After five years as the head of global rugby union, Dr Syd Millar hands over the chairmanship of the International Rugby Board on 1 January next year. The 73-year-old Irishman, who will be succeeded by Bernard Lapasset, has been an outspoken figure during his time at the IRB. And things were no different when BBC Sport caught up with him to discuss the big issues facing rugby union as his tenure draws to an end. LAW CHANGES If the average soccer fan watches a ruck and maul, he thinks it's mayhem and doesn't understand what's going on. That's why we're trying to simplify the laws, so that more people will understand the game. We're trying to make it easier for the players, referees and uninitiated spectators. We'll speed the game up a little bit as well. We're trying to get the ruck and maul sorted out so that teams can get quick ball, and it's why we are going to allow a tap penalty instead of a scrum. A lot of it is also depends on the minds of the coaches. In this day and age, a coach doesn't want to be beaten, so we must give them the opportunity to encourage players to do more with the ball.
INTEGRATED GLOBAL SEASON I don't think it will ever happen. The slot we have for the Six Nations is ideal from the sponsor and television point of view. The unions can't afford for income to fall, because there are very few of them making much money. We need to try to integrate between club, provincial and Test rugby as best we can - but it will be a long time before we get to that point.
ARGENTINA IN THE SIX NATIONS? I believe it's a non-starter, I don't see how it can be fitted in. There is basically no room - we would need a 56-week year.
RUGBY IN THE OLYMPICS? We have developed a Sevens game that fills stadiums and is exciting. It's a marvellous game for television and will develop big money compared to many of the other Olympic sports. We're already in the Asian Games, the World Games, the Commonwealth Games and the South American Games. Saying that, it's probably too early for rugby to make it into the 2012 Olympics, although I've spent a lot of time lobbying and we've made a lot of progress.
FOREIGN OWNERS I still think it's the best game in the world, but there are threats there. What would happen if Russian millionaires started to invest in rugby? When the game turned professional, people laughed at the thought of people buying rugby clubs. Look where we are now. We're fortunate that most of the owners are rugby people, who like the game, not purely for financial reasons, unlike some of these Americans and Russians. That is a danger.
FOREIGN PLAYERS For us, it is not very good to have all these foreign players in Europe.
INTEGRATED GLOBAL SEASON I don't think it will ever happen. The slot we have for the Six Nations is ideal from the sponsor and television point of view. The unions can't afford for income to fall, because there are very few of them making much money. We need to try to integrate between club, provincial and Test rugby as best we can - but it will be a long time before we get to that point.
ARGENTINA IN THE SIX NATIONS? I believe it's a non-starter, I don't see how it can be fitted in. There is basically no room - we would need a 56-week year.
RUGBY IN THE OLYMPICS? We have developed a Sevens game that fills stadiums and is exciting. It's a marvellous game for television and will develop big money compared to many of the other Olympic sports. We're already in the Asian Games, the World Games, the Commonwealth Games and the South American Games. Saying that, it's probably too early for rugby to make it into the 2012 Olympics, although I've spent a lot of time lobbying and we've made a lot of progress.
FOREIGN OWNERS I still think it's the best game in the world, but there are threats there. What would happen if Russian millionaires started to invest in rugby? When the game turned professional, people laughed at the thought of people buying rugby clubs. Look where we are now. We're fortunate that most of the owners are rugby people, who like the game, not purely for financial reasons, unlike some of these Americans and Russians. That is a danger.
FOREIGN PLAYERS For us, it is not very good to have all these foreign players in Europe.
How are we going to develop our own players? The thinking might become 'why don't you just go out and buy a player' just as soccer does? You have the example of the English soccer team's performance. We have New Zealanders and South Africans coming in after the World Cup - that will decimate those strong countries. We've got to be very careful that we don't upset the balance so they are no longer major countries, competing at the top. They have a problem - the money is in Europe. The players themselves would rather be at home, they will tell you that themselves. There's a huge attraction in coming to Europe - they don't have to travel, they get well paid and have already claimed their all-Black jersey. We've got to be very careful.
QUOTAS FOR HOMEGROWN PLAYERS We can't introduce them, because of European law. There's not much we can do, although the individual competitions might perhaps be able to do something. Clubs should really be developing players. We're denying your Irishmen or Englishmen or whoever the opportunity of playing if we bring people in. But I think there will be a continual flood of players coming from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
PLAYERS WRITING BOOKS To sell books, you need controversy. So the players are encouraged to be controversial when they write them. I don't like it or think it's acceptable, I'm just not sure what you can do about it in law.
QUOTAS FOR HOMEGROWN PLAYERS We can't introduce them, because of European law. There's not much we can do, although the individual competitions might perhaps be able to do something. Clubs should really be developing players. We're denying your Irishmen or Englishmen or whoever the opportunity of playing if we bring people in. But I think there will be a continual flood of players coming from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
PLAYERS WRITING BOOKS To sell books, you need controversy. So the players are encouraged to be controversial when they write them. I don't like it or think it's acceptable, I'm just not sure what you can do about it in law.
Source: BBC Sport
No comments:
Post a Comment