced up to $NZ40,000,000 in team bonuses for England over two years.
Two years!
The RFU has announced its bonus package for the English team. It is unbelievable. Starting with the current three November games (NZ$500,000 for three of three wins) and finishing at the end of 2015/16 season, the team could earn an extra NZ$40 million, including the Rugby World Cup (win bonus NZ$10,000,000).
To win the Six Nations the bonus is NZ$740,000, if by Grand Slam this becomes NZ$1,200,000.
This is on top of the basic NZ$240,000/year retainer for squad members, standard selection fee of NZ$20,000 per game and minimum win bonus of NZ$6,000.
This does not include their club earnings or any extra payments to established “stars” within the team.
Another factor is the RFU’s annual income for the last year as NZ$320,000,000.
If this is the order of magnitude of the money the RFU has to throw around then the NZRFU may well be selling itself short.
The NZRFU could consider playing France more often or demonstration games in Hong Kong, Japan or North America.
As it stands it would appear that the RFU can afford it and there is only one World Champion team. And if England is so keen to play the ABs, why not do it in New Zealand more often?
Still it is too late for this Rugby World Cup cycle. I just hope that in future the NZRFU choose not to stack the odds so firmly in favour of one team like it has with England.
They appear to have done their best to help develop the game in a country the ABs hate to lose to (and really needs no help).
And make it part of the contract that whoever it is the ABs play, then send their best teams to New Zealand in return.
What will the cost be to the All Blacks if England beat them in the Rugby World Cup 2015 final after the NZRFU sent them to ‘Twickers’ year after year for England to practice and figure out how to beat them in the comfort of their own home?
While I know there are benefits to the ABs from this contact I would suggest England, having a home Rugby World Cup in 2015, have gained the biggest advantage.
Only time will tell if this plan of constantly playing England away has paid off or back-fired.
But if the ABs start losing to England regularly in the near future or at World Cups, I know what I will consider to be the root cause.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.