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OFo Sport starts the new year free from the worries of a pandemic, but the rugby federation, perhaps more than most, is looking forward to 2022 in fear. The Premier league There will be crowds on Saturday, as happened at the festivities, but behind the scenes and as the Six Nations approach, key debates are planned for the coming days.
The government has not yet considered it appropriate to impose crowd restrictions on sporting events in England – Premier League clubs are likely to lobby for a suspension if this happens – but fate has already struck Scotland and Wales. Dragons chairman David Buttress has described the change as “devastating”, and Wales ‘first minister, Mark Drakeford, recently admitted he can’t say whether restrictions will be lifted by Wales’ first Six Nations home game next month. In Scotland – which hosts England for the first weekend in six countries – restrictions have been imposed for at least three weeks, with a formal review due on 11 January. Before that, however, a key meeting is scheduled for next week, when organizers are expected to find out whether there is a need to activate contingency plans and tighten Covid protocols.
Add to the current predicament of the two European competitions – the recently postponed matches must be included in the messy calendar, while the French government ‘s rules on travel from the United Kingdom must be included. threaten the next rounds of matches in January – and the situation is all the more uncertain. The French government’s demand that all athletes be fully vaccinated by mid-January is just another headache that European officials and Six Nations organizers are struggling with in the New Year.
Admittedly, adapting to the challenges of cross-border competition is not limited to rugby union, but unlike in the Champions League, club rugby is not full of money. As Pat Lam, the director of rugby in Bristol, recently pointed out, even the cost of renting an aircraft just to find a European match has been canceled for rugby clubs. The same goes for canceling matches – as gate receipts like lucrative sponsorship or prize money are a lifeline – and Bristol went about £ 300,000 after their match against Scarlets was scrapped. The fact that the Sale’s Boxing Day trip to Newcastle was canceled on Christmas Day only highlights how the Premier League is not immune, as are the 55 positive cases produced this week – the second highest case recorded.
The optimistic view is that the bullet will be avoided, that no crowd restrictions will be required in England, that they will be lifted soon enough in Scotland and Wales, that competing teams in France will be given the necessary exemptions and that six nations can move forward full of crowds. It is not worth thinking about the financial impact for unions of having to play behind closed doors or with strict entry restrictions. For supporters, and indeed for players, it is an equally desperate opportunity.
“It would be a huge, huge step backwards if there were no crowds in front of the clubs and the Six Nations, which is apparently such a spectacular event,” says Dan Biggar of Northampton and Wales, who ran ahead last week. over 70,000 fans in Twickenham During Harlequins ’annual Big Game. “You saw it in the fall, and you got the crowds back. Everyone who comes to the games now has to have a passport, they’re double or triple and it’s an outdoor event, so I don’t understand why they shouldn’t be admitted. As long as it’s safe, that’s the most important thing.
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“I hope that an event like Six Nations and a match in the UK going forward will get some sensible results. As long as everyone is safe and stabbed, I think it makes sense to keep the crowds inside. I think you would have seen a different kind of game. [against Harlequins] if the stadium had been completely empty.
– We played a lot of games without an audience, but if you look at the first games, they almost felt like practice games. It felt like it didn’t really matter if you won or lost because it felt like a practice match and the intensity would drop from it. You will lose all the benefits of playing at home and pieces like that.
“I think it would be a huge step backwards if the crowds went. I think the other boys in Wales are pretty frustrated with that. Isn’t that normal frustration? We’re probably going to do different things with politics right now, but I think everything should be in line.
If the New Year is also a time to reflect and look ahead, listen to Biggar and you can’t help but wonder what could have happened to the British & Irish Lions series against South Africa if a full audience had been allowed. The Rugby Union was not without mild recessions in 2021 – Harlequins Premier League victory is an indication of that – but Lions were supposed to be an exhibit, and it hardly registers a footnote in the sports reviews of the year. It has also sparked a heated debate over product quality on the field, but Biggar sees the sport moving in the right direction.
“If we had won the series with the Lions, they could have been [negative] column inches still written, but we would have celebrated a huge success, ”adds Biggar, who is queuing up in Northampton in Saracens. “One sentence decision in each case, and it has a very different perspective. Looking at the international game, the defenses are much tighter, it is always difficult to compare the preparation time with the club game.
“If you look at our meeting [Saints] try to play it is very positive, like Quins. We always try to be positive with the ball. It has a balance. There are a lot of high scores in the Premier League right now, and that’s how the game progresses – you have to make a lot of points to win, especially in this league.
“Gone are the days of collecting three, six, nine points and then promoting the game this way. From week to week, you play against the best players in the world in front of a sold-out audience. Biggar isn’t alone in hoping this will happen in the coming weeks and months.
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