Rugby: Samoa's win not enough to shake IRB chiefs

Manu Samoa have given world rugby a shot of adrenaline in World Cup year.

But any hopes that their historic weekend result has handed proponents of a global season more ammunition were yesterday dashed by world rugby boss Mike Miller.

Samoa's 32-23 win over an under-strength Australia at Sydney on Sunday showed what they were capable of when given time to prepare with a squad assembled from both hemispheres.

Miller said the result was evidence the money poured into tier-two countries over the past six years was starting to pay dividends, but aligning the two hemispheres' seasons to create a dedicated international season has been placed in the too-hard basket.

"We looked at this for six or seven years. We got everyone together, we looked at every single possibility and what we've ended up with, which is two seasons that intercept at various points, is the best I think we're going to do," Miller said.

That best is not good enough, countered Rob Nichol, the executive director of the International Rugby Players' Association. He believed it was another example, with the failure to amend eligibility criteria to assist tier-two nations, of the IRB being hamstrung by its own governance model.

"The concepts of a global integrated season and amending eligibility criteria to help develop tier-two countries is very hard to get through under the governance and constitutional structure of the IRB."

Nichol believed self-interest was the only currency accepted at the IRB's Dublin headquarters.

"The national unions own and govern the IRB and in turn are governed by the IRB - it is a unique model that has the potential to render them ineffective."

Nichol said an overwhelming majority of countries voted to change the eligibility criteria that would allow players to change countries once in their careers - it could be done through bloodlines, not residency, and would involve a stand-down period - but the powerful Celtic nations voted it down because they did not want Samoa and Fiji to get stronger.

It is the lack of a global season, though, that has caused the most angst, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere's June window, when European teams often bring under-strength and poorly motivated teams here.

"If you start with a blank sheet of paper, you wouldn't design the season the way we have it, but we haven't started with a blank sheet and I think we have it the best we can at the moment," Miller said.

"Who knows how the game will evolve. If you said 15 years ago that there would be [professional] leagues, that ... clubs would be owned by private individuals, that it would be a multi-multi-million-dollar business, people would have laughed at you."

Creating a global season might create more problems than it solved, Miller continued.

"We need to be very careful moving away from the traditional time-slot of a sport," he said. "Rugby is growing exponentially over the last 10 years or so so people would be very reluctant to make changes."

The IRB chief said he believed the gulf in class between the tier-one countries, such as New Zealand, South Africa and England, and the rest would narrow at this World Cup. Samoa's win was evidence of that.

"It was not a full-strength Australian side, but even so it was a great result for Samoa and a great result for world rugby."