subject: England V South Africa: Time for clubs to rally around England [print this page] England V South Africa: Time for clubs to rally around England
Rugby should take notice. Once again Premier Rugby is flexing its muscles and threatening to withdraw cooperation with the Rugby Football Union if they do not scale back on internationals even though not one of their clubs would be viable without the proportion of revenue from those matches which is passed on to them by the RFU.
Rugby clubs are fooling themselves. The average attendance for last season was just over 13,000 and that was boosted by some spectacular crowds at special event matches staged at Wembley and Twickenham. Television revenues are tiny. Guinness have scaled back their involvement with the Premiership and at the moment there is still no title sponsor for next season even though it begins on September 4 - just over two months away.
If the insults were supposed to act as a deterrent they failed. Despite England's abject performances at the World Cup the flag sellers have had a field day and are probably the only ones laughing all the way to the bank at the moment. And love 'em or hate 'em the sheer volume of flags not just in one city but all over the country prove beyond doubt that international sport can captivate the public in a way that club football - or rugby never can.
England v South Africa Hospitality
The biggest surge in new converts - playing and watching - was after England won the World Cup and the biggest boost to the club game now would come from them being back in contention next year. Premiership bosses should be doing everything in their power to assist England but they are still living under the mistaken illusion that international rugby undermines their business. I am not advocating an extension to the international programme - we do see far too many meaningless international games - but a successful England will boost crowds at Newcastle and Leeds far more than any marketing campaign.
I could not finish this column without a mention of my old friend Andy Ripley. He was a truly remarkable guy - they really broke the mould after he was created - who was made for rugby but only really discovered it after he left school. His eyesight was never very good but he overcame that handicap too and it was a tribute to his wonderful athleticism that he managed to make such a mark after having missed out on the formative years. Ripley on the rampage was a sight to behold.
A couple of years later he called me to ask if I knew of Bewl Water - a reservoir not far from my home. It transpired that he had always felt a bit of a fraud because he was a rowing champion who had never been on the water and he had seen an advert for rowers to join a Veteran Eight at Bewl.
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