RUGBY: Jon Swift
THE game of rugby as we know it is dead. It matters not a whit in the greater scheme of things whether the Rupert Murdoch-Louis Luyt combination or the Kerry Packer circus finally gets the upper hand.
The very fact that they are prepared to throw millions of dollars at the game — and neither man has the reputation for being a spendthrift philanthropist — points out that there are huge profits to be made out of rugby.
Should Packer’s gamble on signing the top 900 players in the world on individual contracts prevail, the look of international rugby will be somewhat barren.
Packer is a renowned gambler. A media event in himself as he wins and loses millions in minutes at Las Vegas and Atlantic City casinos. So it is not the money that frightens him, even if he has a scant 12 weeks to come up with the R360-million initial ante, which is the figure being bandied about.
Packer is also Murdoch’s arch-rival and getting in ahead of his sworn enemy in the race to turn rugby into a global television spectacular has its own attractions to the larger-than-life Aussie media tycoon.
Murdoch’s contract with Luyt and the fellow directors of the new body who will control the broadcasting of rugby in the southern hemisphere, SANZA, have agreed on R2-million over a 10-year period. Simple arithmetic would show that this falls some way short of the cash incentive Packer is offering … and he’s offering it directly to the players. Added to which, Murdoch’s offer is almost certainly on an escalating scale of payment which would be unlikely to front a full 10th of the money in the first year.
There are no national bodies or other middle men in the Packer deal — just a contract between his Super League and the players. Where, when and how often they will have to play is a matter for further debate for those who have signed — reportedly 22 of this country’s World Cup-winning squad among them — once the November deadline comes round.
Luyt was adamant when he announced the Murdoch deal that the old school authorities would continue to control the way the game is played. Perhaps.
The lure of extra breaks in play for commercials, as in American gridiron, could prove too strong in the long run. And the largely blank jerseys the players wear could become moving neon bilboards.
With Packer in the driving seat, the establishment would have less say. Packer’s much quoted assertion to one top South African cricket administrator during the days of his cricket circus bears repeating. “One day you’re a rooster,” he told the nonplussed official, “next day you’re a feather duster.”
And the International Rugby Board should also take note of this during the meeting in Paris next month.
But with all that in mind — and all still in a state of confusion regarding who holds what rights and has secured which signatures — one thing is evident: the players will never again have to fill the subservient and belittling role of hired hands that has been their traditional place in the overall scheme of things.
In that, if nothing else, the warring Australian media magnates have done rugby the greatest service anyone could have.