RUGBY: Jon Swift
YOU can hardly blame the average rugby supporter for=20 being a bit confused about the future of the game.
On the one hand, you have the International Rugby Board=20 (IRB), which meets in Paris next month to attempt to=20 sort out — among a host of things — the=20 dissatisfaction among the players about the errant=20 nonsense of the game being an amateur code.
On the other hand there is the battle, slowly surfacing=20 from secretive depths of whispered promises, for=20 control of the game between two giants of the world=20 electronic media, Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Packer.
Murdoch struck the first blow by signing a R2-million=20 deal with Louis Luyt to tie up the game at=20 international and provincial level in the southern=20
Packer, who stood cricket on its head with a similar=20 breakaway deal, is busy honing his sabre for the=20 riposte by mooting a big-money competition which would=20 involve a global competiiton among 20 as-yet to-be- defined clubs. This is in direct conflict with the=20 Super 12 competition, played along provincial lines,=20 envisaged by Luyt and Murdoch.
Packer’s option sees the clubs being comprised of the=20 best players with no real regard to either provincial=20 or national affiliations in anything other than home=20
Then there is the money involved. Players in the Super=20 12 would reportedly earn something in the vicinity of=20 R100 000 each.=20
Packer’s plans have raised figures eight times that=20 amount for individual stars.
These are the realities of the situation which faces=20 the old guard of the IRB in the French capital next=20 month, rather than the now dog-eared argument of=20 whether players should be paid at all.
And, given both the ruthless nature of the Aussie media=20 barons and the groundswell off ill-feeling among the=20 playrs about the distribution of the profits the game=20 is making, one the IRB should be busy addressing=20
One would pray that, in the middle of the maelstrom,=20 all the parties involved in the wrangle do not forget=20 the most important of all the elements … the players