The Sports Corner

Welsh Rugby Union snub Canada over ₤25,000

The gulf between established rugby playing nations and the developing nations continues to widen as the IRB’s revenue system faces renewed attack.

It has emerged that the Wales Rugby Union (WRU) has refused to share in the profits of its match against Canada at Cardiff - a game which attracted over 50,000 fans - with it’s poorer cousins.

Wales who stand to make an estimated ₤17 million from their four home tests this autumn refused a request from a struggling Rugby Canada for a share of the ticket price of 50p per ticket. This would have seen Canada come away from the game with nearly ₤25,000, the match fee of some of world rugby’s best players.  

Under International Rugby Board (IRB) rules, the host team is generally responsible for the costs of hosting the touring side, which can include transport, accommodation, meals and training facilities. The hosting nation is free to discuss any revenue sharing with the touring nation, but in most cases takes all the profit from the tour.

It is the revenue sharing and costs of a tour which is now in the spotlight as some of rugby’s most powerful nations seek a better deal and more control over where their tours go, at what times and how much revenue they should receive from a successful tour. 

Under IRB guidelines, the IRB sets tours for all rugby playing nations was petitioned last week by the New Zealand Rugby Union to allow nations to set their own tour schedules and organise their own match fixtures.

The IRB is reluctant to do so because they fear developing nations such as Canada, Portugal, Uruguay and Romania will not see any meaningful games outside of the World Cup every four years. At the same time, the Australian Rugby Union has criticised European nations of not sending full strength touring teams to the Southern Hemisphere during June and July tours, which is costing the hosting union money on flagging ticket sales as fans prefer to tune in on television than pay for a potential blowout scoreline.

What’s clear is the IRB needs to get a grip on the situation.

The IRB has long held a touring fund for teams who undertake tours of developing rugby nations. Next year Wales will tour Canada.

Because Rugby Canada is unable to afford the estimated ₤70,000 it will cost to house, feed and transport the Welsh team during their tour, Wales will receive the funds from the IRB. The fund is set up to encourage establish rugby nations to tour developing nations.

However, while the fund sounds admirable, it does not address the fundamental problem which developing nations face: lack of funding by their governments and the IRB to build credible rugby programmes.

The Canadian team is a prime example. Canada coach, Kieran Crowley, told the Guardian, “It is very hard. We are trying to increase the standard of our domestic competition, but we only have eight professionals in our current squad and only one of them is with a top-division side. Kids in Canada do not start playing rugby until they are at least 14 and our big problem is that we cannot get together as a squad anywhere near frequently enough.” 

Canada has drifted in and out of World Cups every four years, hoping to defeat one of the other minnows of international rugby.

A win is seen as mission accomplished for a largely part time amateur squad whose best players are signed to European contracts and unavailable to train with the national development programme or join the occasional touring team when Rugby Canada and the IRB have found enough money to take the team overseas. The majority of the Rugby Canada squad must find part time work around their training schedule and even then, the funding of Rugby Canada does not expose the team to enough first class games.

The apparent greed of the WRU in refusing to give the financially struggling Canadians a measly share of the profits from the match is symptomatic of a system which does not work.

Although, not all is doom and gloom. Last week, the English Rugby Union received a similar request for funding from the Pacific Islanders team which opened their tour against England. The English Rugby Union handed to the Pacific Islanders ₤75,000 to assist with their tour costs and the funding of rugby development in their constituent nations of Fiji, Western Samoa and Tonga.