The idea of a World Club Championship in rugby union has been around for a long time.
As far back as 1997, Auckland’s Blues – winners of the first two Super Rugby titles – destroyed European Cup winners Brive 47-11 in a match billed by the French hosts as a World Championship.
All Blacks centre Lee Stensness led the way with a hat trick of tries, while Fijian winger Joeli Vidiri chimed in with a dazzling individual effort.
Britain’s Independent described the New Zealand team, who were on an unbeaten tour of Europe, as “stronger, faster, more skilled technically and more cunning strategically.”
“It was like spending 80 minutes in a washing machine,” said Brive captain Alain Penaud. “It was like being run over by a bus a hundred times.”
The Southern Hemisphere stole a march at the dawn of the professional era, and Super Rugby teams won the vast majority of their early encounters with European clubs – often by wide margins.
Things have evened up since then, however, and when the French again staged an unofficial world championship a few years ago, Natal’s Sharks struggled to a 12-10 victory over Toulon.
The Sharks were not actually the Super Rugby champions at the time. They were standing in for the New South Wales Waratahs, who were unavailable for the fixture.
Toulon scored the only two tries of the game through Kiwi import David Smith, while Springbok Pat Lambie kicked three penalties for the Sharks and Fred Zeilinga added a late winner.
We have also seen the inclusion of South Africa’s Orange Free State Cheetahs and Southern Kings in Europe’s Pro 14 League since they were axed from Super Rugby in 2017.
Originally known as the Celtic League for competition among Welsh, Scottish and Irish clubs, the Pro 14 now includes Italy’s Zebre and Benetton, as well as the South African pair.
The Cheetahs, having made the top ten only once in a dozen years of Super Rugby, finished third on debut. The Kings, who had three disastrous seasons in the Southern Hemisphere competition, have proved equally inept in Europe.
The Cheetahs take on the Waratahs back in their Super Rugby days. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
This has given rise to the inevitable claims of Northern Hemisphere superiority, reminiscent of the long-established rivalry at international level.
Of course, the World Cup has settled the latter issue, notwithstanding England’s victory in 2003. Prior to 1987 it was nigh impossible to get a Northern Hemisphere fan to admit to southern superiority.
The debate has since changed from “Who is the best?” to “Is the gap closing?”
European fans seem adamant it is, though there seems little evidence of this, and the last World Cup semi-finals were an all-Southern Hemisphere affair.
Nonetheless, the battle of the hemispheres has often been cited as one of international rugby’s greatest assets. So why not extend that to club level and organise an official World Championship?
Such a fixture has existed in football for almost 60 years. The Intercontinental Cup was first staged in 1960 as a one-off clash between the European and South American title-holders.
FIFA stepped in at the turn of the century and transformed it into a mini-tournament, also involving the winners of the other confederations. This year’s edition in Qatar will involve seven teams.
A more inclusive format might also become a prospect for rugby in the future, with professional leagues already established in Japan, Russia, North America and elsewhere. South America is also planning to launch a professional competition next season.
Rugby league first staged a World Club Challenge fixture in 1976, and has held it most years since 1987. Involving the winners of the Australian NRL and the European Super League, this has drawn some huge attendances.
Probably the time has come for rugby union to put more emphasis on developing the global club scene. Test rugby appears to be approaching overload with national teams playing more and more often.
This has put a huge strain on the professional leagues, as well as the players themselves. So why not organise an official world championship for the clubs themselves and see how things develop from there?
Istanbul Wingman
Roar Guru
I think they still qualify as clubs. American football franchises are considered clubs. Provincial and state teams are regional sides, but Super Rugby franchises are free to draft unwanted players from outside the region.
Winnie the Pooh (Emperor of China)
Guest
Super teams are not clubs. They are association/governing body regional sides. In Australia the club to represent us would have to be one of the Shute/Dewar/Premier teams. Funny if it was Dewar. In all honesty, international competition should be the test teams. South African sides should be playing in the Currie Cup, Aussie teams in a future local Australian union club comp and NZ can do their NPC. We will see them at Bledisloe and Championship time.
Paulo
Roar Rookie
Yea, that was my point Jacko, that using a one off result like the AB/Eng game doesn’t reflect the relative ability of the Saders/Sarries and as such is not an accurate way to judge who is better. Especially a year on, and double especially when it isn’t even the teams you are trying to conpare, as Funbus was trying to do. I only used the SA/NZ games to illustrate this as precisely what you point out, SA would not be favourites even though they beat NZ last year.
Jacko
Guest
That would be an awesome tournament to see...Mind you I believe a 8 team international tournament would also work every 4 years between WCs....
Jacko
Guest
Paulo the ABs also beat the Boks last year and I dont believe anyone would have the Boks as favourites in a match up as yet. If SA win the RC then that may change and they certainly have a very much on-the-up team.....I guess we will know in a few weeks
Paulo
Roar Rookie
The question of Sarries or Saders isn’t really Eng vs NZ though, as neither is the respective representative side. A clubs performance, while influenced by the internationals is not reflective of the national team. I mean, you can’t equate the Saders to the ABs and say that the Chiefs are better than the ABs after the game in Suva. I do understand where you are coming from, so, let’s assume you could equate the Saders and Sarries to NZ and Eng respectively, the other issue is one game result from last year is hardly indicative where a teams current standing would be, for a whole range of factors. But to illustrate the point, who would be favourite to win between SA and NZ right now? SA should be odds on favourite, as they beat the ABs last year. But given the SR results, clearly that wouldn’t be the case.
Paulo
Roar Rookie
I was trying to be careful not to blame the ref... but yea, the refereeing in the whole Lions series was frustrating.
One Eye
Roar Rookie
What you're both overlooking wrt Crusaders v BIL was the one sided view of the French ref (in a taste of things to come...), he whistled an absolutely dominant Crusaders pack out of the match which was destroying the Lions test pack and refused to enforce an off side line. Add to that the decision to play David Havili at 12 and every play was over before it began.
GibbonRib
Roar Rookie
Or a bit pedantic on my part. A good read, cheers
Istanbul Wingman
Roar Guru
Oh yeah, you might be right. Memory's slipping. Still, three rounds less of regular season games.
Germán
Roar Rookie
Not sure about the one week less of playoffs. It's most likely that it will be like the previous iteration where top 2 seeds get a bye, similarly to Top14. You still need to allocate that Qualifier/half-quarters week.
Kick n Clap
Guest
Should have, would have ,could have? Why don’t do what all the English Media, RaRa boys did? BLAME -Sam Burgess...
FunBus
Roar Rookie
'The question is how many points would Sarries score to compete with the 30-40 points of the Crusaders?' It comes down to the question about how big you think the gap is between the ABs and a full-strength England. England missing a number of key players should have beaten the ABs the last time they met at Twickenham, and the ABs never looked like getting anywhere near 30/40 points. The Crusaders have about 5 of the AB pack and Saracens have about 5 of the England pack. Saracens have the first choice England fly-half and the second choice scrum half and every other position is covered by internationals including some Lions starters. Personally, I think it would go with home advantage.
Istanbul Wingman
Roar Guru
I suspect that's why it hasn't happened. A big thrashing either way could do irreparable damage to the loser's competition.
Istanbul Wingman
Roar Guru
Thanks. Bit sloppy on my part.
Neel
Roar Guru
A Crusaders vs Saracens match would be pretty interesting. I would back the Crusaders to beat them though.
Charging Rhino
Roar Guru
Munstertim- I have no doubt the Crusaders would score/put on 30-40 points, as they do to every other team in the Super Rugby competition, but no not beat them by 30-40 points. The question is how many points would Sarries score to compete with the 30-40 points of the Crusaders? The Hurricanes could score more to be fair, but then their defence isn’t as tight as the Saders. I watch plenty of rugby, and plenty of NH test teams have talked themselves up in the past only to travel down to NZ and get 30-40 points, or more scored against them by the All Blacks. The Crusaders would be no different. It’s been proven time and time again, or at least has been over the past few years, their form is waning slightly but they’re still the red hot favourites. It might be slightly closer if the game was played in London, but even then I’d still think the it would be 90-10 in favour of Crusaders. And trust me, I’m no Kiwi or New Zealand rugby fan. I wish we’d beat them consistently!!
GibbonRib
Roar Rookie
Nice idea, but impossible to find space in an already bursting calendar. Minor correction: the Cheetahs didn't finish 3rd on their debut in the Pro14; they finished 3rd in their conference, which was 6th overall, and then lost their play-off quarter-final by 35 points to the Scarlets. (This season they did worse - 11th overall. But still much better than the Kings.)
Paulo
Roar Rookie
The game plan was to not score tries? Nah, I’m only winding you up. I think you’re right in the sense that it was a conservative Lions attack - atleast for that game - and staunch defence. I don’t think we had seen a rush defence executed so well at that stage in SH rugby, but now most teams employ a variation and I think the SR teams, the successful ones at least, have developed much better strategies to over come it. Would be a touch game between Saders and Saracens, I think, in my very biased opinion that it would go to the last quarter and then the Saders would fire off a couple quick tries in like a 5 minute window and seal the win.
piru
Roar Rookie
As am I Let the Black and Red banner fly on every rampart