The Sports Corner

ARU chairman blasts ’substandard’ European teams

In a blistering attack on his European Rugby colleagues, Australian Rugby Union Chairman John O’Neill used the highly publicised Hong Kong Test match to blast what many pundits have known for a long time: European Rugby Unions sending second and third string outfits to the Southern Hemisphere on tour.

This season saw the French team tour Australia and New Zealand during June, the same time the lucrative French domestic competition was under way.

The depleted French were beaten by a combined score of 113-21 by the All Blacks and Australia outscored France 74-23 in a two Test sweep. It sparked talks between the various Union heads last year in Woking, England.

“Last year the deal at Woking was that full-strength teams would travel south - it didn’t happen,” O’Neill told New Zealand Press Association. “Our point of leverage is we don’t go north. … If there comes a point in time where the northern hemisphere do not comply with the regulations and do not send their best teams south - and we suffer the consequences of a downturn in gate and downturn in popularity of the game you might say ‘OK, don’t come in June and we’ll come north if you pay us’.”

Australia, New Zealand and South Africa have long had the policy of sending the best team available on tour, but the Northern Hemisphere has not obliged the three nations when sending their national teams, allowing star players to remain with their domestic teams or alternatively claiming they were injured and unable to tolerate the long flights when touring.

It has resulted in a large disparity between North and South revenues, with the Southern trio generating large ticket sales for their Northern hosts, but then experience a lack of interest when second string Northern teams tour the Southern hemisphere.

The standoff has now reached the point where SANZAR (the South African New Zealand and Australian Rugby Unions) may boycott future tours of countries which do not send their best available teams to tour SANZAR countries.

Alternatively, as O’Neill commented the SANZAR teams may demand payment and a revenue share from European countries to tour.

One thing is for sure, the Southern hemisphere fans are growing weary of seeing one sided games where depleted European teams are run ragged by full strength home teams.

If the problem is not addressed soon, it could see the current fracture between North and South grow into an increasingly bitter divide.