Rugby Needs a Radical Overhaul

There are many things that the boys at the Rugby Football Union do wonderfully well. Anybody who visits Twickenham cannot fail to be impressed. Rugby's greatest cathedral is simply magnificent. It was filled this weekend for the Heineken Cup final and it will have the fans pouring in once again next Sunday for the Zurich Premiership and Wildcard play-off finals. The restaurants and sponsors' boxes are gleaming and, outside the RFU offices, a couple of Aston Martins with personalised registration plates show that the top dogs in the administration are not exactly struggling either.

When it comes to making money, there seem to be few problems at headquarters. So why does it seem beyond the wit of English rugby's administrators to come up with a fixture list that makes a little more sense to the average supporter and one that makes allowance for the fact that our overstretched rugby stars are only human? Talk to any rugby player or coach and they will concede that too much rugby is played. The suspicion is that everybody knows it - and the criticism is not a new one - but still nothing is done.

Now comes the point where rugby aficionados must attempt to be patient for a couple of paragraphs while some sort of explanation is given for the almost incomprehensible patchwork quilt of a fixture framework on which the English game is run.

For a start we have 22 matches of the Zurich Premiership. This season they first had to fit those matches around the World Cup and the shame-faced pointless money-making exercise that was England against the New Zealand Barbarians. Then there was the Six Nations Championship, when Premiership matches are pushed aside as the spotlight switches to traditional international rivalries. Meanwhile the Heineken Cup pits the top English clubs against the best of the rest of Europe and there is the Parker Pen Challenge Cup for those who do not quite make it into the Heineken. Add to that the Powergen Cup, rugby's equivalent to the FA Cup. Then, just in case rugby senses have still not been adequately pummelled by every conceivable competition, there is the play-off format leading to the Premiership final. And, of course, there is also the patently ludicrous Wildcard play-offs leading to a final that serves as an aperitif for Sunday's Premiership final.

This means, among other things, that Lawrence Dallaglio's Wasps will have had to finish the season with three numbingly tough matches. First, they had to beat Northampton to win the opportunity to play Bath in the Premiership final and then there was the small matter of yesterday's Heineken Cup final against Toulouse sandwiched in between. Those players involved who are due to be flying south for the summer tour of New Zealand and Australia could be excused for feeling drained to the point of exhaustion.

Something has to change. The RFU would doubtless point to the revenue generated by sell-out crowds at Twickenham but is there not a real possibility that the game is being bled dry and is in danger of losing its way for the sake of the bank balance? England winning the World Cup was very much a goose that laid a golden egg for the domestic game but the poor old bird will wind up as a clapped-out old broiler if abused again and again. What is needed is for the fixture list to be given a radical overhaul.

A fundamental difficulty is that England players remain answerable contractually to their clubs, who have a vested interest to play as many high-profile players in major club games as possible. If Sir Clive Woodward really is being given proper backing as England coach, his elite players should be placed on the sort of central contract system favoured by all the major unions except England and France. Then we might not have to tolerate the situation where players as valuable and talented as Jason Robinson decline the opportunity to tour because they are effectively burnt out.

That still leaves the problem of the crowded and cluttered fixture list. Since the advent of professionalism, the RFU has never been brave enough to start with a blank sheet of paper. Perhaps it imagines too many sponsors and clubs would have their noses put out of joint. But this is a professional sport, so tough decisions ought to be taken.

A good start would be to scrap the Premiership clubs' involvement in the Powergen Cup. In the modern game minnows do not beat giants. Instead they wind up losing by 70 points and the knockout stage is contested by clubs who are facing each other in the Premiership on a weekly basis. Next move the Six Nations to April/May to give players the chance to concentrate fully on club competition through the winter. And how about quietly losing Barbarians' matches altogether? They may be great tradition and great fun but they are hardly in keeping with the new era.

And, above all, get rid of the wretched play-offs that do no more than detract from the value of the league. Bath finished six points clear at the top of the Premiership and should be recognised as champions. And, if they were, many of England's players would be enjoying a much needed break next weekend instead of enduring yet another bruising confrontation.

Manchester United take their fair share of flak, especially their captain Roy Keane. But Keane deserves the highest praise for asking Sir Alex Ferguson if the entire team could pay tribute to the 21-year-old United winger Jimmy Davis, who died in a car crash last August, in the event of them winning the FA Cup. Before receiving their winners' medals, the team swapped their playing shirts for one bearing Davis's No36 and the name DAVIS. I cannot think of a more fitting way to honour his memory nor a finer gesture to his bereaved family. It was pure class.

From all accounts Graeme Hick has been in magnificent batting form for Worcestershire. His double hundred against Gloucestershire was his second this month as he continues to flay virtually every county attack he faces and, with 124 hundreds to his name, he is now ahead of Denis Compton and Tom Graveney in 11th on the all-time list of century makers.

Yesterday Hick turned 38 and time is running out to catch a glimpse of a man who may go down as one of the most gifted under-achievers produced by the sport. For me, at least once this season, a trip to New Road to see Hick in full flow is a must.