Peter Bills: Rugby morphing into American Football

He knew the game in the purist of its amateur times. In those days they played for fun, friendship and pleasure. Their rewards were simple: the creation of lifetime friendships and the honour of representing their countries were just two.

But Tony O'Reilly brings not a melancholic air to any assessment of the modern game but a practical analysis of its current strengths and weaknesses.

And as rugby approaches its 10th full year of professionalism, the former Ireland and Lions wing provides a fascinating portfolio on the game and its trends.

Its overall direction, he insists, is clear. Rugby is moving inexorably in the direction of American Football.

The development of the sport always meant that the game was likely to follow major professional sports of the world. Already in rugby, says O'Reilly, the role of the kicker has become of paramount importance.

"It is getting more similar to American Football without the armour. In 20 years time, rugby will be even more like the American sporting model. But it is a very appealing game and some of the rules have added glamour to the sport."

O'Reilly's international career took off exactly 50 years ago this June. He was chosen for the 1955 Lions tour of South Africa as an 18-year-old, and made a stunning impact, finishing the tour as top try scorer after playing in all four tests of a drawn series which is remembered as one of the classic Lions tours.

Yet he is far from lost in the mists of time when analysing the modern game.

"Rugby union today is certainly a hugely bigger spectator sport at the top, despite the fact that way back in 1955, a crowd of 100,000 watched the first test of the Lions tour of South Africa in Johannesburg.

"Today, it has become an important spectator sport with some extraordinarily good competitions, and the World Cup has proved itself. The excitement in the build-up to this year's Lions tour has been surprising and edifying. Then there is the Heineken Cup, which is an outstanding tournament.

"So rugby today is a most exciting game to watch, more so than in past years. The scoring is higher and one of the most interesting aspects is the way it has appealed to ... women. Women find it an exciting sport, and you see increasingly large numbers of women at matches."

O'Reilly acknowledges that not everything in the modern game is the epitome of fair play, courtesy and the traditional values that once underpinned the sport. But he is realistic enough to accept the march of time and the hastening of trends that may change the sport significantly long term.

He has in mind the growing importance of the goalkicker in the team.

"Place kicking is playing a more dominant part in the game. To see Ronan O'Gara as the principal scorer in both northern autumn tests in which he played is an illustration of the fact that the kicker is THE dominant player in any team now. If you have a great pack and a dominant kicker, you have a good chance of victory whoever you are.

"I think the real difference between the game of my day and now is that we tried to avoid being tackled, whereas today players are deliberately committing to the tackle. That is a very fundamental difference."

Another could be the eventual introduction of a law akin to that in league, whereby possession of the ball is transferred after six tackles. At present, unless a side make a mistake, the team in possession can retain it endlessly. That, he suspects, will need to be looked at.

But O'Reilly counsels caution in certain other aspects of the game, notably the dual perils of later-life employment difficulties and physical ailments for retired players.

There is no doubt in his mind that many of the professionals now earning money from the game will pay what he calls an enormous price in the future. Thus, unions will have a responsibility to equip people for their post-playing careers.

"We should recognise the fact that today we are paying for and looking at gladiators who are sacrificing a great deal to provide us with their entertainment. It is unknown at this stage what the physical cost will be to them in old age.

"We are conducting a vast experiment on the human body for today. There are bigger men hitting each other with greater velocity than ever before in this game. What that will mean to their hips, joints and general well-being at 50 plus is unknowable at this stage.

"Although it is a very lucrative and justifiable profession, by the very nature of it you contract yourself, your body and your person to a club, province or country for a given period of time.

"They have actual control over your time and that must, by its very necessity, cut down on the amount of time you have to prepare for the other necessary tasks of life. Like becoming a doctor, teacher, lawyer etc. And one day, whoever you have been, people will say Lawrence who?"

His fear is that by so committing themselves, most young men disqualify themselves from achieving the qualifications required for a career after 30, once their playing days are over.

As he says, rugby is either going to have to find thousands of jobs or wash its hands of young men barely into their 30s, watching them struggle on the sporting scrapheap.

It is an unappealing scenario, which is why O'Reilly is emphatic that, although he would like to play the modern game because of its attraction to big, fast men, he would remain strictly amateur.

Another source of concern is blanket TV coverage now offered chiefly on satellite television. Beware following the path forged by soccer, he suggests, for saturation coverage in that sport is already reality.

"There is a danger in rugby that we will be what I might term over-ruggered. In my day we had four internationals a year; now, top players can play up to sixteen. And almost all are on television."

As for the Lions tour of New Zealand in June and July, he confesses it will be one of the highlights of his sporting year.

And when the Lions play their three-match test series, one of the greatest Lions ever, a certain A. J. F. O'Reilly, who scored a record 38 tries for the Lions on tours of South Africa (16) in 1955 and New Zealand and Australia (22) in 1959 and who still holds the record for the most Lions test tries by an individual (6 in 10 tests), will be there to see it.

The man whose records will probably never be broken, continues to demonstrate his love of the game still runs deep.