Editorial: Playing for the pride of the Pacific

EDITORIAL:

It chills the soul of rugby in this part of the world to find that all four pools in the current World Cup have been won by nations in Europe: England, Ireland, Wales and the hosts, France.

This might be largely the result of an unbalanced draw, putting the four top-ranked teams in two of the pools, but as things stand, rugby’s centre of gravity has shifted decisively to the northern hemisphere.

The All Blacks were beaten by France and the Springboks by Ireland on the stronger side of the draw, while England and Wales prevailed over Argentina and Australia on the weaker side. A clean sweep for Europe’s Six Nations league over the Southern Hemisphere’s Rugby Championship.

It chills the soul because on the Pacific side of the southern hemisphere, coaches, players and referees have made rugby a running game again, setting new standards of pace, skill and expansive attack that has been infinitely better to watch than the dour tussles of yore.

It is some comfort that northern nations, notably Ireland and France, are winning now with a brighter brand of rugby than they used to produce, running and passing with pace and adventure, but the basis of their game remains forward dominance, smothering defence and penalty kicking.

On the evidence of this tournament, rugby has not widened its appeal or brought any new countries into its top levels over the past four years. Teams such as Japan, whose promise lit up the previous Cup, appear to have plateaued.

While we celebrate Fiji’s progression to the quarter-finals this time, and agonise with Samoa over their near-defeat of England, they and Tonga should also be doing better. Their players feature in many other countries’ teams, and it is wonderful to see former All Blacks playing for their nations of origin now the rules allow. But the Pacific teams need regular competition at a higher level.

It is time New Zealand Rugby bosses stopped beating their breast over this and took the initiative. With southern competitions under review and South Africa and Argentina gravitating to Europe, New Zealand and Australia should cast their lot with the Pacific. Japan has the money, the region has the talent and New Zealand has a rugby nursery second to none.

The fear would be that the region could become a backwater of rugby that may be more spectacular but not more successful against the grinding forwards and scrum penalties of the European game. That fear will be reinforced if the All Blacks cannot win this World Cup.

With Australia out and Fiji not convincing against Portugal in their final pool game yesterday, the All Blacks are carrying not only New Zealand’s hopes into the elimination rounds, they are playing for the pride of the Pacific and the standards of rugby everywhere.

Ireland, their formidable opponents on Sunday, would be worthy and popular first-time winners of the Cup, but the stakes are too important for generosity. Go the All Blacks.